Wade Hunter has been holding it down for the privateers during the 2015 MX Nationals. The 21-year-old JBC Motorsport Yamaha rider is currently locked into fifth place in the MX2 championship with two home state rounds left to run and the likes of fellow Queenslanders Caleb Ward and Nathan Crawford snapping at his heels. MotoOnline.com.au contacted Hunter to get his Fast Thoughts on a range of topics.

Image: Jeff Crow.

2015 to date…

It’s gone pretty good so far. The first half was awesome and I was consistently in the top five, but I didn’t get much bike time during the mid-season break. I went back to work for three weeks, then had some niggling injuries that kind of limited my riding. I feel like I’ve been playing catch-up since then. I didn’t ride great at Raymond Terrace, but I feel like I’ve been riding well everywhere else. I made a few mistakes at Nowra, but that was through a lack of riding time more than anything.

Not having to travel for the final two rounds…

It’s going to be great. Both Toowoomba and Coolum are only two hours from home, so that saves half a day of travelling each way. It’s also going to be good to have qualifying in warm weather; I’m not a fan of riding with cold hands at 8:00am in the morning. Shepparton was that cold I had to stop and warm my hands up on the exhaust pipe before I put in my best qualifying! I think knowing the Queensland tracks is going to be the main advantage though. It’ll be good to sleep in my own bed, but being familiar with the tracks and having my friends and family around make the biggest difference. Like usually I’m not a big fan of Coolum and I don’t think I ride really well there, but I generally seem to get good results there.

Life as a privateer…

I’ve never had a factory ride so I don’t know anything different, really. At the end of last year I worked hard so that during the MX Nationals I could concentrate on my riding without working, but I ran out of money at the end of the first half. Since then I’ve been back at work as a temporary fencer putting up fences around construction sites. Trying to balance riding and working is tough though. It’s a lot easier to work five days straight or ride fulltime rather than getting home tired from work, having the prep your bike and tossing up if and where you should ride the next day. It’s hard to get a routine going that’s for sure. If I have a good end to the championship hopefully I can pick up some support for next year and have a solid crack at the championship with a team behind me.

Image: Jeff Crow.

The current Australian moto scene…

I’d say there’s room for improvement. I think that with the MX Nationals, some of the tracks are a bit of a joke and don’t suit our level of riding or could’ve been prepped better. I think the gate numbers could also be better, but there are slightly better numbers than what we saw last year. We haven’t seen a full gate in a while, but some rounds are definitely better than others. I think having [round] prize money to ride for would help that too. Even if it’s not much, at least it’s something to look forward to and race for. Some of the smaller one-off races and stadiumcross events in Queensland put up okay prize money and it definitely adds some extra incentive and attracts more riders to enter. At the end of the day though, at least there’s a stable championship for us here in Australia.

The R4D Golf Day…

I’m definitely going to take part again. Last year was a great day. We split into groups of four, but after about four holes we were seeing who could jump the golf buggy the furthest or tried to roll it. It’s a pretty casual competition and we cheated as much as you could cheat and we still didn’t get in the top three groups. It’s all for a good cause though and it’s a heap of fun. Golf is one sport I’m terrible at. I don’t have much of a swing on me, but I’ll talk a lot of smack and sound like I know how to play like a pro.