Exclusive interview with Kyle Smith
I met Kyle Smith, young British rider in Moto 2 category for Blusens Avintia Team to speak about his season in the championship. The rider was declared out of competition for the rest of the season because his Sponsor Wild Wolf could not continue its support to the rider.
Kyle Smith moved to Spain when he was 7 years old and started riding very young by doing motocross. He passed through the Spanish 125 championship to the Spanish Kawasaki Ninja Cup in 2009 and in 2010 he competed in the Spanish Stock Extreme series. He had good results during his career and was offered to race for the team Blusens Avintia in Moto2 championship for 2013 alongside Toni Elias.
Kyle Smith tells us more about his first season in Moto 2 and explains us what happened with his sponsor Wild Wolf.
It is your first season in Moto2, how do you feel in this Championship at the mid-season? I feel like I can do better than what I am doing. I have to link things together and work more on the bike set up.
Were you anxious passing from CEV Stock Extreme to Moto2? No…not really. I don’t stress about things so much.
What are for you, the differences from these two categories? The biggest difference is that every rider on the grid is super fast. In the CEV championship, pilots in the top 10 are fast but after that, the standard drops.
Do you fix objectives before the season starts? If yes, what were the objectives that you fixed? I just want to keep improving my riding and enjoy what I love doing: riding bikes.
Are your objectives different now compared to the beginning of the season? No, they aren’t.
Some weeks ago, Wild Wolf announced that they had to withdraw direct sponsorship to you and the Moto 2 series. Your team Blusens Avintia declared that you could unfortunately not finish the season. Could you explain us what happened? It’s a difficult era for bike racers. Some years ago, you got money to ride bikes at a professional level but now, you have to pay. If you don’t have a sponsor you are not going to race and a lot of companies are struggling to support themselves never mind sponsoring sports.
Fortunately, you could race to Indy last week. Did you find a new sponsor? I didn’t find new sponsor. The team had to find a rider who could pay to ride but they couldn’t find one for Indy. For contract reasons, the bike had to be on track there so I got to race.
What would you say to eventual sponsors who are reading this article to show them your motivation and to demonstrate that investing in you is a good solution? I would like to say that I am a nice guy who loves racing bikes and I believe that I can be as fast as anyone.
What do you think is your best ability as pilot? I would say that my best ability is to be able to ride a bike what is a shed if the bike is set up bad or the bars are bent. I could put up with it and get the best out of it.
What do you do when you are not on tracks to stay trained? I try to do a bit of everything. I rock climb and mountain bike. If there are waves I will be surfing, no doubt about that.
How did you feel for the race in Indy and how did you prepared during this summer-off-season period? I prepared by riding motocross and cycling. Regarding my feelings, I just wanted to do as good as I could.
What would you like to do if you were not a pilot? I would be a singer in a rock band like Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam.
Indianapolis was the last race of the season for Kyle Smith. His sponsor Wild Wold could not continue to help him and the impossibility of Kyle Smith to face the economic commitments with the team obliged the rider to finish the season earlier. Dani Riva, CEV rider form Galicia replaces Kyle Smith from this weekend in Brno and for the rest of the season.
