December 30, 2011

Dean Wilson Weighs In!

Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Dean Wilson is a funny guy for a lot of reasons. From the racing side of things, he has great style in supercross, but he’s had way more success outdoors, where he won his first championship this past season. Indoors, he had his first season marred by being stuck in Canada for Visa issues following the Toronto round in 2010, and this past season he destroyed his shoulder in the lead-up to the opening round at Anaheim, forcing him to enter the East series at less than 100 percent health. Before the injury, though, he was going fast. Really fast. We caught up with him this week at the Kawasaki track.

Dean, do you know which coast you’re racing yet?
Dean Wilson: As of right now, I don’t. Mitch [Payton] likes to not tell us.

Well, Tyla Rattray said he was pretty sure he was trying to do West...
I think Rattray might be doing West, but I don’t know; he likes to not tell me, Mitch does. So then he knows I’m ready for whatever I do. Maybe he thinks if he tells me [I’m east] I’ll just stop training. No, as of right now I don’t know. I’ve heard some whispers and stuff that I’m West Coast but I don’t know for sure.

Well, normally teams want to put their top guy on the West if he’s healthy because Anaheim 1 is so big and all that sort of stuff...
I would like to do West Coast because I’ve never done it before and I think it would be fun to do it. Also, I get to sleep in my own bed before it, and there aren’t as many plane rides, so that would be a plus. We’ll just see what happens.

That’s an advantage most guys racing the west get to share, though...
Yeah. That’s definitely the advantage; you get to stay in your own bed and after the race you can just go home, where on the East Coast you have to stay in a hotel...

Which means you end up partying all night...
[Laughs] Sleep for, like, four hours and then you have to catch a plane and you have layovers, and blah, blah, blah... So, the less flying you can do, the better, because it’s a lot of flying between Supercross and Outdoors. So it would be cool just to do West.

Obviously you won a National title Outdoors, but in Supercross you’ve always been right there in speed, but never quite as dominant as outdoors. But you were killing it at the test track last year before you got hurt. How do you feel right now compared to that?
I feel pretty good right now. I’m just trying to put in my laps. But last year I felt really good, then I got hurt. So, I’m just trying not to push it too hard. I’m just trying to get my fitness and everything at a solid base so when I come to the race I have a little bit extra in me. I’ll just save that for the race. Sometimes you don’t want to completely push it as hard as you can in practice because the next thing you know you’re in the hospital. I’ll maybe just save a little bit more of my speed for the race. So far things are going good. I’m quite happy.

You did this last year, too, but what’s it like on a 250F to be chasing around Ryan Villopoto and these guys on 450s? Does that help you? What are the advantages or disadvantages of that out here at the track?
I think it helps me. I’ve always got something to push for. Trying to catch Villopoto is obviously not that easy. You don’t really catch him; it’s kind of like just losing him less. It’s good, because you can see spots where he is faster than you and you can work on it. It’s good for me. There are some sections where the 450 power is a bit of an advantage, and then there are actually some sections where the 250 has got an advantage. But it’s good to be riding with all the 450 guys here. There are actually a few teams on this Kawi track and they’re all 450 boys, so they don’t mind riding with you, which is cool. Sometimes, when they’re in the same class, they don’t really want to be riding with each other because they have to race against each other. I feel like I’m in a good position to ride with all these guys and take advantage of everything and learn from them.

How much do you weigh?
160...

Oh, that’s not so bad. You’re so tall. You seem like you would weigh more than that.
Jenny Craig.

Jenny Craig? That’s your training program?
Yeah.

That’s pretty good. You should probably call them; you could get a helmet sponsor or something...
Yeah, a helmet paint job...

Or just get a big sticker. How much does a sticker cost for the visor?
They’re going to have to pay a lot.

They’ve got a lot of money, because there are a lot of fat people here...
No, it’s tough though. Being tall, for me, it’s obviously nothing you can control; it’s just the way you’re born. But obviously I’m on a 250 so I have to really stay on top of it on my weight, but I don’t have an issue with it, really. I’m fine.

Are there any real disadvantages to height, you think?
Yeah, there are, actually. I feel like sometimes in corners and stuff it’s a disadvantage.

Your legs get in the way?
Yeah, your legs kind of get in the way. But that’s just something you always have to work on. You just have to have good technique. I mean, look at Windham; he’s tall and everybody thinks he’s got incredible style. It’s not easy to be that tall and have the best style.

David Vuillemin is tall and his style was terrible...
Yeah, he had the worst style, but he still won stuff. It’s all about just working on your technique to make your style good when you’re tall.

You went back to Scotland for a while, right?
Yeah... After des Nations, I came back to California and got surgery on my wrist. And then...

Scaphoid, right?
Yeah... Then I went back to Scotland and pretty much just hung out with my grandpa. He’s 90 years old now. He’s doing pretty good. He’s getting up there, so I definitely wanted to see him. I wanted to see all my family as well. Actually, I went to Bercy one night. I went and watched Bercy. It was like a one-hour plane flight, so I was like, Why not? We just had fun and ate lots of junk food and had a few good nights out. It was fun.

Did you eat a ton of haggis and stuff?
No, no haggis. Fish and chips...

That’s a southerner type of eating. Like English eating, right?
Well, yeah but... Actually, to be honest, I get sausage supper...

Black sausage?
No. You can get that, but it’s just like a sausage and it’s battered. It’s got batter on it.

Oh, so it’s like sausage, but even worse for you.
Yeah, and then chips; aka fries.

Do they have any good Mexican restaurants in Scotland?
No. They honestly don’t even know what Mexican food is over there. If I opened up a Chipotle in Scotland, I think people wouldn’t even go because they don’t even like it and they just don’t know what they’re missing. But also what I eat a lot of over there is pie. It’s good. And then beans...

Like, shepherd’s pie?
Yeah. It’s amazing.

So, that’s like the mashed potatoes over beefy stuff?
Yeah, you can have that. And then there’s sausage pie. And you can get bangers and mash. That’s good as well.

But anything spicy just doesn’t exist?
Well, we eat lots of curry over there. Indian food...

And I think we’ve digressed...
I guess so...