For those who don’t know you, tell us about yourself.

Well, I’m 18 years old. I grew up in New York but just recently moved to Morgantown, West Virginia to go to school for Criminal Justice and I also do in-home care for elderly people. I’ve been racing for 14 years and when I’m not racing, I’m snowboarding or wake boarding or just being awesome! (laughs)

It must be pretty hard to balance college, work and racing?

Yeah, definitely with the work thing. I actually took this year off from college so I could come down here and work. I’m also working to save money to head down south here soon to ride. It’s definitely frustrating having to work 40 plus hours per week and not really having any time to ride or train while all these other girls are out doing that everyday.

What exactly does your job entail?

Well, I have different clients weekly. I go to their houses, so it’s not a Nursing Home or anything, but it’s kind of like taking care of a little kid. I help feed them, bathe them, help them to the bathroom, just pretty much the kind of stuff that nobody else wants to do.

How have you been spending your off-season other than working?

I’ve been snowboarding a lot, actually. I’ve managed to get to the gym a little bit here and there but I’ve been trying to get in there more often. Other than that though, I really haven’t been doing much of anything. (laughs)

Now, living a few hours away from home is it difficult getting to and from the races?

It’s actually not too difficult because when I moved to Morgantown, I actually moved closer to most of the races so at the end of last season I just started meeting my dad at some of the closer races. Then for some of the further ones my dad actually just comes and picks me up, so it’s not too bad.

With you, your brothers and your dad racing, how busy is a typical race weekend?

Well, I’ve got my older brother, my younger brother, my dad and myself. My dad does 90% of the work on all four bikes; he also has a full-time job during the week and takes care of all of us kids. So, the majority of our bike work actually gets done the Saturday before a race. It’s not very often that you’ll see me away from my camper on Saturday afternoons because there’s always some sort of bike work that should have already been done. It ends up being pretty stressful.

How did you get started in the off-road racing world?

My dad has been racing for about 24 years, I think? Him, my uncle and my older cousins did a lot of racing, then I actually started riding when I was four years old, and started racing at five. I actually never rode motocross until about four years ago, so I’ve been off-road right from the start. My first race was actually at our house. We hold a local WNYOA race there and I actually ended up winning my first race, but again, it was at my house so I had a little advantage. (laughs)

Sounds like a definite home court advantage! So how did your 2011 season go?

Of course, in Florida I started off bad again. I lost my rear brakes right off the bat and we never could figure out what the issue was. We drained the brake fluid and put more in but by the time we got all of that done I was already about 2 laps down. That kind of put me in the dumps so I came into Georgia with my head down and didn’t do too well there. I started doing decent coming into the third and fourth rounds. I had a pretty good race at Steele Creek running sticking with the top three for most of the race. I stayed in the top five for a few races but started slacking a little and I actually got pretty frustrated with racing and took some time off over the summer break. Then at Unadilla I pretty much killed it”¦Well, other than beating Maria (laughs) but the last part of the year was pretty rough. I made a few hospital trips between fracturing my ribs at Loretta’s, breaking my wrist at Power Line Park, then earlier in the season I had dislocated my hip at Rock Run and at the Penton I passed out from dehydration, so I had some pretty bad luck all-around.

So you definitely had a rough go at times but other than injuries do you look back and see little things you could’ve done different throughout the season to improve your results?

Yeah, I definitely made a bunch of little mistakes and I actually get upset with myself way to easy. I end up getting my adrenaline going and I’ve got pretty bad asthma. When my adrenaline gets going too much my asthma just shuts me down. I actually have to carry an inhaler in my Camelbak and stop a few times each race because I get so worked up with myself after making a lot of stupid mistakes.

At Unadilla you finished just a few minutes behind Maria Forsberg for second, what did it take to put together that performance?

Well, that’s my home track so I’m always pretty pumped to race there going into it and it’s always been my favorite. I got the holeshot right away and led for quite a bit but Maria passed me on the motocross track on the first lap. I was pretty determined to not let her get away from me so I just put my head down and basically hammered as hard as I could. I tried my best to keep her in my sights but after a while it just wasn’t possible. I just had a lot of fun, had a lot of great support and just wanted to prove myself because I definitely needed to change something.

What are your goals for 2012?

I definitely want to get a good start to the season in Florida. I’m heading down there pretty soon. I’m going to ride at Durhamtown in Georgia first then head to the WMR shop and try to get some time on my new bike. I definitely just want to try my best at all the races and prove to everyone that I’m still here because I feel like there’s some girls who think I’ve faded back. I’m definitely coming back harder than ever this year and basically I’m going to shoot for getting into the top three at every race. Oh, and I definitely have to get every holeshot again!

Speaking of that, what does it take for you to get the holeshot at pretty much every race?

You know, me and my dad have sat there race, after race, after race trying to figure out what I do different to get it every time. I did train with Steve Hatch for a little bit and he would have all of us do starts together and have a holeshot competition and I whooped up on all the boys there (laughs). Really though, I don’t know how or why or what I do different. My dad made a joke that since I’m so short I have less distance from the seat to my butt to kick on the kickstart.

Wow, so maybe that’s the next big holeshot secret. Everyone should just shrink?

(laughs) Yeah, I mean, I’m only 5’2” so I couldn’t shrink anymore but it’s worth a shot for everyone else! 

The Women’s class is gaining more and more support each year, where do you see it going from here?

I definitely love the increasing support! After Maria came over a lot of people started stepping up their support. With the economy and everything right now I think the support will probably stay the same for a little bit but there’s more and more girls coming to race and I see more satellite teams and maybe factory teams stepping up to help the girls out. I’ve got WMR backing me this year again, which I’m very thankful for after such a bad season last year, and Maria has a Factory KTM ride so the support is great and hopefully it grows.

Alright, before we wrap this up, who would you like to thank?

Definitely WMR, St. Lawrence Radiology, Cycra, Maxxis, Leatt, Rekluse, Factory Connection, Ithaca Rec Sports, OffroadViking.com and of course my dad because he does more than any factory team or anyone could ever do for me!