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Where Have You Been, Bradley Taft?

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Just before the 2019 Daytona Supercross, the CTR Motorsports team (the joint venture of ClubMX, Traders Racing, and Redemption) announced a sudden shake-up to their team roster that will apply for the remainder of the 2019 Monster Energy Supercross Series. Joey Crown had made a personal decision to part ways with the team to run a privateer program with his father’s support (this is said to start at Indianapolis), so the team reached out to Bradley Taft for a fill-in position. Getting Taft was a surprise, as few in the industry had heard from him since he had returned from Australia with a wrist injury in October and he wiped his social media accounts clean. Had he stayed on a bike in the time away or was there no desire to ever race again? During downtime at the 2019 Daytona Supercross, we spent a few minutes with the Missouri native to learn the full story.

Where have you been the last six months?

In Australia I ended up breaking my hand at the last round and came home and was kind of over it, to be honest. I felt like I needed a break, so I quit and started working with my brother. I went home to Missouri a couple of times, probably for a month, visiting and seeing the family. I came back to California and kept working for my brother, he sells tickets to concerts and sporting events and stuff like that and it was a job on the computer so I could do it anywhere. I helped him with that until I got a call on Tuesday from CTR Motorsports that they were interested in me racing. It wasn’t a sure thing, they just wanted to know if I was interested, so I called my brother, my mom, and Gareth Swanepoel for their opinions. My mom said she didn’t want me to be thirty years old and regret things, and I was in the same boat. Swanie said that I had to give it a shot, that I was too young. The next day Kenny from CTR called me at 9 AM to tell me there was a flight at 1:30 PM; I was doing work for my brother at the time. Kenny said there was a flight out of LA and I said let’s do it. I flew to Charlotte, rode for two days, and I was obviously very rusty because I hadn’t ridden in five months. But I decided there wasn’t anything to lose and the only thing that’s going to help my racing is to race, so I figured I’d come here and whatever happens, happens.

Of all the races to pick, yes Daytona is a burly track, but this isn’t a full-scale Supercross track like you’ll face at Indianapolis.

[Laughs] See, that was my thought, “Daytona is usually pretty mellow and outdoorsy,” but they didn’t do that this year. This track is gnarly. I saw the track map on Thursday and figured this was going to be the gnarliest Daytona, ever. I prepared myself for that and the first practice went alright, but the first timed practice was terrible. I crashed like nine times, it was bad, but the second round of qualifying was better. It’s just hard to come off of the couch and go right into racing. I feel like I can do a lot more than I am. I feel like my speed is actually still there, but I’m over-riding because I’m not used to being in this environment after so long. The biggest thing for me is that I think I need to back it down to go faster.

What is your deal with the team? Does this go just through the rest of the Supercross season or will you go to Canada, too? 

For now, it’s just through Supercross, but I would love to do outdoors for them. I don’t know if they are interested in it or not, but it’s something we’ve already discussed and will figure out soon. I just want to focus on this and not get too ahead of myself. I want to go out there and see what happens from there.

What is it like to go, “Ah, I’m done with this,” and stop racing?

At the time, it was very easy for me. As a racer, it’s always hard because this is all I know and when I first thought about it, I wondered what I was going to do. But my brother said that he was super busy with all of the work he has going on, so he said if I wanted to help that he’d pay me. The first two weeks I was in Missouri so he could train me a little bit and I enjoyed it. Once I started working, it was easier to let go. I knew what I was going to do, so I wasn’t thinking, “What am I going to do for the rest of my life?” Two days prior to getting the call from CTR, I started wanting to ride again. My brother has always supported my racing, so I asked if I sold that Husqvarna that I have, could I use the money to buy a bike for the first outdoors. He wanted me to sell the bike first and then these guys called. Which is all good.

You had really good intentions last year with that Husqvarna to race the first few Nationals in hopes of landing a fill-in ride, but that never happened. Did that sour your outlook on things? 

Yeah, that was the start of it. Then the Australia thing came about and I was stoked on getting that; it was cool to race in another country because I had never been anywhere else. It was cool to do that and I thought, “Maybe things aren’t so bad.” That didn’t turn out so well, but that was all on me, not them. After that, I came back and talked to teams, but they ended up signing other people. I didn’t have the greatest season last year, but I had multiple top-ten finishes in Supercross and the teams picked people that hadn’t made Main Events over me. I was just tired of the industry at that point and I thought that I was going to be done forever. Maybe I just needed a break.

You’ve always kept the same core group of people around, so it’s not like you change the people you are with every year. And I think that has been a good thing, because they are people you really trust.

That’s what it is. My brother has been there for me for a long time and it’s kind of hard because as much as I want to do well for myself, I have basically lived a lot of my life trying to make him happy. I love my brother and he’s supportive of this, but I knew I needed to race for myself this year. He asked me how I think I’ll do and what my goals are, but I haven’t ridden in five months, so I don’t have any goals. He’s been supportive of it. With Swanie, I trust that guy and he’s stuck up for me and believed in me for a long time. I don’t ever want to get rid of him and I appreciate how he’s stuck his neck out for me in the years I have been with him. I trust all of these people and they’re loyal to me, so I’m loyal to them.

I’m going to ask you something and I hope you don’t take offense to it, because a lot of people have speculated but no one has ever asked you directly. We always hear how fast you are Monday through Friday, but what happens on Saturday?

That is the issue that I haven’t quite figured out. Going into Supercross last year, and this isn’t cocky or anything, but I would do motos with AP (Aaron Plessinger) and I would beat him. And he obviously went on to win the championship, but I couldn’t get on the podium. I had some good races, but I think it’s hard because I put so much pressure on myself. And that’s what I’m trying not to do this time. I had a bad practice today and, in the past,, my day would have been over after that because I would have been so bummed. I think I need to move on from things and enjoy this process, because I never have. I have always been so hard on myself because my brother was on me, and I thought that was the only way to do it. I expect a lot from myself, but at the end of the day, I just need to enjoy it.

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Michael Antonovich

Michael Antonovich has a wealth of experience with over 10 years of moto-journalism under his belt. A lifelong racing enthusiast and rider, Anton is the Editor of Swapmoto Live and lives to be at the race track.

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