Travis Preston Joins Monster Energy Kawasaki

When James Stewart pulled the plug on his ’08 Supercross season two races into the schedule due to a knee injury, the familiar questions quickly began. “Why don’t you throw __________ on the empty bike?” But it’s not always that simple, as Monster Energy Kawasaki Team Manager, Mike Fisher, explained. “We have younger teams like our Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki Lites team, and he Motosport Xtreme Kawasaki team. We have a small team for the 450s, the Cernic’s Kawasaki team. We could pull from those teams, but they have their own sets of sponsors. If we took their best rider, it would weaken their teams, and they’d have to go pull someone to replace them.”

Luckily for Mike and the Kawasaki crew, Travis Preston was sitting on the sidelines without any sponsors or contract to worry about. He’d been sidelined without a deal for ’08. “This is really good. I was in a bad spot last year and lost my ride. To have this come along, a factory ride and being back on a factory bike, you can really appreciate it. The last two months I’ve been riding a bone-stock Kawasaki, and now I get to race a full-factory bike. It’s kind of like a rider’s dream come true.“

“I had a lot of offers from some different teams, but nothing really seemed right for me. But when I hear Kawasaki’s offer, it was too good to turn down. Ride James Stewart’s bike, and riding with such a good team, it was a real good opportunity. I passed up a lot of other teams, and those teams all said, ‘Hey, how about ’09?’ I was kind of looking at just taking a year off and then getting back into it for ’09.”

For Fisher, it was an easy decision. “With Travis this is sort of a no-brainer. On paper it looked great, but when I saw him ride I couldn’t believe it. His attitude is really good, and a good outlook on things. He’s real honest, and he’s got very good skills, he just needs to build up his stamina level to sustain the full race.” Travis had been maintaining a training program, but as he explained, “It wasn’t to the extreme. I was probably riding two days a week and still doing the motos.  Road biking at least four days a week, and going to the gym at least three days a week. That’s been my life for the last six months probably. The difference from riding a stock bike on a local track like Perris to the team’s bike on a Supercross track? That’s a lot different. I just have to get used to that.”

So what are his goals for Saturday night? Preston replied with his usual candor, “That’s a good question. Usually I have three months to prepare for Supercross, and I’ve had two days on the bike. I’m going to try to make the main. Right now at the Kawasaki test track the most laps I can do is 12. So it’s going to be kind of fun because each week I’ll be getting better and better, and eventually I’ll race my way back into shape.”

“The Kawi guys have been really cool because they all know the situation that we’re in. Everything happened fast and they knew that I hadn’t been racing. I’ve been at home, so they’re like, ‘Just go out there and do what you can.’ I’m sure in a couple races I’ll be back to my normal speed.”

Travis also had to work up a gear deal on short notice, and he’ll be clad in Answer gear on Saturday night. “I actually just got the gear right now.” Actually, Travis only had a jersey at that point, as the Answer crew nervously paced the back of the room, awaiting for the arrival of his pants for a Press Day photo op.

There’s one thing that Travis can say for sure, and that this opportunity is whole lot better than what he’d been doing. “I hate sitting in the stands watching. I went to the second Anaheim round, the retro one, and just watching eats me up. If I was older and wasn’t in that good a shape, I’d probably feel okay about it.”

The Kawasaki crew feels the same way, as Fisher explained. “For me, we have a team full of staff. We have bikes, we have parts. We want to race. I think also for Timmy, when you remove one of the riders, and that rider’s not there, all of that attention goes to one rider. It’s not normal for him. I think that’s a distraction, and it doesn’t bring out the best in him. I think it’s only fair to him, the rest of our staff, to Kawasaki, Monster, and probably even the people sitting in the stands here that we field a full team if we can. It’s not always going to happen, but we were able to do it now.”