The rookie from Missouri is riding like a veteran
Story and Photography by Hoppenworld.com and Kit Palmer
Every year, a handful hot new amateur motocrossers make the move to the big time, but not too many of them make the move as impressively or as seamlessly as Austin Forkner has.
Since joining the pro ranks at the opening round of the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship at Hangtown, which was only a few months ago, Forkner has already been mixing it up with the stars of the 250MX-class, stars like the Martin brothers, Joey Savatgy and Cooper Webb. In just his second race as a pro at Glen Helen, he got his first taste of the podium by finishing third in the first moto, and he nearly got on the podium for the overall that day. But he wouldn’t have to wait long for that to happen, which came at Southwick with a 5-2 for third overall. In the last race at Washougal, though, Forkner reached his biggest milestone yet when he won the second moto and then capped that off by leaving the track with the second-place overall trophy with a 10-1.
You can read the original magazine story by clicking HERE.
Forkner is just 17 years old. He calls Richards, Missouri, home, but he’s hardly there anymore, now that he is following the outdoor MX circuit as a member of the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki Team. Forkner is a nice kid who is extremely polite and a joy to talk to. He doesn’t answer questions with just yes or no’s but in full sentences—and then some. He’s friendly, intelligent and speaks well, and the sport of pro motocross should feel lucky to have someone like him coming on board.
We caught up with Forkner the day after he got his first ever moto win. He was attending a Fox media event for his sponsor in Oregon, and you could tell that his mind was still on the previous day.
“It [the win] felt really good,” Forkner said. “I was so excited when the race was over. It was really good. I got kind of a gift from those guys all getting together [second-moto pileup that included Savatgy, Webb and Cooper], but it doesn’t really matter. [I] still got it done. My trainer and Mitch [Payton, Pro Circuit Team owner] and those guys have been telling me that they think that I can win a race, and an overall, one or the other, or hopefully both this season. I was like, ‘man, I really don’t know.’ I thought that my third overall was really good earlier in the season. I think I’ve gotten a second in a moto and a third in a moto and fourths and fifths, and that’s really good. Really, top five is where I want to be, but being able to win one was super cool.”
A terrible start in the first moto at Washougal relegates him to 10th in the moto, but he couldn’t believe that a 10-1 would ultimately give him second overall for the day.
“That was funny how that happened, the 10-1. I’ve heard stories like that, but. I think somebody earlier in the year got a two and an eight for second or third. Yesterday was a pretty crazy race with everybody going down. The track was pretty gnarly and slick; it was tough so it made it tricky. Some guys got together. Some guys made mistakes. I didn’t. I got a bad start in the first moto; that was my big mistake of the day, I guess. It just happened that everything went together and I got second, so that was great.”
You would’ve thought that Forkner would have been a little nervous leading the way with the laps winding down, but he said that he wasn’t. “I wasn’t really thinking about it until probably I got the two-lap board. At that point I was just like, ‘bring it home.’”
Forkner says that the transition from the amateurs to the pros has gone pretty much as expected. Fitness has been the biggest challenge for him so far.
“The motos and stuff are how I thought they would be. They’re easier as the season goes on. At the beginning of the season, it was like the 20-minute mark and I was done. Now it’s like I can go pretty dang hard for 25 minutes and then I start to fall off a little bit, but I’m still there and not completely done like I was at the beginning of the season. So it’s getting better and better and better. Just the more races I get in the more fit I think that I’ll be. Just getting up with those guys and riding at the front and getting experience being at the front is always good.
For him, Forkner says that probably the biggest difference between amateur racing and pro racing is the length of the races, not so much the intensity.
“Honestly it [the pros] is not really [as intense]. The aggression those guys have is a little bit more, as far as slamming you in the turns and doing stuff like that. But really, when we were in amateurs it’s all sprint. We have five-, six-, seven-lap motos so it’s a sprint for that whole time. That’s kind of how it is in the beginning of the motos of pro, but everybody kind of settles down and settles in. You can’t sprint the whole moto. It’d be really hard to go 30 plus two at a sprint pace. You kind of just settle into a groove. But in amateurs it’s a full sprint. The motos aren’t that long, but however long they are, you sprint the whole time, the exception is Loretta’s. But all the other races it’s just full-on sprint for the whole moto and getting sketchy. “Slamming guys, that’s kind of part of it. So that’s really about the same as it is in the pros. Mainly, just that there are a lot of good guys. A lot of guys have good bikes and a lot of them are fast and can do well. In the amateurs after a bad start I could still come through the pack and get up there and for sure get top three and maybe even win. In the pros you’re not going to do that. You’re not going to come from last and win. It’s just not the way it is.”
Yet, Forkner has proven that he can make passes even in the pros. What’s his secret?
“People have told me that I’m able to anticipate what guys are going to do before they do it. So, if we’re going into a turn, and I think he [the guy ahead of him] is going in a little bit too fast, I’m going to shoot for the inside and I’m going to get him there. Just little stuff that I see, that the guys in front of me are going to do and that I can anticipate it and make the pass. My starts were really good in amateurs but not all of them were. I’ve been in first-turn pileups and had to come through the pack. So I think I’m just good at passing people. I’d rather learn to pass guys in amateurs than get every single holeshot and not know how to pass. So it’s good.”
Not only is it impressive that Forkner is doing so well on the outdoor circuit, but he’s doing it on tracks that he’s never ridden before.
