"I Literally Buy My Own Bikes, My Own Parts, Everything In Racing" | Kyle Chisholm on Being a Privateer 2

With World Supercross just around the corner we wanted to reach out to the senior privateer on the circuit, Kyle Chisholm. Chiz had a productive season of supercross in 2022 and continues to impress by continuing to best many of his younger competitors. Kyle was in the process of packing to leave but gave us a bit of his time.

     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: What’s up, Chiz? 

Kyle Chisholm: Oh, not much. Just got back from another day of riding and getting ready for World Supercross. So, yeah. Been fun. Been exciting.

Vital MX: I really want to jump back for just a minute through this season. How do you feel about your supercross season? You did really well in the 250 East for Star Yamaha Racing and were 14th overall on the 450. A good season for yourself as a full privateer with a little bit of side work with Star.

Kyle: Yeah, it was good. I'm one of those perfectionists. I'll critique everything, you know, no matter how good I do it could always be better. I always want to try to improve. Looking back as a whole, yeah, I think it was a good season. Comparing it to the seasons before I've had a steady improvement, even though I'm the old guy out there now. I've been healthy, which has been a big thing. It's always tough in the sport to stay healthy. Getting that opportunity with Star to ride the 250 for a few races was really cool. A lot of fun. Awesome team. I've known Bobby Ragan and a lot of the guys on that team for a long time. It's an amazing bike and team to get to ride for and that little snippet of the season, man, I feel like that was awesome. Hopping on it mid-season and having a couple of days in racing, you know, it's hard. No matter how good you are, no matter how good the bike is. After a race or two we were right there I got a heat race win and a couple of top fives. If you had told me I would win a Heat race and almost get a podium this year, I wouldn't believe you. Then 14th in the 450 class, I came into the season with COVID and had hurt my elbow. I was off the bike for almost a month before Anaheim. I just missed the main there at Anaheim, which is a bummer. But other than that, it was a solid season on the 450. And then I missed four races racing the 250 or I think I would have been top ten in points. 

Vital MX: When was the last time you actually came into the season without last minute issues?

Kyle: You know, some people might say, “why don't you just get your crap together sooner”. It's not that easy, you know, doing your own program. It's always a struggle. That's why the goal is to be on a good team. You get a lot taken off your plate when you have that. There are some opportunities that maybe would take some stuff off my plate. But in the end, it has to be good enough as a whole. Equipment, the program, the financial, you know, it's my job. So, the money side of it, the program, the bike, the team, like what's the whole thing look like as a whole? Because I want to be as successful as I can, and I work my butt off and do everything I can to be successful. A lot of times, unfortunately, the better thing to do is put my own program together, which is what I've done the last three years and even a few years before that as well. 

Vital MX: What is it about you right now that you feel makes you as successful as you are?

Kyle: Man, I don't know. I've done a lot of thinking on that as well because I want to know. So I can keep doing it, teach it to others in the future. I think it all really boils down to experience. I mean experience as a whole, my off-season training, my in-season training, my pre-season, you know, right before the season, through the season. My mental state. What am I thinking when I'm training during the week at the race, when I'm walking the track, what am I doing on the bike and off the bike as far as training goes. And emotionally when I'm at the race and in the moment when it counts, when the lights are on, all that stuff. I think it's just a culmination of my experience. 

Vital MX: You won the Steve Matthes Privateer Challenge in Salt Lake City. How much help was that for you from that one event?

Kyle: Man, it was huge. I know there's a lot of controversy of people talking about whether I should have been in it or not. Who's a privateer? I know that's a little bit of a gray area these days in our sport with some private teams versus factory teams and everything in between. But I literally buy my own bikes, I buy my own parts. I get a small little budget with Yamaha, but still, I pay my mechanic, I pay my travel. I paid for everything in the racing. Obviously, I try to put sponsorship together to help with as much of that as I can, but at the end of the day, I am no different than the guy in his pickup truck. Rock River takes my bike for me which is great. But other than that, it's all me and whoever's on team Chiz. I need to sit down and see what I actually spent this year, but between bikes, travel, mechanic, race fuel and all that stuff it's probably close to a hundred grand. For him to be able to do that was big.

Vital MX: Currently you're about to leave tomorrow for World Supercross with the CDR Team, Craig Dack Racing. How did that come about? 

Vital MX: It came together whenever they announced they were doing World Supercross and how it was going to work. I actually submitted a team, me and my mechanic Bobby, with some help from the guys at Rock River. We tried to be one of the ten approved teams to do it. Obviously that team didn't get approved. But when I did that, I talked to Jim and the guys at Yamaha about, “Hey man, if this comes through, would you have extra budget?” Jim and the guys at Yamaha put me in contact with Craig Dack from CDR and they are basically the factory Yamaha team in Australia. Being that the promoters are from Australia it's kind of a given that CDR was going to be one of the teams approved. Jim pointed me in the direction of Craig and got me in contact with him and we just started talking. It just made sense for me to be at CDR.