Kanney and the rest of the eventual top-3 overall (Jesse Robinson and Chris Bach) started on the 2nd row.
Congratulations on the win. It’s got to feel pretty good after the rough start to the season you’ve had.
Yeah, it feels really good. But, I’d have to win the last four races for it to make up for how bad the first part of the season has gone. Even then I don’t think I’d really be satisfied with it. A lot of the things that have happened to me this season have been out of my control but even so I don’t think one win is going to make up for it.
Well, the last part of the season seems to be when you really come on strong so it wouldn’t be too surprising to see you grab a few more wins in those races.
Yeah totally, I’m always really confident at Unadilla and Indiana and I like the new track at Lafayette, TN and I like St. Clairsville as well so I’d like to get wins at all four of those but everyone is riding well and everyone has a lot of motivation so anything can happen. So all I can do is keep doing what I’ve done and try and do my best and hopefully I can do like I did at Snowshoe and close the deal.
Talk a little bit about the race at Snowshoe. You didn’t start on the front row there, do you think that was to your advantage?
I think it was a little bit to my advantage. I caught the guys on the first row pretty quickly and was able to pass them and when that happens they know immediately that they have a lot of work to do and it kind of catches them by surprise. But to tell you the truth, I was so prepared for this track and for this race that it would’ve actually been nice to start on the first row. By the time I had gotten around all of the guys on the first row I had already lost my goggles because of all of the mud from going through behind them and for me to start on the front row and be able to maybe pull the holeshot and stay clean it would’ve been nice. Anyway, I think when you’re prepared for a race like this the row you start on is pretty insignificant. I started on the 2nd row so did the other two guys that finished in the top-3 overall. Even last year we saw David Knight win from a row even further back so I think if you’re really prepared you could start from any row and win, even the first.
After spending 3 weeks riding rocks, Kanney was confident coming into the Snowshoe GNCC.
Were there any times out there in the first lap where you were able to take advantage of those guys in front of you finding a bad line or anything like that?
I caught them quite quickly, only a mile into the race or so. I was only behind Cory [Buttrick] for a few seconds before he fell trying to pass Mullins, and after that I could see Kailub [Russell] leading and he slid out and we all were able to get around him. From then it was just Josh Strang, Charlie Mullins, and Paul Whibley in front of me. I think when I passed Whibley it was up a rocky uphill, and it just seemed like whenever I was able to make a pass it was because they just weren’t that fast in the really rocky stuff or they made a mistake. Charlie wasn’t really attacking in the rocks the way I was and then Strang slid out so it wasn’t really anything like I was given a better line by them it was more of them making their own mistakes or just not pushing hard enough.
I heard that leading up to the race you had ridden rocks everyday for three weeks, that had to do a lot for your confidence coming in.
Well, yeah, I’ve been riding rocky stuff really my whole life but I had been focusing on it a lot the past three weeks. For one thing, to have grown up riding rocky stuff is a big part of it but the focusing on it lately was key. For me, the rockier the parts of the track the more confident I was. I knew those were the sections the other guys would be making the most mistakes and not being that aggressive. To tell you the truth I was a bit hesitant when I got to the front but I was pulling so much time in the really technical stuff that when I got to some place with ruts I was afforded the time to really slow down and pick a good line.
Kanney and Bach spent little time waiting around and moved to the front of the race very early.
We had seen some smack talk between yourself and Chris Bach on Facebook leading up to the race. I know you and Chris had spent some time riding together prior to the race and you guys really looked comfortable together out front in the race.
Chris called me after Millfield and we talked about rocks a bit and I told him he was more than welcome to come ride with me and I’d teach him all that I could and at least take him to all of the places that I’d be riding. He ended up spending 5 or 6 days here riding and we went out in the hills here and we tried to ride a race pace on the trails and it was really good for us. We were able to push each other and I knew right away that he’d be pretty good. For someone that’s from Indiana where all you have his corn fields, to come up here and pick up the rocks so quickly was pretty impressive. But to tell you the truth I was surprised at how quickly he was able to pass all of the guys right behind me. It was nice to be in a battle with him and it was quite enjoyable. It was just like when we were practicing together back in New York and that took a lot of pressure off.
