Inside the Life of a Professional Supercross Racer | Kevin Moranz

Cold Open And Welcome Back

You smack your head a little bit versus like snapping your arm. Could've been really bad, but I've been raising since I was four years old. So instead of waiting for the entrepreneur and build my opportunity, we're getting ready to go into the fourth year of me actually owning an operating mode team.

You're more of an entrepreneur. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. This podcast is brought to you by Washburn University, a tight knit college in a city of opportunity.

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All right, welcome to Topega Insider. Today we've got Kevin Morance. This is actually a part two, episode. He is a super cross professional racer and a Netflix personality. Last time we talked about his experience on Netflix, and today we want to dig into his super cross career. So welcome back to the studio, man. Appreciate it. Back to the studio. He's doing the same thing that he was. We're off. We're still here. We've got your hey, wear the same outfit you wore last time. We're not fooling anybody. Yeah.

Yeah, I love it.

Dude, supercross.

What is supercross?

So supercross is a high-intensity action sport on dirt bikes, motorcycles. Uh, supercross specifically is more inside of stadiums. So maybe major baseball, football stadiums all around the United States. So like Angel Stadium, California, Ford Field up in Detroit, uh, ATT Stadium in Texas, like those kinds of stadiums. Wow. Um, and yeah, it's a 17-round championship. Uh where at least in my class, I'm in the 450 Supercross class, the premier class. We

What Supercross Actually Is

race all 17 rounds, and you're just trying to stack points uh for the championship.

How do you get points? What's the comp is like is it a race?

Yes. So it is a race. Yeah, I guess my bad. Yes. Supercross racing. So it's nothing. Yes. It is um, yeah. So it's a track within a supercross stadium. It's more of a tight track with big jumps, obstacles, stuff like that. We're not doing freestyle, we're not doing backflips, we're not doing anything like that. It's purely how fast can you go and how efficient can you be getting over the obstacles. I guess is the best way to like dumb it down as much as I can. Please do. Um, and so yeah, 17 rounds. There's X amount of people that they accept into these races, uh, but you have to qualify into them to be able to race the night show. So there's qualifying. This all happens within one day. Qualifying in the morning, if you go fast enough, the top 40 racers get to go to the night show. Then you have two heat races, each with 20 people. There's 22-man gate. So there's obviously empty gates on the heat races. Yep. 20-man gate, top nine, top nine, go to the main event. Main events how you get points. So that's 18, but there's a 22-man gate. So then everybody who doesn't make it from the heat races goes to an LCQ, last chance qualifier, to fight for the last four positions, then go to the main event, 22-man gate for the main event, and that's where you start to score points for the championship. Gotcha.

And when you say well, I was just saying, is that like the event, like when someone buys a ticket, takes their kids to a supercross? Is it the main event part that they're going to, or is it the all day?

They can go to the whole thing. Oh, okay. Yeah. So it just depends on when you want to get there.

And when you say 17 rounds, that's like 17 laps.

17 rounds, so 17 weekends. Uh so supercrosses from 17 different races. Yes, 17 different races, different locations. Sorry. That this is fun. I've never liked explained it to complete newbies in a while. I love it. Um, so kind of explain it to idiots. Yeah. So uh starts January 10th-ish, ends May 10th-ish. So it's from January to May, uh, is our supercross. That's what I am kind of, I don't want to say specialize in, but kind of specialize in at least at this point in my career. Um outdoors or pro motocross, which is what a large majority of people race, even like locally and whatnot. Everybody does motocross because motocross is just out in a field out on an outdoor pasture type area with a big track built. Um, supercross is more niche of being inside of stadium and it's more of like a show within the race, versus like outdoors is more or motocross is more like the hardcore grassroots fan. Interesting. Gotcha. Okay. How long have you been doing this? Exactly. I've been racing since I was four years old. I've been racing professionally since I was getting out of high school. So we're going into like eight years now. Yeah.

How do you how do you get? I mean, this newbies here. Yeah. This seems like something you do when you're, you know, growing up and it's fun and it's a hobby. And you found a way to turn professional out of like how how do you turn professional doing this?

So kind of going through a qualifying process of doing well enough in the amateur ranks, amateur races, or even coming into like a pro am is what they call them. So, like kind of your transition phase, doing well enough in those, getting good enough results to qualify and get accepted for a pro license is kind of how you go pro in our sport. Wow.

How'd you get into racing to begin with?

So we came over when we moved to Topeka. So I was born in Manhattan, Kansas. Uh, and then we moved over to Topeka a couple years later. So I was like three or four. I have an older brother who's 15 months older than me. So he was five-ish, six-ish at that point. Um, and we went over to meet our neighbors. So we have Titan's and Temmans. Um, so they're people that were similar ages to us, uh, but we're obviously little kids. We go over and we meet our neighbors, and we see kids our age on these little PW bikes, and like we look at our dad, we're like, yeah, we want to get into this. We want to ride these things. I want a motorcycle? Yeah. So like our whole neighborhood was kind of into it, and we all raced, you know, locally, and then kind of gradually all of us got to the regional and national level and going to the one of the major nationals in amateur nationals in the US. Uh, and then I started having a little bit more success with it and felt like kind of going amateur pro and had early success with that. And I was like, okay, like I could probably really do this. And at that point, I was starting to kind of build some of my own network of local sponsors. So, like Hoyt's Truck Center, Harold's Tire, Shawnee Wholesale, uh TMI Corp. Like there's people that were always kind of a part of our program as we continue to grow. Um, and then was like in high school? Yeah, this was well, like middle, like yeah, I would say more in high school, probably middle school transitioning to high school, because by the end of high school is when I actually graduated in 2017 technically, but I graduated at semester, so technically the end of 2016 to start racing professionally. Um, and yeah, like I still have those local sponsors with me today, which is pretty bad.

