"I Wanted Chaos" | Steve Matthes on His Privateer Challenge Race

The PulpMX Privateer Challenge race is back! This coming weekend in Denver after press day has concluded, Steve Matthes once again will host a Supercross race for the privateers who made the least number of main events. The concept is to give back to the riders who travel to all the races but aren't exactly killing it with winnings earned. Yamaha and PulpMX have teamed up for five years now by offering a YZ450F to raffle off and 100% of ticket sales go to the privateers in the race. Riders earn their way into this event by accumulating points for finishing fifth or worse in LCQs each week (Fifth in LCQ gets 26 pts, sixth 23 pts, seventh 21 pts, and so on). We reached out to Matthes so he could tell us why he started doing it, how the industry has responded, and what he'd like to see next out of the event. If you'd like a chance to win a 2023 Yamaha YZ450F or any of the other prizes and more importantly contribute to the privateers, tickets are $30 each and can be found at PulpMX.com.

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

Jamie Guida – Vital MX: So, this is year five of you doing a raffle for the privateers. It didn’t start with the race but there was a Yamaha 450 giveaway.

Steve Matthes: Yeah, that sounds about right. The winners were Cade (Clason), (Adam) Enticknap, (Nick) Schmidt, and Chiz (Kyle Chisholm), so yeah, this is five, I think.

Vital MX: It's crazy how far this has come. 

Matthes: Yeah, it started off with Yamaha and me doing an ambassador type of deal and they had another bike for me to give away and they said, “You can do it whatever way you want. We just want to do something cool. You figure it out.” So, one of the original plans was to give the bike away to a privateer to use all year as a race bike or a practice bike. One of the plans was to race it and then auction it off. In the end, I'm like, “You know what? I want to reward a privateer guy.” Obviously, the guys that make the mains are doing well, and there’s the ‘who's a privateer and who's not.’ I just decided, screw it, let's take the points in the LCQs, let's add up all the points and those don't lie. If you're in the most LCQs and doing the best in the LCQs, you get into the race and yeah, that's how we did it. We did that for a couple of years and then I wanted a race. Luckily the guys at Feld let us do it. So, this is year two of them letting us have a Friday race.

Vital MX: How much does that blow your mind with your relationship with Feld? 

Matthes: It's pretty funny. I can't help but think part of the reason they gave me a race is because I wanted chaos, right? I just wanted chaos for this money. One of the things I thought about when I pitched them the race, I said, “Well, you know, one of my ideas was giving away all the money to fifth in the LCQ. Say 100 grand or so at the last week of the year in Salt Lake City. That'd be kind of fun to watch guys try to get fifth, you know.” I don't know if they liked that idea so much. So, I honestly think they did this just to avoid complete chaos in the final round.

Vital MX: I think it worked out beneficial for everybody. It's good for Feld to do that. You have a huge soft spot for those guys because you worked with many of them. 

Matthes: Before we had a race, Cade won it one year and he put the money towards that ClubMX membership and then he did really well the next year. Moranz used the money last year to build himself a supercross track, and he's having his best year ever. It is kind of cool to see these dudes use the money for reasons to improve themselves and then see them actually improve themselves, you know?

Vital MX: Absolutely. You mentioned wanting chaos and we didn't exactly get chaos, but there's been a lot of interesting moves. You had guys buying gate positions and last year, Nick Schmidt kind of laid up a little bit at some points to make sure he got in. What are some of the other things that stand out to you that riders have done to ensure that they get in this thing and get a good spot?

Matthes: Well, that's two of the most egregious things for sure. Watching Schmidt just kind of fade back to fifth a lot of the year was pretty funny to see. Especially near the end when he was really making sure he had it. The clothespins last year were an unexpected little twist. We're not going to do that this year because I don't like it that much. It did give us chaos, but I don't want to have these guys spending money out of their pockets. The idea is to make money. So, we're going to stop that also. Seven Deuce Deuce was also laying up that year, making sure that he was in a position to get the money.

Vital MX: Has anybody offered you bribes to get in that maybe weren't in?

Matthes: No. Simonson is in this year because he said I can give him a haircut. So, in a way, maybe that's a bribe. I don't know. But no, none of that.

Vital MX: A lot of industry people are stepping up to offer extra money for these riders for all kinds of things. Checkerz (Chris Riesenberg) from Race Tech is doing the best air wheelie during the site lap and then there's the guy who loses the most spots, there’s first to the finish line, and numerous others. 

Matthes: Yeah, it's pretty cool. Christian Craig's giving money for FFL. He's doing 500 bucks. Justin Brayton's giving money for 10th. Adam Cianciarulo is giving money for ninth place. Hanna Ray is doing a thousand for the holeshot and even cheap-ass Jason Weigandt is dipping in and paying 100 bucks to the first rider to DNF. We have the air wheelie contest, Partzilla PRMX stepped up, Ice Shaker, and Renegade Racing Fuels are giving away cans of fuel to the top three guys and Chiz is giving some money away. Yeah, it's really neat. I think we're going to have roughly another 5 to 10K in prop bets.