Yeah, I noticed when you guys got to one of the nasty sections down at the bottom of the mountain, you both kind of stopped and looked at each other before going through the mud and it really looked like you were just out on a trail ride having a good time.
I think that’s exactly what it was. There were a few sections out there in the woods when we were riding together and we’d get to a rock garden and I’d look for the biggest rock in the rock garden and just huck it off the rock–to major applause from the spectators–but that’s really what I do when I’m riding at home and that’s how it carries over into the race. I talked to Chris after the race and he told me he was doing the same thing. I think that with riding rocks it’s something that you really need to have fun doing because it’s not the kind of thing you can race the way you are used to. Normally we go as fast as we can see, and in rocks you can see as far up the trail as normal but you have to have the discipline to only go as fast as you know you can without making a mistake. For us to turn that into a fun riding style was a big part of the race.
Nate's advice for racing in the rocks? Try your best to have fun while doing it.
Watching a lot of the guys racing, and even talking to some of the different racers you could see that most of the people out there weren’t having a lot of fun.
Yeah, I could tell immediately when I caught some of the guys on the first row where they were going to be going wrong and where some of them would be having some problems. That was good for me to see, because I could see if they didn’t learn quick they were going to be having some problems. It’s really important to be able to do a race like that and enjoy it.
Towards the middle to end of the race you got hooked up with Jesse Robinson and there for a while he had actually pulled away from you a bit. Were you concerned you might not be able to run him down before end of the race?
Yeah, absolutely. Jesse really caught me by surprise. When I stopped for fuel, I got really lucky we got it done as quick as we did because I didn’t even hear him go by. He was already a few turns in front of me and I happened to notice the green numberplate out of the corner of my eye and I saw it was Jesse and I knew that I had to start pushing. It was lucky that he didn’t get there any quicker than he did because I didn’t hear him and if I hadn’t seen him then I wouldn’t have known that I was passed. It was a bit of a surprise how he got past all of those guys one by one and kind of snuck by me on the down low. Then when I went out after him it was a really fast pace. He had started racing for the finish at the halfway point and I had to push quite hard to try and catch him. There were parts of the track where he was certainly faster than me and I had to try and limit the damage in those sections and then push in the other sections.
At what point after you got around him did it sink in that you were going to get your first win of the season and a $10,000 pay day along with it?
Well, actually, the first pass I made on him didn’t stick. It was kind of a weird situation. There was the section at the bottom that was quite muddy and there was the line through it and the line around it that Buren had said in the rider’s meeting was 3/10ths of a mile longer. When I got there on the last lap I was in front of Jesse and there were some of the boys helping KTM there and they were pointing me to go through the power line mud section. It kind of caught me off guard because I had gone through it the first lap with Bach and felt like we were lucky to make it through. So when I saw the boys pointing me that way I was a bit shocked, but I just figured they had been there for a while and were able to make a line off to the side where it was still dry enough to make it through. As I was making the turn to go for it they yelled to me that I needed to be wide open and I understood immediately that they hadn’t made a line but they were just saying if I was wide open I might make it. I knew that it was too much risk and I turned around immediately and Jesse had already committed to taking the long way around so I went into the woods after him. Fortunately for me he didn’t know I had turned around and when we got to the spot where we came out it looked like he had thought I had made some time on him and he was pushing really hard to try and ‘catch’ me. So he was having to push and take the risks and I was able to just try and ride my best without making a mistake and hope to keep it close enough that I could make a move in the last 3 miles of roads and rocks where I was faster. He ended up making a mistake and getting cross rutted and stuck and I was able to get by him and make it through that last section to the finish.
Jesse Robinson put up a serious fight in the closing laps of the race.
So, what are you going to do with the $10,000?
I’ve already put it in my savings account. I know no one likes to hear the stories about putting win money into savings but the truth is I didn’t do anything wild!
That kind of brings me to my next question. Do you have any idea what you’ll be doing next year? Have you started talks with KTM at all?