How does the professional uh supercross is there like a purse? Is there like a prize money?

Qualifying Night Show And Points

Is it you know to do this professionally? Is it, you know, is sponsor heavy, or what does that look like?

So that's kind of like a discussion within our sport right now is you are not going to make a full-on living from just racing our sport. That's why I have to do so much more. I think that's why honestly the Netflix thing kind of probably happened is because of the creativity side of things I was doing within the sponsorship and social media realm to try to get support. Um, because like for me, grow up in an amazing family, love my mom and my brother and everybody to death. They do anything for me, but they were not always in a financial position to catapult me the way like everybody would probably hope. So I had to get really creative um to bring in and start bringing in other sponsors and just those local sponsors and providing value to them to be able to afford to go racing, if that makes sense.

Yeah, providing value to the sponsors. That's just you know, having a social media presence, being able to shout them out, you know, maybe do you like wear their logos?

So, like we do like logo placement um on bikes, on jerseys, on helmets, uh, within the YouTube and and Instagram side of things. Like, yeah, the shout out thing. Go like that's one thing I've kind of transitioned, right? Like, as starting from being in middle school and trying to figure out how to go to these amateur nationals, help my parents go to these amateur nationals to then like fully funding my own program for the last eight years, eight plus years, it's kind of transitioned from yes, the logo placement, the branding is important, depends on what that sponsor wants. But there's a lot of value behind um kind of like memorabilia, gifts, thank you packages, and experiences. Yeah. So, like, hey, come out to the races, we're gonna host you guys. Or if you have certain clients that you're trying to lock in, you want to show them experience. If you have certain employees that are doing great and you want to show them an experience, like we can give you a full super cross racing experience that can couple with being a part of the team. Super cool. So, like as I kind of transition from just the logo placement and hey, I'll put your logo here, you give me X amount. It's kind of transition to, hey, you're gonna, we're gonna make you feel like you're a part of this family, you're gonna feel like you're a part of this process. Plus, if you come to any races, we got you, we're gonna show you a good time. Yeah, wow.

So when you say super cross, you're your team, yeah. You're referring to yourself, you know, your sponsors you're including in that. Do you have other people that work with you full time? Do you have uh what does that look like? What does the team look like?

So the last six, seven years, I mean, honestly, since I went pro, so I guess the last eight or nine years, um, I've kind of I've had my own program. So I've kind of always been known as being like a privateer. So the best way to explain it too, because I think you were asking, I kind of skimmed over it, is the the money situation. So, no, you don't make a ton of money from the sport. You make more money from your sponsors and the people that you have a part of your program. Um, what was the last question you just asked? You said you're a privateer. Yeah, what's your team? Okay, so yes. So there's kind of three different sectors that I like to put it in. There's privateer, which means you're paying for everything on your own, your own bikes, your own flights, your own hotels, you're taking care of everything, all the maintenance, everything yourself. So you're fully doing it on your own. Then there's like a B-level ride, which is like, hey, uh, I'm gonna hire you, you're gonna be a part of the team, uh, we're gonna pay for your flights and hotels, and we're gonna make sure that you have a bike and a mechanic at the races, and you get to keep the money from that you race for kind of deal. And then there's a full factory rider, which is like Red Bull, Monster, sure. Part of these, you know, KTM Kawasaki Honda teams, that they're paid salary, they're paid uh all of ever the all the bikes, parts, flights, hotels, everything's covered. They obviously like I get get a salary on top of it, bonuses, stuff like that. So, like the goal was to be a factory rider. I had always been a privateer. I had had a really good season to the point where there was also injuries within some of these manufacturers that their factory riders were non-existent. They were not, there's nobody on the the track, but I was on their brand racing still. And it was a big thing in the past that they would give a fill-in ride, which is like giving an opportunity to somebody who they believe deserved it. Like Red Bull would correct like Red Bull KTM would bring somebody up that's doing well to see what they're capable of on the bikes when they're just sitting there because their riders are hurt, if that makes sense. That didn't really happen for me in 23 uh when I had a really good year. And after that, I was like, also, like, I have to understand like these are full-on factory teams. Like, they don't want to bring some 15th place guy onto their their you know, bike that's supposed to be a podium dude. You know what I mean? I'm thought so like it would obviously have helped a lot and could have transitioned into something bigger, but like I wasn't gonna sit there and be salty about it. So like could have just pouted about it and been salty about it. But I was like, I mean, at this point, I'm just gonna start building my own team. I'm gonna start building my own legitimate team. So then I'm not like waiting for an opportunity, being salty that an opportunity doesn't come. So instead of waiting for the opportunity, I'm gonna build my opportunity. So this is actually going on the third year. We're getting ready to go into the fourth year of me actually owning and operating my own team. Wow. So last two years, not talking about 26, so 24, 25, we're uh I teamed up with Champion Tool Storage, is my partner in the team. Um, and he provided a renegade race hauler for us to go to the races in. So it was like uh pretty much a nice camper with a shop in the back. Yeah. Uh so that happened the last two years. This year in 26 was actually the first year that we transitioned to a full semi. So Champion Tool Storage came in, stepped it up. We got ourselves into a full tractor trailer setup, full 53-foot trailer. Yeah. All the branding fully

Going Pro From Amateur Racing

wrapped, you know, logos on the side of the truck, everything like that. Um, and this is the first year that it wasn't just me a part of the team. I actually we brought Grant Harlan on as our second rider. Wow. So this was the first uh operation as a two-rider, 450 main event quality team. Wow. Um, and starting to kind of portray and build the setup because, like I said, with like Harold's Tire, um, Hoyt's Truck Center, you know, Shiny Wholesale, those TMI Corp, the local sponsors that I've always had behind me, it is now transitioning not just from the Kevin Moran. I have to kind of transition it. It's not just the Kevin Moran's program, it's like the Kevin Moran's racing team, if that makes sense. Yeah, it's okay. Yeah, so it's it's Kevin Moran's racing. So KMR is what I call it. Um, but like our team name this year, because champion tool storage is such a massive part of the team. He's my partner in the deal right now. Uh, it's champion tool storage KMR KTM, because like we're our manufacturer is KTM. So yeah, like that was a long-winded handed answer. Yes, so we race the manufacturer of KTM 450s right now.