Vital MX: Again, you have a soft spot for the privateers as most of the industry does. Those guys struggle sometimes, and this can make their season.

Matthes: That's the idea, right? Obviously, I have some wild card guys in 250s that I kind of like. Cade just would not leave me alone and I wanted to shut him up, so I gave him Luke Neese. Dominique Thury is in because I like the Solitaire guys. Generally speaking, what I wanted to do, Mr. Side, was reward the guys like Mason Kerr. He's not going to make mains but he's going to spend the money and travel the whole series and sleep at truck stops and eat ravioli from a hubcap. He's doing what he loves, and I really want to reward the 450 dudes who don't make main events that go to all the races. That's kind of where I came up with the idea. It's really cool to hear some of these guys’ stories. Kevin Moranz and Grant Harlan and these other dudes that are doing well and Benny Bloss, they're privateers and they're kicking ass in the mains. This race isn't for them. It doesn't matter that you're just a privateer. You have to be a privateer not making the main so you're not collecting contingency, you're not collecting main event money and you're chasing the dream. That's who this race is for.

Vital MX: There were a couple of things that you had talked about doing or you joked about. You mentioned getting Martin Davalos to race it. That obviously didn't happen. Are there any other thoughts that you've had similar to that to make it interesting?

Matthes: Yeah, I thought Marty jumping in would be really cool. I was informed by everybody that he's way too fast still because he rides a little bit and he would just kick everybody's ass, which I didn't want. I wanted to get the Flyn Taco (Carlos Estevan Short) in. He's a guy back east that Coop (Webb), Phil (Nicoletti), and (Seth) Rarick were all over me to get in. I went to social media, and the guy chases the dream in the Arenacross series, and he's quite a character, so I really want to get Flyn Taco in. He didn't have a Supercross license, so I was shut down on that one. In the end, I don't want to make it too much of a sideshow. I know that sounds pretty funny to say. Then I thought about some other guys jumping in like Tim Ferry or guys like that. In the end, I decided, “Nah, let's not do that.” Ultimately, we're giving away a lot of money, right? We want to reward those guys that are spending the money. Martin just showing up and grabbing a bunch of money isn't really the idea of the race. Even though it would be funny, and we would love to see Marty and see what he could do. That's not really the idea. 

Vital MX: It's kind of what happened last year with Chiz.

Matthes: Listen, Chiz and (Ryan) Breece, people forget they did start in the back row. I wanted to start them backward. The AMA wouldn't let me. Then finally we settled on the back row. I mean, it was a six-minute race. I think some of those guys should be ashamed of how fast Chiz and Breece blew by them.

Vital MX: This year the event will be streamed, correct?

Matthes: Yes. Thanks to FXR we're streaming it. The Vurb Moto guys are stepping up and doing this for no money. They're doing it for expenses only, which is awesome. They're just doing it because they're cool. It'll be on Vurb’s and PulpMx’s YouTube channels. FXR is the title sponsor, and they gave us some money. The idea is to not make any money on the streaming, just to pay the expenses and that's it. So, the money goes to the expenses and yeah, we should be streaming it.

Vital MX: What are your thoughts going forward for this event?

Matthes: Ideally, I would want it on a Saturday of race day, and I would want Race Day Live to cover it and all of that. I really went for that this year. They were not having that at all. That's really my goal, is to have this on a real Supercross day and not Friday. One step at a time, I guess. Yeah, we'll see. I'm not holding my breath on that. If they give us Friday afternoon next year, maybe I will just decline it and do my own thing, you know? We'll see, man. I wish they would work with me a little more. Look at me. I'm being greedy. They gave me a race and it went off really well, so I thought I could ask for more this year, and I really got the same thing. I'm happy thanks to those guys, but I really would like it to be a little more of a professional operation here.

Vital MX: You can go to Pulpmx.com and tickets are $30. You can still get tickets, right?

Matthes: We're going to keep it going through Monday’s show. I have to thank everybody who bought a ticket. I constantly underestimate you guys. We had 140K last year, but the money came flying in when the Denver round was postponed, and we went to Salt Lake. Today I looked and I was hoping to get 80K, but we're already past 80 and it's Wednesday, so it's great. It looks like 100 grand. Not the 140 of last year, but we had different circumstances. I'm stoked because just a couple of weeks ago it was around 30 and I was holding my breath saying, “Oh, shit, 30 is not enough”, but dude, it looks like we're going to have over 100, so that's awesome. 

Vital MX: The Race Day Live coverage that you got in Nashville must have really given a big bump.

Matthes: Absolutely. The Race Day Live guys did something for me and yeah, it worked out great. So, a hundred grand that 22 riders split up. It's going to be fantastic. Don't forget, there's the bike prize and then there's like 19 other great prizes. FXR, Fly, Renthal, Guts, and Motosport.com, and all these guys agreed to step up with big prizes. So, there are 20 prizes including the bike.