InTERRAgation 9 with Rupert X: Forrest Butler of Butler Brothers Racing
4/24/2009
Q: Forrest, what were you involved with at 9:35 this morning ?
A: Feeding my 8-week-old boy while my 2-year-old was throwing his eggs all over the floor! My wife is in her residency becoming a doctor, so she has to be at the hospital at 5 a.m. each morning which leaves me on kiddie patrol in the mornings -- not fun!
Q: How many Butler brothers are there? Are there some doubles or triples in that group? And what are the various brothers roles within the organization?
A: There is actually a quad! There are four of us. Three of us raced pro, and the youngest stopped when he was still amateur from a back injury. Currently myself, then the second brother Karsten and the fourth brother Taylor all work for the team. Karsten and I manage it and Taylor is Shaun Skinner's mechanic. The third brother Brandon broke vertebrae in his back last year in SX after just coming back from a wrist injury. He was kind of just done with the whole injury deal and quit cold turkey and went to work for our dad as an insurance agent. He does that full time now.
Butler Bros. in action!
Q: Tell us a bit about the riders you have on your team this year.
A: It has been a pretty crazy year. At season's start, we had Jason Thomas, Bryan Johnson, Matt Boni, Shaun Skinner and Kyle Keylon. Thomas then broke his leg real bad at the U.S. Open, and Johnson broke his back/neck pretty bad the week before the U.S. Open. We opened the season with Boni doing really well in the 450 class and Skinner making every main in the Lites class and running 12th in points. Skinner got landed on and had a pretty serious head injury in San Francisco, and he has actually just had to take another sit out for a couple months to let it all heal properly. Boni and the team then parted ways mid SX season and at that point, we decided to just focus on the Lites class for the rest of East Coast SX.
JT had just come back from being off the bike for almost four months, and both he and I wanted to break him back in through the Lites class to get his speed and confidence up. It worked, and this past weekend when we went back west to Seattle, he got back on the 450 and qualified no problem and got a top 15 finish.
Keylon had two top 10 rides in the East Coast Lites class also, so it was an OK season, but what we did last year was tough to beat with all the injuries we have had this season. Then, most recently with Skinner being out for a while, we added rookie Ben Lamay on to finish out SX on the Lites bike and then ride the 450 outdoors.
Did I confuse you yet?
Q: What was the dealio with switching JT$ to the Lites class?
A: It really was just the fact that when he came back, he had only been riding for two weeks, and the 450 class was stacked and really fast. So we felt it would be better to jump to Lites so we knew he would be in the main events and it would allow him to race back up to speed quicker. We were also doing a little research for 2010 there also. But mainly, our plan worked and upon jumping back on the 450, he was right back into the big class main event where he should be. He is still not 100% yet either, so he is only going to get faster still.
Q: You guys grew up in south Florida, you have to have some Vanilla-Ice (Robbie Van Winkle) stories for us?
A: Yeah, we have some, I guess. Nothing crazy though. We used to race with him a lot at an old track down here called Air Dania. He was pretty fast for a while there. Then we moved away to Gainesville for college for a while and didn't ride down there that much except when we would go home for break. He is a cool guy, always full of energy. Obviously, he is pretty talented also. He catches a lot of flack for the old "Ice Ice, Baby" stuff, but I have always admired him for it. I mean, the guy was the man when I was in high school and he did really well for himself. The guy deserves some major credit, you know? Anyway, I see him from time to time, and I think he is a good guy and it's great he's involved with the sport.
Q: How are things progressing with the team. What's the five-year plan, and where do you see your team down the road?
A: Well, five years ago was the year we launched the team out of a little Fun Mover with just me and my two brothers racing. We rode completely stock bikes in the Lites class, and it was the worst move we ever made! We were all consistent night show guys on 450s (back in the qualifying days) and we should have definitely stayed on them. It would have been a much better year.
That also just happened to be the year that the factory riders on the West were allowed to ride on the East and just not collect points, and the class was so insanely stacked that they changed the rule for the following year, which is still intact. If you can't tell, I'm still bitter over that year!
We have gone from that to where we are now in just five years. So five years from now? I 100 percent believe that we will be fighting for East/West Lites SX championships and will definitely be a winning team. We are doing things now that factory-supported teams haven't done, so we know what we can do with that next level. I will say that we will be focusing more on the Lites class more.
Q: Who is, no doubt, the fastest of the Butler brothers when it comes to motocross and Supercross?
A: If I had a dollar for every time we have been asked that... Truly, we were all three completely equal when we were all healthy. Each of us had strong and weak points, but being equal is what got us so popular -- it was because we were always on the same level at the same time. It was fun, cool, everything. In the end, though, Brandon by far became the fastest because post-2005, I stopped racing and then Karsten post-2006.
In 2007, we were really able to provide Brandon with the support and backing we all three always wanted, but didn't have. And with that support (bikes, parts, suspension, mechanic, practice track, etc.) Brandon was able to step up to the next level. With all honesty, if it wasn't for all the injuries that happened in the beginning of 2008, I really do believe he would have earned his first two-digit number that year. But, that's racing -- shoulda, coulda, woulda, ya know?
Q: At Daytona one year, I saw three or four of you Butler brothers all pull into the pits on identical, red CBR600 Hondas. Do you guys hang out together a lot like that? Are you guys all pretty close?
A: Yeah, Daytona is awesome isn't it? I actually have a CBR, and then we had a few others we always borrow for Bike Week, and that is where they all came from. We usually have them each year. They are so fun...
Q: As a gentleman who's been around this game a while and knows the "ins and outs," what are some policy changes you'd like to see implemented within our sport?
A: Really, I believe we are moving forward each year. The further I get into it, the more the internals make sense with guys like Feld Motor Sports, MX Sports and the AMA. It is always so easy to point fingers from the outside looking in, but all in all, they are fixing it now and the people in there are doing a great job. Of course, I have my opinion on some changes that I think would be great, like everyone does.
Something I would love to see in SX is that we go back to having 22 guys in the Lites main and then do the same for 450 class. If you look back over this entire season, two key factory support guys have missed the mains by one or two spots out of the LCQ, and it is just such a waste. It ruins the points race in the Lites class especially, and there was nothing wrong with the class for the past years, so I think we should go back. Adding two guys to the track is 100% fine. I mean two guys pretty much DNF 95 percent of the races, so it isn't like its over-crowded. But, overall, teams like ours at this point have a lot of money invested into the series and the riders, so those two spots would go a really, really long way, and I don't think that the promoters are seeing it from that end.
I also am a fan of having Lites class become the full series. It would let the teams budget better, and it would create the most natural flush of better riders into the 450 class. It would be 100 percent like outdoors in a way, but you would still implement pointing out rules. It would be better for the teams, the series and the championship chase. Unlike NASCAR, we have two classes that race on the same night, and the Lites class is every bit as popular and exciting, so why not utilize the tool we already have?