To be honest with you, that that answer was super enlightening. What I'm kind of picking up, correct me if I'm reading into this right, is you're more of an entrepreneur. Yeah, right. Yeah, exactly. Or a racer to some like you actually race, you're a racer, but like, you know, there's like a business side of this that you're running.

Yeah, like I enjoy the business side of it just as much as I enjoy the racing side of it. So, like, that's what's really unique with me in the space. And it honestly garners us a ton of TV time because so I'm in the both of us riders are in the, let's just say 12 to 20th place range in these main events, right? And you're not gonna hear about almost anybody from the fourth to 22nd range. Well, I'm gonna say we'll say sixth to 22nd range. They like to talk about the top five, right? But they spotlight me a ton because of the creativity side of being a team owner and racer, but also being a quality racer versus just like there has been some people in the past that have come in and been in a similar light, but not necessarily getting the same results that I'm getting. Not as good of a race, yeah, exactly. So it's kind of a unique position that's put me in that also brings more attention to the sponsors of that part of the team. So I'm kind of like, plus the Netflix thing now, like I'm kind of trying to utilize it all of like build your yeah, like this is why you should go with us because nobody else is doing these things. Look, I'm on Netflix.

I mean, I haven't used that yet, but it'll probably come out as well. I haven't really paired the two, but it sounds like the Netflix thing was maybe a nice little advantageous to your racing stuff. You know, publicity stuff. If you're getting a lot of sponsorship money and you know, having that bump is probably a helpful thing.

Yeah, absolutely. It was kind of like it was a lot to handle in September of last year, because this is right when we're making the transition from the renegade race hauler to the semi. We're trying to figure out who our second racer is. Like, I don't even have that locked in by the time I have to ditch my phone and go into this house. Oh, so like there was a lot of other things going on. So after I got out of that, like the last seven months, because coming out of that, then we had to figure out who the second racer was. Then you have like a month and a half to put in like a preseason boot camp and training. And I'm down in Florida, also trying to get all the bikes and everything ready for both racers for photo shoots and all that stuff in December, and then go out and start the season in January and race 17 consecutive weekends. Wow. And like you said, like, do I have other people that are a part of the program too? Like this year, I've got a full-time videographer that I fly around. I've got a full-time mechanic. Uh, I've got my girlfriend that comes to all the races, she helps a ton as well. Myself, we've got Evan, who is the truck driver, and the second rider's mechanic that double does that, and then Garen, who's with champion tool storage. So you've got like five full-time. Yeah, yeah. Like I mean, I Garen and the the driver, because the driver was under Garen or champion tool storage this year, just because like the semi is owned by him. So, like just the legality side of things. But yeah, like I employ, in a sense, at least through Supercross or for half the year, and manage, yeah, the videographer, the mechanic, Rachel, and myself. Like, I've got to have flights, hotels, like I do all of that stuff as well myself, on top of the sponsorship side of things, the training, the racing, the managing the second rider, make sure he's taken care of. Like, yeah, it's a lot. And then tack on Netflix and trying to capitalize on doing content with and watching that and keep like it was just it was insane. So, like, that's why apologies for not like being here immediately as soon as you guys asked, but like it has been insane. And then Supercross just wrapped up, the show just wrapped up both about two-ish, two and a half weeks ago. So I'm finally on the downhill slope of getting back organized before strap up the boots and start game planning for 27.

Okay, so you're what are you 27, 28? Uh 26. 26. Okay. How long, this excuse my ignorance to the sport, how long can you ride for? Like, when do you get out of your prime? At what point is Kevin gonna be, you know, less rider, more business owner of operation?

Um it's different in our sport now. Usually before today's age, with I guess medicine and stuff like that being better. I don't know, these dudes are not retiring. Like, I'm ready for half of my class to retire. Yeah. Um, so they're going into their mid-30s at this point. Um, so like I could realistically have another eight years if I wanted to. Okay. Wow. But just from like a safety and health standpoint, it really just depends on my health through the process. Because being in our sports is super dangerous. Like anything happens, there's major injuries. I've hit my head probably too many times uh at this point. So like it just depends on the health over the next few years. But yeah, like for me, I'm 26. I give myself until 30. Okay. You know, and then if I'm still having fun, like because at this point, too, like I'm having a lot of fun building this. I'm having a lot of fun with the racing. The competitive side of me is still getting, you know, the itch, if that makes sense. And then the business side of me and building something cool, and obviously trying to create some sort of financial freedom for myself. Cause like I still live at home whenever I'm back home. Sure. Uh, so I don't have my own place here just because I'm gone half the year and I'm in Florida for the other half, kind of deal. So just trying to get creative enough to, yeah, try to create some freedom. And I don't know if this is what I want to do forever, is just run a supercross team, but I'm definitely setting myself up to

Sponsorships And Making It Work

have that.