“I’m pretty good at adapting to tracks quickly. Getting the jumps dialed and stuff is the easiest part, pretty much. It’s more like seeing what turns are going to be outside in, sweeping turns, and if the outside’s faster or if the inside’s faster. So you kind of just have to guess sometimes, but sometimes you can just tell what the fast line is going to be. I feel like I’m pretty good at seeing that and being able to pick out fast lines and learn tracks quickly. You got to learn the track fast and you got to get it done. That’s been kind of tough, but we’re all riding the same track. I just got to learn it as quickly as those guys. “
Forkner says that just because he’s a rookie, doesn’t mean he’s going to let people shove him around on the track.
“No, I’m not going to let them push me around. If they do something to me, if they are going to ride me hard and try to clean me out, then if I can catch back up to them I’m going to ride them the same way. I’m not intimidated by them at all. I’m not going to intentionally try to take them out, but if that’s how they want to ride, then I’m not going to let them push me around. I feel like that I’m the rookie coming in and that’s how those guys feel like they should ride me, just to show me that they’re the boss because they’ve been doing this longer, but I don’t want to let that happen. I want to go in and ride those guys hard and not give them any room to push me around.”
Like most young motocross racers, Forkner doesn’t have a ton of experience in supercross, but he is looking forward to his first full season as a pro in the stadiums.
“I’m excited about supercross. I’ve done pretty well at technical supercross-style tracks. I’ve done really good at the Monster Cup; I did good at an arenacross earlier in the year, so I seem to be pretty good at technical tracks, indoor-style tracks.”
It won’t be long before Forkner gets his feet wet in supercross.
“I’m not really sure when we’ll start testing for supercross. We’ll probably do a little bit before Monster Cup. I really don’t even know. I’m really not even worried about that right now. Just start whenever we start and get some riding in, work on whatever we need to work on and try to get ready and do whatever coast. I really don’t care what coast I do. It doesn’t matter. If I’m ready and my speed’s there I would just as soon go ahead and do West Coast and just get it started early so it gives me more time to get ready for outdoors. If I’m not ready, then obviously go to East and work on whatever I need to work on.
“I like supercross; it’s good. It’s technical. There’s not really room for mistakes. I’ve had some crashes in supercross because if you mess up, the consequences are bigger. You can’t mistime a rhythm. You got to make sure you’re pretty dialed in the whoops. But I feel like as I’m getting bigger and stronger that helps through the whoops, and just becoming a better rider helps me with all the timing and stuff like the rhythm sections. Now I’m pretty much able to just go out on a track and get the rhythms dialed and everything within a couple laps. At least the last time I rode supercross that’s how it was. So I think everything’s going good. It’s going to be about getting good starts in supercross, I think. So definitely that and just riding smooth laps.”
As you can image, Forkner was a top prospect coming out of amateur ranks and every team wanted him, but he ended up staying on green and with his long-time sponsor Fox.
“It [Pro Circuit] is definitely one of the most prestigious teams as far as 250s go. I had a few people talking to me back around Loretta’s [2015]. It was a pretty big decision to go with Pro Circuit. I’d been riding Fox clothing already, and then after Pro Circuit signed with Fox—I was most likely going to sign with Pro Circuit anyway because the bike was great, I was getting along with everybody on the team really well—so it just made sense to go with them. And then after Fox signed with them, that was just that much better.”
Forkner has been riding Kawasakis for most of his career.
“Since 2010 when I was on 80s. I’ll be with them for a while and hopefully I can get some good results in that time, get some championships. That’d be great. That’d be the best thing.
Like most motocross racers Forkner’s age, he has lofty goals.
“Obviously I’d like get at least one supercross and motocross 250 championship, then at least one 450 supercross and motocross championship and hopefully more. Hopefully I can get multiple of both. That would be the greatest thing, in both classes. Obviously you want the most you can get, so that’s what I want. Supercross would be awesome to win. Outdoors would be awesome to win. They’re both good. Supercross probably has a little bit more hype than outdoors, but outdoors I think you have to work a little bit harder, too, just because the heat and the longer motos. Outdoors is more of a brutal season than supercross. But supercross is definitely tough with just how the tracks are. I feel like the tracks are a little bit tougher because they’re more technical, but the motos aren’t quite as long. It’ll be good. I hope that I can get as many as I can in both outdoors and supercross, both classes.”
Despite his now busier schedule, all the training he must do and the more responsibilities he must fulfill, like hanging out with the Fox guys and the media, Forkner says he’s having fun.
“It’s a lot of fun. Obviously it helps whenever you do good and winning that moto the other day, especially going into this break made it really good. I have a lot of confidence right now, I feel. I’ve been having fun riding and staying at the Reynard’s in Oklahoma with all the guys there, getting ready with some of the guys going to Loretta’s. We’ve got a really solid group of pro riders there, actually. We got Bogle and Canard and Benny Bloss, Colt Nichols, Chase Marquier. We’ve got a solid group of pro riders there. And then all the guys going to Loretta’s just makes the track that much better and get that much rougher and more realistic, which I think a big thing right now is finding tracks that are realistic to what you’re going to be riding on and practicing on them. I feel like we’ve been doing that there.”
Forkner, as well as his competitors, are enjoying the longest break (two weeks) of the season before ramping up again at one of the toughest tracks on the circuit—Unadilla. With three races left, Forkner is holding down fifth in the 250MX Championship. Though it will be tough to catch the four riders ahead of him—Cooper Webb, Jeremy Martin, Joey Savatgy and Alex Webb—he’s got guys like Zach Osborne and Aaron Plessinger breathing down his neck. But if there’s anyone up for a challenge, it’s Austin Forkner.
You can read the original magazine story by clicking HERE.
