INTERVIEW: Cameron McAdoo on the long, fun process of preparing for Supercross

Cameron McAdoo: Yep, I’m racing West. The off-season has felt so long. I’m really excited to get racing now. I feel like we have done a lot of good progress during this offseason. I’ve been enjoying the process with my whole team and I’m just really stoked to get going and to race the West. I haven’t raced the West the last couple of years, so it’s going to be fun to go to Anaheim 1. Nothing beats A1 vibes.

CM: Yeah, I’ve always kind of enjoyed it. A big thing for me is to wake up and have purpose each day and really fine-tune myself, and I enjoy the work part of our job and the part that some racers don’t really enjoy so much. I enjoy the gym and the long bike rides and the long testing days at the track. I enjoy testing myself and my body and testing myself mentally. I think that’s what keeps it that much more enjoyable for me. But the day-to-day and week-to-week grind and the work is a portion of our life. You kind of need to enjoy it.

Q: Your 2022 250SX East Region Supercross Series really reflected what a standout racer you were. You were third in the opener at Minneapolis, won at Arlington, and you were third, second and second at Daytona, Detroit and Indianapolis. You were really on a run and in a spirited fight with Jett Lawrence for the championship before you got hurt on press day at St. Louis. Your injury notwithstanding, it was a good series for you, wasn’t it?

CM: Yeah, totally. Obviously it was a step in the right direction with where we were going and then I had a super-small mishap. Honestly, I landed on a Tuff Block on press day and that’s what took me out of the series. I now obviously need to minimize those little things and stay completely focused and completely locked in and respect what I’m doing every time I get on the bike. I want to keep myself out of those situations and I think we’ll be in a really good spot to fight to be our best every time in 2023.

CM: Yeah, it totally can be. That’s something I’ve learned over the last few years, that you can’t let yourself ride the highs and the lows because if you ride that wave too much, personally, the highs are high and the lows are low and they seem so hard to understand. For me, I always have to make myself realize that things can be a lot worse, you know? When everything seems to be going so right and then it goes completely wrong and you can’t find the reason to understand why, there is always a reason why, so I think taking full responsibility for those types of things is super-important for me. I don’t want to blow off stuff like that as something just happened. I need to learn from it and to grow.

CM: Yeah, I’m really happy with everything. I mean my program has stayed very similar pretty much since I’ve gotten on with the Pro Circuit team. I’ve have the same trainer in Nick Wey and so on. This year the biggest change we have made is that we have been riding with the Kawasaki 450 guys pretty much every single day no matter what and I think that has made a big difference. The way the tracks break down and just the camaraderie and being able to be around the 450 team and feeling that pressure and having a large group of people with the same views just brings everything up another notch. I think that’s been really productive for us this year.

We have just been able to do a lot of good work. We’ve had a few changes here and there with the bike that I think that we have made good progress on. I also feel like I have made progress with myself, as well.

CM: Yeah, my health is totally good. I’m solid and really ready to go and feel totally primed-up to race.

Q: How are you going to approach that opening round at Anaheim and then how will you approach the opening phase of the season?

CM: I want to approach as I just want to do my best and be my best. I want to be my best version of myself each time I’m on the track. I want to go through each step of the way and the process of each part of the day and I think that will equate to having a good result at the end of the night. Obviously our goals are to win, but there is a process to get to that point. I just want to focus on that and I think we’ll be good.

CM: Yeah, totally. I mean, that’s what keeps me waking up every morning and being super-hungry to give every bit of what I have to offer each day. I’ve achieved a lot of goals that I’ve set in the past and as you achieve your goals, you have to set new ones and I have big goals to achieve, so I’ve got to keep working towards those things and to do my best to be my best.

CM: Yeah, I believe that I can. I just need to do everything that I can each time and really focus on myself and I guess not put an exact number or a result. I just need to do what my best is and I’ll be happy with that. I’m very excited and ready to go racing.