It's so I've never seen it in action. It sounds sounds dangerous, sounds, you know, high stakes. You're flying super fast, super high, super quick. Is it also just hard on your body?

Yeah.

Uh it clearly I've never ridden a motorcycle, let alone do done supercross. Uh, but I feel like that's probably a maybe a factor of, you know, every time you race, it's just, you know, you're sore, you're you're tired, you know, it's hard on your mother.

Oh, yeah, there's like major crashes too. So, like, so for instance, like, because there's one of them, which I'll show you a video when we wrap this up, but like there's the the jumps that we jump, they're anywhere from usually 25 feet to 75 feet long. Wow. And you're anywhere from probably at the smallest, you're probably 10 feet above the air to 25 feet to 30 feet. So, like, there's there's a time actually this year where the finish line, which is one of the steeper jumps where you go the highest, like I hit a kicker off of that jump and started pitching forward and nose picked at the top of the uh landing and like flipped forward to the bottom of it kind of deal. Like there's major crashes that can happen. You were like like well, it was it could have been really bad, but like the way that I hit the top of the landing when I nose picked it or whatever, I kind of like shoved off the side versus going straight over. Oh, sure. But still, like the bike crushes you, like you're tumbling all down these hills. So like you're sore a lot of the times. That's why health is a big part of it, is being healthy for all 17 rounds is honestly something in itself. It's sure something to pat yourself on the back for. And then outdoors, motocross, which is getting ready to start this coming weekend and goes until middle of August, end of August. That's even gnarlier because then you you go from our main events in Supercross are 20 minutes plus one lap, full gas, wide open. So, like an average heart rate for me for that whole 20 minutes is probably 190-ish, and my max is probably like one two oh five um for that time for 20 minutes. And then you go outdoors and you're in the middle of the day. Supercross is more of a night show, like I even said night show kind of deal. Um, so it's cooler, it's better weather and everything like that. Um, but outdoors is in the middle of the day, middle of the heat, middle of the summer. So you can be racing in 100 degree weather, and you have 30 plus two, is your motos there. So 30 minutes plus two laps, which ends up being about a 35-minute moto, and you have two of those back to back. So it's much harder on your body, it's much harder on equipment, it's just harder in general. Um, so that's why I steer more towards supercross because it's better for the branding side of things. Sure. It's easier for people to come in and fly into major stadiums. There's just closer, like some of these outdoors, you're two hours away from the track from the closest airport. Supercross, you're 15 minutes away from the most major airport. Yeah. Uh, and then it's a lot easier to see logo placements. You have stadiums, you have more fans, you have more notoriety on trying to get somebody to pay you to be a sponsor versus outdoors. It's just a lot, everything's a lot harder when it comes to outdoors. So at some point, because our series is set up for Supercross, Motocross, SMX. Supercross is the first part, Motocross is the second part of the championship. They're separate things, but they add them together to qualify for SMX. SMX is like our playoffs. So in SMX, there's big money on the line for SMX. So you have Supercross, you have outdoors, and you have SMX. Like you can race from January to end of September, and then by that time, well, you have October and then November and December, your boot camp for the next season. So like it could never end. And then there's also a new thing called World Supercross, which I did in 23. So you like do different races all over the world. Wow. And that's usually end of August all the way through like December. So like you could race nonstop and just keep going and going.

Are you penalized for SMX if you don't do both Supercross and Motocross?

Kind of. So it's based off of the championship points that you score from being good in the main events and doing well in Supercross, that adds up to your point total. Then you have outdoors, and the points you score from that go to your points total. They add these two together to see who qualifies for estimates.

So even if you dominated Supercross but just decided, hey, it's not wise for us to do both, you still wouldn't do as well as people who do both. Correct. Dang, that kind of sucks.

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Dang, that's brutal. Or unless you just do so good in Supercross that the people that do both still can't catch you, kind of deal. If like they're lower level. But yeah, like that's where my thought process is right now is I could go into outdoors and try to fight my way into for sure qualifying for SMX. So they invite the top 20 in points guaranteed. The final two spots, because it's a 22-man gate usually, in outdoors, it's 40-man gate, but 22-man gate for Supercross and SMX. They let the next 10 riders fight for the last two spots in in each of those SMX races. So there's three SMX races. So they'll invite pretty much 20th to 30 or 21st to 30th in points. Um, right now I think I'm sitting like 25th in points. Yeah. Um, so we'll just kind of see where people stack up. If I need to go jump in and do a couple outdoors, we'll see. Okay, so you'll just kind of ride it out, see what you have to do. Potentially, yeah. But like usually the last four or five years, I've always done a few outdoors to try to score some points, keep myself in that realm. This year, just because of the insane seven months that I just had, right? I'm down to take a break. And even if that kicks me out of SMX, I'm fine with that this year.

Yeah. What were uh what's the worst injury you've had?

So I compound fractured my Tibfib uh in 2018. Yeah, so that was a pretty not fun one. Surgery? Yeah, yeah. So I have a rod from here to there. Like I don't know, you can't quite see it, but yeah, that right there. Oh, yeah, so yeah.

And injuries, you know, that so I mean that's your worst injury. Do you go into a a season and think, okay, I'm gonna get injured at some point, you know, this year, which is how dangerous it is, or is it like you know, I I think like you know, the NFL and football, it's like, you know, there's a decent chance, you know, you're gonna get injured

Privateer Vs Factory Team Reality

every other year. Right. Yeah, you know, you know, baseball and golf, all these others, like you don't plan on it. What's the injury rate with you guys?

