Chatter Box: Kevin Windham

Anyone who’s watched the 2012 Monster Energy Supercross season knows that the number of star riders hitting the deck has been high, and it bit GEICO Honda’s Kevin Windham at Houston in one of the ugliest cartwheeling crashes that we’ve seen in a while. At that point he and Toyota/JGRMX/Yamaha’s James Stewart had been putting on an amazing show, battling back and forth, and Kevin told us that was one of a handful of best battles he’s had in his 30-plus years of racing.

K-Dub did try and suit up to race in front of his friends and fans in New Orleans, but in the end, his injuries prevented him from taking the track in his home race. We caught up with him after practice, and he was mighty disappointed that he wasn’t going to be able to ride.


Q: All right, Kevin. Break it down for us on what the injury toll was after Houston.

A: It was actually a combination of different opinions and such jacked up wrists and ankles and all that stuff from thirty plus years of racing dirt bikes and ultimately we found out through MRI that it was nothing broken. It took us literally, like, two weeks and my wrist was not mobile that entire time. We really had to lie it down and just try to make sure that we didn’t do any damage to it. We found out we weren’t broken but I have extensive ligament damage that may or may not have to be worked on. We’re going to try to wait a little while for this. Most of it’s just really stretched ligaments around my thumb, both inner and outer, and separated shoulders on both sides. But the shoulders are good. I really felt like I could ride with that injury. I wanted to suit up and ride. It’s New Orleans; it’s close to home. The feedback I get from the fans is amazing. It’s such an addiction.


But as big as that is, this is for me. This is what I do. This is my job. If I can ride I’m going to ride. I gave it a very poor effort. I wasn’t able to jump anything. I was very disappointed. In my head I’m thinking, “I can do this,” and then I actually get out there and I’m like, “dude, I’m an idiot. I’m not even close.” It’s just frustrating. Now you’re here and it’s just being here under these situations is frustrating.


Q: Who was that guy in Houston? Because you looked like you were really on fire and on a mission there.

A: I was. I guess it’s unfortunate that when that happens and when you ride like that these kinds of things happen. This sport has elevated so much. It’s funny; I watch footage all the time, and you’re watching footage from old races and it almost looks like we’re in practice. I really feel like the sport has elevated to a whole new level right now. Just the speed and the way people are making speed and time… I was there. I was right in the middle of being able to do something really cool in Houston. When you’re on that razor-thin line, I’ve said it time and time again, we’re splitting hairs out there and that’s really showing by how many guys are going down. That crash on the face was a combination of...I’m not the strongest scrubber in the world anyway, but I lost my front end just a hair. It’s hard to even pick out on video but you can see it just a little bit. I lost my front end and ended up hitting my foot. The thirty minutes it felt like I had to figure out what I was going to do in the air, because those things really slow down when you’re out there, I thought I could ride the thing out. It was close; I just kind of tipped it on the top of that third jump. Actually, truth be told, I think I got out of it pretty good. I think a lot of people were surprised to see me on my feet and see me out here and even giving it a chance. I got lucky. I don’t know how much luck it is. You just do what you do. You try to prepare the best you can. It’s just part of the sport. I was at my 102nd consecutive start. There have only been, like, 115 or 118 ever done, which in my opinion means that I had an ass-busting coming right around the corner and it got me. That’s just the nature of this beast and part of our sport. But I’m in really good spirits and feel like I can’t wait to get back out there, whether it’s in the end of 2012 or 2013 or whatever. Things are good. My heart is good, my head is good. I can’t wait to give it another shot. This won’t be the end of the 14, for sure.

Q: The way you guys were going at it in there was pretty amazing.

A: I’ll be honest with you, I watched that race several times and it’s always one that I want to turn off on the seventh lap because obviously that’s when the time bomb went off for me. But watching it was incredible. To be able to race Stewart… I know he hit me in that one corner; other than that it was a really clean race. But watching it, I acknowledged his apology, that he waved to me on the track. Watching it I truly believe as a competitor I think he missed his rear brake and he got a little bit crazy in the whoops. That kind of stuff happens. But I had something, a head of steam on him and I really wanted to get there and I really wanted to get it done in that last corner. That would have been a good finish to that entire race. But to go back and forth as much as we did and hearing the crowd, even over the commentators on TV, lets you know how loud that place really was. It’s an amazing feeling. And just to be able to still do that, that’s the biggest thing. Because earlier in the season we weren’t probably where we needed to be. We were really coming on strong, which typically I do, but all for naught this year.


Q: Coming into the whoops section that one lap, yellow flags were out… Did you kind of go, “Oh, man…” Did you see it? Did you know during the time?

A: Well, yellow flags weren’t displayed whenever I was going into that sweeper. So, I had went outside to really set up that jump past Stewart. Once I had already committed I’m like, “Screw it; I’m going for it.” And then once I got in the air then I saw the red cross flag. I’m like, “Ok, I know I can’t pass on the red cross flag,” but at that point I already had all my momentum. To watch the video I had actually passed him before I got the red cross flag. So I think that I was legit in the rules but with the way that race finished all I can basically say is I don’t really care. But it’s an interesting position for a red cross flag, because are you supposed to roll the whoops? Because in my opinion, if you’re going to get technical about it, the whoops are the most dangerous part of the track to ride around medical attention. We were all still blitzing them and stuff. But I just had so much steam that I had to go ahead and send it in those whoops from that quad. I think after talking to the AMA officials they would have sided with me, the way that pass went down. I don’t know why the Stewart camp or anybody would complain about it. I passed him there almost every lap. I think that’s the only place I passed him, as a matter of fact. But it was a good race. Those are few and far between to have that many lead changes between the two. It was a good race. It was a lot of fun to race with Stewie.