Everything is up in the air. We’ve talked about it but very casually. I don’t even know if KTM has their plans set for what direction they want to go next year. If it were up to me I’d like to stay and pursue the GNCC Championship again but at the moment I can’t say that I know anything. I think that a few years ago in off-road it was normal like guys that I have been doing would be able to get a 2 or 3-year contract but with the economy the way it is everyone is going year-by-year.
The last couple of years it’s pretty much been a joke in the GNCC pits that when it’s contract time Nate Kanney is going to pick it up and grab a win or two to make sure he gets a deal for next year. But this year you actually started before the break! You could’ve had a podium at the Penton if your bike hadn’t let go at the end and then obviously the win this year, that was two pretty good races in a row.
Yeah, it’s pretty funny. I was hanging out with Chris Bach, his mechanic Ben Weathers and his girlfriend Lauren before the race at Snowshoe, they were joking around that I was being compared to a motocross rider, I won’t say who I was compared to, but I’m the off-road version of this guy and I flake out all year and then I go pull out a win out of nowhere when it’s time to get a contract and that’s who I’ve become. It’s a pity that’s what it looks like to people because it’s obviously not how I plan things out, I always try and do my best. But, it is funny and I have a sense of humor about it and can at least laugh about it. But the truth is in Somerset I was entirely confident I would win that race like I was in Snowshoe, it’s a shame I had a problem with the front brake and ended up losing control and crashing. And then at the Penton a similar type of thing, two miles before the finish line I have an engine failure and I lose out on 2nd place. These things happen but the truth is when you have so much bad luck in one season no one cares anymore when you’re that close to finishing and you have bad luck again. That was something that motivated me at Snowshoe–getting to close to finishing on the podium or winning those races but no one cares if you don’t close the deal.
It was a good day for KTM as they swept the top-4 overall spots!
Everyone always says that they want to go into the summer break with the momentum, but it’s such a long time until we go GNCC racing again. What are you going to do over the break to keep that up?
I’m going to do the National Enduro in Maine. So I’ll be starting to get ready for that race. But I think I won’t be doing so much off-road riding anymore, I think in the last four races of the season motocross speed will play a bigger part so I’m going to start training a bit more on motocross and the amount of off-road training I’ll be doing will be for preparing for the Enduro. I’ll just keep training and keep pushing to try and be ready for those races.
Your teammate Kailub Russell and Suzuki’s Josh Strang are going to be racing some outdoor nationals this summer, starting with the Red Bud National this coming weekend. Is that something you’ve ever considered trying?
Yeah, it’s been on my mind for almost five years. I’ve always wanted to try and race the Unadilla national, it’s just something I’ve always wanted to do. This is the most serious I’ve been about doing it but I’m a bit tentative. I don’t want to take the risk and injure myself and not be able to perform at the last four GNCCs. At the moment it’s all up in the air. I told my mechanic that for now I want to see how Kailub and Josh do at Red Bud and then see, but I’m a little bit behind the eight ball, I haven’t even gotten my pro license yet so it might not even be possible. I know this lady named Rita and she might be able to help me get a pro license but I’m not sure.
Okay, this is the last question I’ve got for you. It looks like you’re not going to be a part of the USA ISDE team this year, what are your thoughts on that?
I’m a little bit bummed. It’s something I’ve always been passionate about and something I feel like I’m more than competitive about. But, what can I say? I’m bummed I’m not going but I support the team that is going 100%. I think that all of the riders that were chosen will be really good for the team. I know Kurt [Caselli] works really hard putting together the team and if that’s the team he’s chosen to go whether it’s his choices or the team that’s elected by the politics involved I support all the riders involved. It would be selfish of me to be upset that I’m not on the team, the truth is I want to see the American team do well whether I’m on it or not. Effectively I was replaced by Mike Brown and who can argue that was a bad decision? If I was going to have to lose my spot on the team to someone I couldn’t be happier with who they have chosen.
Alright man that’s pretty much it. Thanks for taking the time out for this interview.
No problem man, thank you!
Buttrick and Bach give Kanney a serious champagne shower.