Pretty it's pretty high. Like, even I like I told you, I'll show you a couple of the videos of a couple crashes I had this year. Thankfully, like you know, the man above was just looking out for me or something like that, or you know, whether you smack your head a little bit versus like snapping your arm, like that's kind of where it comes into. Is yeah, if you can keep yourself in the point where you're still walking, your limbs are working, like you can get back in a week or two. But that's also like the danger side of things, and like what I talked about because I've already hit my head a good amount of times, like depends on how healthy I can be without doing that, will determine how long I keep racing. Yeah, that makes sense.

Um, I you were telling us before we started recording about how you first got into motorcycles as a kid, and how um each of your neighbors had your own little like dirt tracks on your property. Uh-huh. And just the way you described it, it kind of sounded like the way people describe the ideal 90s childhood. Yeah, did it was it was epic, to be honest.

Like all of us, like this is back before technology, because that's one thing I'll touch on that we didn't really talk about being separated from technology for the Netflix thing. Growing up, like you said, and us exploring, building bicycle jumps, riding bicycles down to the local gas station, like as a collective neighborhood, because like all of us were similar ages. Like it honestly was perfect. It was so fun. That's so cool. Um, but having that experience as a child, and then obviously going into the today's world where technology is everything, yeah, I would have never realized. But when I went in for the Netflix thing, that was one of the hardest things for me was being away from technology right off the rip because like I do so much business on my phone and sponsorship. And at this point, I'm trying to figure out who our second rider is. Like, there's so many conversations I needed to continue to have. But getting separated from it, like, yeah, you go through your, I guess, just absolute boredom stages for the first couple days. But by the end of it, I honestly didn't want my phone back. Yeah, like I never, like, if I were not to have that experience, I have too much going on to the point where I couldn't be away from my phone for that long. But that taught me like you are just happier without technology and those stresses and just like constant, like you're just so much more locked in on what's going on day to day without it. But I I mean, I'm right back to like always being on my phone because I have to do it for business and whatnot. But like it was a cool experience for the fact of like, yeah, it brought me back to childhood of just like being in being present, yeah. If that makes sense.

I've heard people describe uh, you know, I mean, it's a big cultural conversation right now. Like, should kids have phones? Like, um, should we limit our our technology usage even as adults? Because it's bad for us, maybe. And and I heard about someone who did an experiment with her teenage kids and the teenage friends, and she incentivized them basically to do a three-week challenge without their phones and without, you know, social media and things like that. And so there was this group of friends that all did it. And by the end of the three weeks, they were like, please don't give us our phones back. Like our lives are so we had no, like the first week, like you said, was like withdrawals and was like, please give us our phones. But then at the end, they're like, This is so great. And then, you know, you can't help it. You get back and you get your phone and then you're back to the way it was. Um, but they I've just sort of heard so many people talk about stuff like that where it's just like, man, it really is so nice, but it's hard to avoid. Yeah, it's hard to like you can't do that you know, forever.

You said you have three kids, right? Yeah, little little kids. So, what's this is just like fully off topic here, but like what's your thought process on it? Because like I obviously don't have kids, so I'm this my curiosity would be kind of two facets. One would be that you keep them away from it, they have a normal childhood, they get creative, they don't just lock themselves into a screen. Or if our world is going to turn into that, is it proactive to let them experience it and get good with it to then help them later?

Yeah, I would say we're our household, we doubt we do both. Um, we try to limit like screen time. So, for instance, for us, we do um uh family night once a week, where it's like, hey, this is kind of your only night a week where you get to watch a movie. And so, like, we'll we'll play games, we'll watch a movie. Even now we're we're kind of getting away from movie, like, hey, let's just go play catch in the backyard instead and for family night or whatever. But that's the one night a week they know, hey, we can watch a movie. The rest of the week, if you ask, it's probably gonna be a no, you know. Yeah, yeah. Uh, but we use like uh uh my wife just found this app on our iPad that is basically piano lessons in this app, and it it's crazy. It's like it turns piano lessons into this like addictive game. And so like my seven-year-old is like, can I do piano lessons? And he'll be on it for like three hours. And he's like learning actual songs and he's learning actual piano, he's learning to read sheet music. It's crazy. And so, you know, I'm a little interested to see like, all right, like, will you still be able to play without the addictive factor of an app, you know, later? Yeah, uh, so we're still figuring that out. But uh, I I I agree with both sides. I think like, man, we want our kids. I get nervous when my kids first thought when we're like, hey, what should we do tonight? I want to watch a movie, I want to do this, I want to like do something on a screen. Yeah. And I'm like, hey, I don't like that that's your first gut level response. You need to go outside. Yeah, it should be super cross. Yeah, that's a whole nother. Yeah, I mean, we have like we we built like an obstacle course in our backyard. So I'm like, hey, you need to go play in dirt, you know. Like you need to go, like, you know, go play in with the with the water hose or whatever, and uh, or let's we're gonna go ride our bikes, you know, or whatever. Um, but I do want them to be familiar, like, hey man, at some point we'll probably get you a phone, it'll probably be later than you want. Yeah. Uh, you know, but you're gonna need to know how this this stuff works. Yeah, you know.

So Kevin Moran's racing, KMR. Yeah, that's your racing unit uh team. Where where do you hope that goes in 10 years? What's what's the goal?

