Features 1 Aug 2013

Race Recap: Luke Styke

Serco Yamaha’s MX2 champion elect speaks about his Hervey Bay sweep.

The form of Luke Styke in 2013 so far has been nothing short of incredible, picking up six round wins from seven and absolutely dominating the MX2 ranks of the Monster Energy MX Nationals.

Hervey Bay’s seventh round last weekend was another whitewash for Styke, untouched aboard his YZ250F and stretching to a mammoth 91-point lead in the series with just three rounds remaining.

MotoOnline.com.au spoke to Styke this week to debrief the round and more for today’s Race Recap interview.

Luke Styke in action at Hervey Bay on Sunday. Image: Simon Makker/Makkreative.com.

Luke Styke in action at Hervey Bay on Sunday. Image: Simon Makker/Makkreative.com.

Congratulations on the win again. You got it done, but weren’t entirely happy?

Nah, not really. Just looking back how the weekend unfolded, it started off really strong, but at the start of moto two I got a pretty poor start then got to the front really easy.

I got there and then lost all my focus, just made silly mistakes, not looking ahead, dabbing my feet and making stupid mistakes I shouldn’t be doing. Talking to my trainer Bernie McNeill about what went down – I didn’t even think – but I had diarrhoea. He said I would have lost hydration, all my concentration and that’s what led to the mistakes.

I was so frustrated with myself, how it all went down and I was just searching. He nailed it on the head, I told my mum and she said that would have been it for sure, so yeah just pretty aggressive diarrhoea when I go up in the morning. I didn’t even think how it’d affect me.

What do you think of the Hervey Bay track? It looks pretty tough, doing the two 30-minute motos in the sand.

I thought the place was good, but I thought it would have been a little softer. They said they’d been prepping it for like a month, rolling it in, and I thought that was a bit silly. I thought it would be a lot softer than what it actually was.

We changed totally my set-up at the start of the day for practice and moto one, but we ended up changing back to my hard-pack setting and that ended up being okay.

You’ve said before that for you, considering your goal to race overseas, that each race is all about focusing on yourself. How important is that?

For sure, because you don’t want to gove anybody else an edge. Just the fact that I’m not comparing myself to any other rider in Australia, because if you start to do that then you start going as good as everybody. I want to be as good as the guys overseas, so I have to prepare myself for that.

Styke has stretched a 91-point lead in the standings with three rounds remaining. Image: Simon Makker/Makkreative.com.

Styke has stretched a 91-point lead in the standings with three rounds remaining. Image: Simon Makker/Makkreative.com.

Even though Luke Clout and Josh Cachia are sidelined, it seems as though Kale Makeham and Kade Mosig have stepped it up in the season’s second half. They’re not making it as easy as it looks on paper…

Well, you know, Appin coming back from the six-week break I didn’t do the preparation I wanted to. It’s obviously my home track in the series, but I’ve never actually gone good there. We got it done though. In the last round I had diarrhoea like I said, so I’m putting it down to those two things. Hopefully I can go into the next round at Swan Hill and hit a nine or a 10.

You’ve got a 91-point lead in the championship. Pretty close to wrapping this thing up…

Yeah, it’s not big enough though!

Just quickly, how is everything shaping for you, as far as 2014 goes?

My manager Glenn Dempsey, we’ve been back and forth every few days talking, but at this stage nothing’s rock solid. We’re speaking to a few teams, but it’s taking time and I’m getting a little frustrated over here on the other side of the world. But he keeps telling me it will be all good, so stop stressing, but it’s hard. Hopefully I can be there next year – that’s my goal.

Thanks for your time mate, awesome job this year!

No worries mate, thanks.

Recent