"We Reached Out to a Few Cool Companies. Only Fans is My Title Sponsor for '23" | Logan Karnow on His New Program 9

Overcoming adversity would be a good way to describe Logan Karnow’s 2022 story. For those that don’t know, Logan is a supercross only privateer. Like most riders in his situation, getting through each season takes help from sponsors, family, and friends. During the supercross season, Logan faced a struggle when his title sponsor bailed on him. He could have packed it up and called it quits. Instead, he went to work figuring out how to get back to the races. In the end it was the best thing that could have happened, and it led to an exciting partnership for 2023.

     For the full interview, check out the YouTube video right here. If you're interested in the condensed written version, scroll down just a bit further.

Jamie Guida – Vital MX: Before we get into your announcement for the 2023 season, let’s go back a bit so people know what happened through your last couple of seasons. In 2021 as a privateer, you had your best season ever with a 10th overall in the 250 East. That's a successful season for a privateer.

Logan Karnow: Yeah, I was pretty pumped on that. That's when I was riding for Bubba Pauli's team, it was awesome. He approached me a few months before that season and details worked out and I rode for them. At the first Heat race of the year, I ended up getting like a second place start at the Houston 1. I got fifth place in the heat race and carried the momentum throughout that whole series. I didn't miss the main event all year in the 250 class. Obviously, that was the year the East Coast was getting a bit depleted towards the end. But hey, man, I'll take it any way I can get it. I got seventh place in the last round and 10th in points. I qualified for the East/West shootout too, which was a bucket list thing for me for a very long time.

Vital MX: That doesn't matter that it was getting a little thin. You stayed healthy and did your job.

Logan: Yeah, I worked my butt off that whole season, and it paid off.

Vital MX: Going into 2022 as a privateer, you're trying to figure out what your plans are. What options are available. You put together your own deal with a local sponsor. That seems like it's going pretty well until about mid-season. Give everybody a reminder of what happened.

Logan: My plan was to keep riding for Bubba Pauli's team for the ‘22 season. I was super happy. I was damn near ready to sign the papers and got approached by this guy locally around here, supposedly a money guy, and he threw all this money at me. It was a tough call for me, but I ended up taking the risk and it slapped me in the face. About nine rounds into the series, I started noticing some stuff wasn't going like it was supposed to go. Ultimately the dude is a complete piece of trash and took my bikes back from me. He was going to report everything as stolen which really sucked because I seriously pride myself on being nice to everybody. I feel like I have a very good name in the sport. Previous sponsors all talk very highly of me still, which is cool. This dude really did me dirty. And after that Friday of Detroit supercross, I went up, got me a brand-new dirt bike at Kennedy Cycles, had some buddies come over, frame my other bikes, get everything ready. I ended up having a career best, which was cool. That got a lot of publicity in the sport and then started getting some crazy sponsors after that. Hanna Ray, she was the first one to reach out to me. I was never even thinking about doing title sponsors per race, but she ended up reaching out to me and my season was just on an uptrend after that. It was awesome.

Vital MX: For those that don’t know, Hanna Ray is a member of Only Fans. She heard about your situation and reached out. It was a one race deal to begin with, I think.

Logan: Yeah, it was right after Detroit. I was just going through some of my message requests, and I had a message request from this cute girl. She had 25,000 followers. She typed me out a nice little paragraph asking if there was any way she could help. She asked how much it would cost for me to race. Actually, she said, “This is what I’ll pay you. Will you do it for me?”. And I was like, “Yeah, yeah, of course”. That's a good little chunk of change for a privateer racing on a weekend. It went from there. She ended up staying on for the next weekend. After that so many people were reaching out to me, wanting to do the same thing. Ultimately it was a blessing. I've had a lot of success ever since. 

Vital MX: As I recall almost instantly a lot of the Moto fans supported her by following her. And of course, she gets income from that, and it worked out for both of you. 

Logan: She said triple or quadruple her daily or weekend sales that she normally has.

Vital MX: That leads to your big news for 2023.

Logan: This was crazy. We did try reaching out to quite a few companies thinking we would try to get a cool title sponsor. We reached out to Only Fans. I went on Only Fans Instagram and they had an email, so I just shot them an email. I gave them a quick rundown of what went on, and I immediately heard back from them. We set up a Zoom meeting and got all this stuff going. Only Fans is going to be my title sponsor for 2023. It's going to be really, really cool. They are an awesome company and I'm fortunate to have this opportunity.

Vital MX: Is this covering your whole season?

Logan: Yeah, I'm a lucky guy. I was given one bike from Kennedy Cycles. They're a very small dealership here in a local town around here. They do as much as they possibly can for me. But they’re such a small dealership that they don't get very many bikes in. I went out and bought a Kawasaki from another dealership just at full retail. Just so I have two bikes

Vital MX: Tell everybody a little bit more about Only Fans. It’s not only what a lot of people think it is.

Logan: I really didn't even know this, but it was initially started for fans of athletes, entrepreneurs, actors, musicians, whatever it may be. To see behind the scenes of what they do and what they don't post on social media. I actually just made one and it’ll be available soon. I'm going to post stuff on there that I don't post on my social media. 

Vital MX: Have they talked about what their expectations are, social media wise or even results? 

Logan: Last year helped me out a lot. They went on my social media and on the first Zoom meeting talked about how they looked at everything on Google, my Facebook, Instagram and all that. I feel like I'm the guy for the job. The last picture that I posted was that picture I tagged Ken Roczen in. It said I was starting a team and I had Only Fans on the shroud, and it just so happened to be shortly after I reached out to them. That's the first things they saw. That kind of worked out for me, even though it's totally irrelevant.

Vital MX: Will you be going back to 250s or staying on the 450? 

Logan: I'm gonna do 450. I just decided this a few weeks ago and I think that's the right move for me. I know I'm getting older, and I've been racing for a few years now, and I always do the 450 for half the year anyway. Hopefully I do some damage.