Oh man, see, that's tough for me to think 10 years out because I guess in an ideal world, like we're still NSMI. We're at that two to three rider format. Maybe we just start to progress to get, you know, like it would be cool to imagine winning a championship, right? But like that's like that, we're going up against some pretty heavy hitters and massive manufacturers. Um, but it would be sweet at maybe at that point to have factory level support to the point where we're getting bikes and engines and support from somebody, um, along with having maybe you know, top 10, top five potential podium kind of guys on our team. Um, but also for me, like it's tough for me to imagine that outside of the me being a racer as well, because that takes so much of my energy. Yeah, that I think when I kind of cut that off, um, as long as we have the support to sustain it, because that's what I'm worried about right now, is cutting that off, losing a lot of the support that we have because everybody's kind of a part of it because of the creative side of things that I'm doing with building

Building KMR Into A Two Rider Team

my own team, plus being a quality racer. So as long as I can transition that properly, you know, it would be pretty cool to see it keep growing and keep running it, whether that's what I do full time or that's more of my side quest at that point. Yeah. Um, because yeah, I think I have a lot of interest in like just what we've done going through COVID and whatnot. Like, I have a skid loader because I have a track at the house. Like, I really enjoy doing dirt work and home improvement projects and building houses and shops and stuff like that. So I think it would be fun for me to like buy and flip homes in the future, maybe would be fun. But obviously, that takes a ton of capital to get into. Um, but I don't know. As of right now, I'm just gonna keep rocking because I'm having fun and with the building of the race team and enjoy racing as well.

Well, our viewers know that we uh, Gabe, John, and I, we love a good white monster. That's an inside joke. People who've watched the show get it. But uh, there's nothing more I'd I'd like to see than KMR take on Monster and Clean House.

That would be pretty rad.

Yeah, that would be pretty rad. Are those kind of the people that are on the podium? Is Red Bull and Monster?

Yeah, so you have Red Bull KTM, you have uh, I think it's Red Bull, Red Bull supports the Honda writers, but it's HRC Honda and then Monster Energy Kawasaki. What about what about these guys? See, they're nowhere in our sport right now, they couldn't, which they would be sweet to bring them in.

They're too busy being on podcasts.

Yeah, I guess. Are they supporting you guys? Oh no. Yes, yeah, I would love to get a hold of them.

But that's hilarious you even asked that.

Yeah, yeah, I know, right?

We had a we sacrificed our Red Bull sponsorship so we could have Celsius. Exactly. Yeah. I'd be I'd be interested to know, like, why how you got your first sponsor and what made you think that you should do that?

So it was actually back in the amateur nationals, just trying to go to Loretta Lens, which is the most major amateur national in our sport. Um that is it was too expensive for our family to afford just going to that one amateur national. Um by the time I was like, could understand that money was like, okay, we need more of it if I want to do this. To get to the it was probably 12, 13, 14, maybe. I could probably completely be off on that. But I mean thinking about it, I graduated high school at 17, which means I started at what 14-ish, like 13-14, which means I know by that point I was already doing on whatever I was doing. So yeah, I would have to say, what was the question again? I'd like your first sponsor. Yes, first sponsor. So it was me having to get creative to help my parents fund the fuel to get to that amateur national. And it was simply just me putting together, okay, like I at that point it was all logo placement based. Right. So I was like, oh, if I put your logo here, like that's valuable for you, even though me now older, knowing that somebody from Topeka helping me, helping a kid that is a local Topeka guy, put their logo on something that's gonna be in Nashville, Tennessee for the amateur national, does absolutely nothing.

Yeah, you know what I mean? Hey guys, next time we're in Topeka, we can go to that mechanic shop. Yeah, exactly.

So, but at that point, it was just like, hey, I'm gonna put my like this is kind of our cost. This is what I'm trying to get. We're gonna do this banner, we're gonna hold or hang it up or whatever. At that point, I was kind of already starting to do the social media side of things. Like, that's what's I mean, you guys probably know this fully. Like, it's annoying that that's such a big part of it, but it's such a big part of it. Yeah, and so I started kind of doing that, and it was just started out with like, hey, you'll you either have one of the lowest spots for 50 bucks a spot or you do one of the major spots that's up on top, and there's only two of them for 500 bucks a spot. You know what I mean? So it kind of started there, and honestly, just going local businesses only, because at that point I didn't have like a national or regional reach. And yeah, like that's where the Harold's tire, the Hoyt's Truck Center, the TMI Corp, the Shiny Wholesale, like the people that are kind of in the program, the Letco Cycles from Kansas City, like those kinds of people were like, Yeah, like we'll give you 50 bucks, we'll give you a hundred bucks, like we'll help you with some fuel. Like, and it just kind of kept growing from there, which has been super exciting.

You're 12 years old, and you've been doing like local races up to this point, like yeah, local and regional.

So, like I was, I think I went to Lorette as this amateur national for the first time when I was like eight years old. And where's that? That's the uh in Nashville, yeah. It's close to Nashville, Tennessee.

So at that point, your family's just like, hey, this is a cool hobby our kid has. Well, let's all go do this thing. Correct. And but then when you're 12, it becomes, hey, whoa, this is way too expensive for us to keep doing and taking you nationally. How did you as a 12-year-old get to the point where you're like, well, I could get sponsors?

I think it was because so, like, even younger than that, right? You come through and there's this thing called hook it. And it's like you do sp something, or based off of your results, you'll get 50% off of Dunlop tires or something like that, right? So I was like, okay, like performance-based, there's bigger quantities of percentage off based off of how you do. So then I was kind of like putting that, like, okay, within this little whatever on hook it, they want

Injuries Risk And Career Longevity

a logo placement here. So I'm like, okay, if they're equating that to being worth 50% off, what could I do to equate that to be 100% off or something like that, right? As a 12-year-old. That's I don't know. I mean, I know for sure by the time I hit high school, I was already doing this stuff and had a good flow at it. So meaning, but this is mainly you.

It wasn't like it wasn't like your parents were like, hey, let's I know son how we could do this.

I don't think so. Yeah, I don't also want to discredit them.

Well, no, no, no, that's I'm not trying to do that either. Yeah, I'm just so curious, like how you just got the idea and the the motivation to cool call all these random people and do this.

You know, I think it's amazing. So one thing that it also kind of started is when I had gone to some of these other bigger races, and a lot of people will replace their tires. So, like, so this is I I don't know how to speak with this. Like, I this is for other people to determine versus what I determine about my upbringing. But we were, we came from my family in a sense, didn't have a bunch of spare money. Let's just put it that way, right? Yeah, so we would go to these races and I'd see these very well off people changing their tires and just leaving their tires at this trailer, right? That they changed them. So I would I started to the point where I'd go, it started dumpster diving where I'd find like because I know I would kind of understand at this point, you know, the monetary situation that my family was in, and that that was a stress point at times. Sure. So I was trying to relieviate or yeah, yeah, alleviate their that stress point. Yeah. So I was like, okay, what can I do? And I was like, well, I know tires are kind of expensive, and people around here don't want to pay $120 for a new tire. So I would actually go like these races would pick up these the people's trash and take it and put it in the dumpster. I'd like to go dumpster diving to find old tires, old chairs, old plastics, things I could take back home and sell. And so like it started where I'd that's honestly kind of like where the first creativity entrepreneur side of me started because I'd take these old tires back home that were plenty good. Yeah. And I'd sell them for 20, 30, 40 bucks a pop. And then boom, you have cash in your pocket. And like, I'm like, well, that was something that somebody just thought was trash, and now I'm making it into money. Right. Yeah. And I was like, at that point, too, like, this is like kind of the creative side of me or the mindset side of me is at that point going into high school, people are starting to get their first jobs. And I know my buddies are or people within my school year are like working at McDonald's, they're doing this. Like, I even had worked at Kansas fencing for a little bit, which that was kind of a a per panel. We were fixing some of their fencing that they put up around new construction. And I just always had like a wire of like, how can I make money? kind of deal. And um, so yeah, I just started out with that and I figured out that like people are throwing things away that are valuable. I can turn it into money. And then, okay, that's what I was getting out. So my buddies are working for eight, nine dollars an hour spending all day, or I go grab a tire out of a trash can and make the main same amount of money in two seconds that they work all day for. Wow. So I think that mindset of that's why I think I really enjoy the racing and the business side of things, is because I'm kind of technically the owner manager situation. I kind of handle the finances, I understand how things work. I enjoy that versus somebody just saying, hey, you're gonna make 50 grand a year no matter how hard you work. Right. I like the I guess the only way I could probably relatively think of myself in a normal style job is like a commission style job that based off of how you do, you get paid more. But like that's where that all kind of started is because like, I mean, even before that, I remember going to Petro, my local Petro, and they have like the chip thing um in right in front of the counter. And like I would take a straw while my dad was checking out and get down on the floor and scoop quarters out of under the chip thing that people would drop their change. Like it started there, dude. And then like picking up cans, and I'd have my like my mom would literally drive her car slow while I was picking up cans down the street because I would take I'd take that to go recycle to make more money there. Like it was kind of sorry, go ahead. Yeah, it's just kind of like trying to find money from anywhere I could. Are your parents entrepreneurs?

No business owners? No, no, no. You just wow, I don't know. It's cool, it's crazy, dude. It's very cool. I just I it's impressive to me. It really is. And I'm yeah, I wasn't trying to, you know, get you to, you know, discard other people's values. You know, I obviously none of us can do it on our own completely. Um, but it is very impressive to me just the way that as a young kid, you're seeing, hey, okay, here's the obstacle to this thing. I seem to have a lot of potential, I'm really passionate about it. How can we overcome the obstacle? Well, I can find a way. And I think so many people, I think that's a thing in Topeka where young people are, well, Topeka is never gonna change, or I could never do this, or I could never do that. And it's like, why? Maybe you could. I never thought I was gonna go on Netflix and look at me now. You know what I mean?

Like, who would have ever thought that was a possibility? It's crazy. Yeah.

Uh some guy from Topeka on this popular Netflix show. It's like, hey, why couldn't you do such and such? Like, what could maybe there are opportunities you're not aware of? And I just love that the kind of the creativity, the kind of openness to explore, like maybe like uh

Life Without Your Phone Feels Better

non-traditional, you know, it's not an eight to five, but it's like, I could pull a I could pull a tire from the trash and I could sell that and you know, and fund this whole thing in a non-traditional way. And it's just it's cool, man. So just props. Thank you. I appreciate that.

Yeah, it's cool. We're doing a transition to some Topeka. Some rapid fire. Yeah, we like to end our segment on Topeka Insider with some rapid fire questions. Oh boy. We haven't really hit on Topeka much, so I imagine these won't be super rapid. Okay, but uh, let us know when you're ready. We're gonna hit you with some Topeka questions.

All right, I'm gonna get roasted for this. All right, let's go. No, no, no. You'll be good. Uh, favorite local restaurant. Favorite local restaurant. Man, see that's what I struggle with. I need to think of local because I'm such a Chipotle guy on just being on the road all the time and trying to eat semi-healthy.

Uh back in high school, you're going to dinner with some buddies, local place up north.

We always, what was uh, I'm trying to think of like team dinners. I remember what's the burger joint that's over pad? The pad. Yeah, the pad was a good one. Pad's good. Oh, also, what was the one that's over by like you know where Academy is right now? And like Dick's uh not great. I'm thinking of Great Wiff Lodge. What is the buffet that was on that corner? Barbecue, that one? No. Uh oh, it's gonna bother me. They tore it down and it's like a uh tires. Golden Corral. No, it wasn't Coyote Canyon. Coyote Canyon. Coyote Canyon was the spot. Oh, yeah. Coyote Canyon was the spot. They built a car wash. Yes, yes. Coyote Canyon. Yeah, that never mind. Scratch all that. I remember Coyote Canyon being the spot.

Is that like a Goozlers or something like that? It's like a golden corral. Yeah, it's like a buffet. I know exactly what you're talking about. We'd go there all the time.

That's where I'd always go on my birthdays growing up. Oh, Gabe wants to jump in. He's got an opinion about me. We used to go there all the time. It was so good. I missed it. It was decorated so nice.

It was legit cool. Come on.

What's your go to Chipotle order? Uh, I always do a bowl, white rice, and I always ask for extra rice because they don't really charge you for that. And it gets more food in your bowl. Carbs, maybe uh pento beans. I usually do chicken, veggies, and then I'll ask for uh carnitas or whatever as well. And then pico, corn, lettuce. And then I'll usually get like a large side of guac or something like that if I'm feeling spicy. I like that.

Full ball. Um, okay. You hinted at this earlier.

Yep.

You're doing a home project.

Yep.

You're flipping a house in 10 years.

Okay.

You're getting materials, you're going to work.

Yes.

Home Depot, Menards, Lowe's. Where are you going?

As of lately, it's always been Menards.

Yeah, because that's superior. Yeah. And just since 11% rebate. 11%, baby. Get him on that entrepreneurial. Uh, yeah, trying to make money back. Do you know what's funny about his answer? I'll defend you, John. Uh, we have uh a going uh theory that people who do their own home projects go to Home Depot. Uh-huh. People who hire home projects go to Menards. Really? So John does his own stuff, he goes to Home Depot. I typically hire stuff, I go to Menards. What's what's interesting about our theory is Kevin hasn't done home the home projects that are flipped the houses yet. And so he's a menards guy. Just wait till you start. You own a skid loader.

You're a skid loader's like, we built a 50 by 20 foot deck during COVID, and like we did that all of ourselves. And you're still a Menards guy. Yeah, we went, we just went Menards because you can get the 11% rebate. What's the price point? Is it cheaper at Home Depot and Lowe's? I haven't compared. They're all the same. I think it's all just the rebate idea. Is like, oh, okay. It's probably 11% more expensive. Exactly. Yeah. And uh you don't get the rebate, which most people don't. You're probably I don't know.

Yeah, I don't know. I will say, I love how you're getting more and more theatrical with the way you ask that question. But it's it's becoming every week. You're like, so you're doing home projects. Home do you? And I'm like, bro, it's awesome. That's fun. Um, do you have a go-to

Ten Year Vision Beyond Racing

date night in Topeka? Like location?

Or you just are into Topeka? So that's what's a struggle. Is my girlfriend and I, we've been long distance for almost four years now. So she lives in Ohio. I live here. Oh so date nights don't happen really very often. Yeah. Um, but I always just enjoy, honestly, like because I'm always on the racing side of things, something a little bit more relaxed and slow paced. Uh so like you know, you go to Pup Hutt or do something like that, and then go watch a movie and just kind of chill out, just kind of and then good dinner or something like that. Yeah.

Here's a question for you. Not usually a part of our rapid fire, but I mean, you're all over the place. Yeah, you're in Florida, you're traveling. What is something that Topeka has going for it that you're like, hey, I don't see this anywhere else. I love this about Topeka.

It's the one thing that I really enjoy about where I live, and like I still live at home with my parents kind of deal when I am in town. So that's the one thing I like, I need to probably find my own place close to here, or at least close to them. But I also have a super cross track at my house that I've built over the years. So like that's a lot of my hesitation, and honestly, having a uh long-distance girlfriend to the point where it's like she's long distance already. It's like I'm not asking her to live with my parents with me. I really enjoy that it's a small town feel, but yet everything is here. Yeah. So, like for me, like it feels I don't know if that's why I don't really know because like I've just been here so long that this feels comfortable to me. So it gives me a home style vibe. And like where we live, we're on the outskirts of North Topeka a little bit. So like everybody around us has anywhere from like five to 10 to 15 acres kind of deal. So I enjoy it because you have your own land enough to do something on, yet your Home Depot, your Menards, your whatever's 15 minutes away versus being an hour away. Yeah, yeah. So that's kind of what I enjoy about Topeka.

Yeah, cool. What's Topeka missing? What would you like to see?

Like a restaurant. I mean, the biggest thing that I think Topeka is missing is just like elevation of like that's what I enjoy about traveling, going to say like Colorado or something like that, is like there's a little which honestly, like the governor's mansion's gotten a lot better over the years of like trail system and everything. And like I think they actually I last time I'd been there, like they'd built a couple like fun little downhill sections or whatever for mountain bikes. So like mountain bikes, yeah. That's getting better. I just think it's more of the what else can you do here versus you know, in Florida, you got the beach and in Mount I mean, obviously, you're just not gonna get the beach in Kansas, but like there's no coast. There's not really like uh like a good plot of land that's like go ride side by sides and have a lot of fun and like like the motorsports side of things, I think. Yeah, um, that isn't just like I I think over or Oakland or whatever you can go by and just I don't know, there's just not a ton here, or at least I guess the best way to put it too is like there's not a ton of people that are into the same things as me here. I guess is probably where I struggle a little bit, but also like I'm not around very much. Like I know some people from past

Topeka Rapid Fire And Food Debates

and from high school or side by side and like kind of like off-road having fun type of guys, and I'm just not around enough to like have those friends anymore, if that makes sense.

Have you ever thought about like renting out the supercross track in your backyard?

I mean, no, because nobody around here is probably safe enough to ride that. They would kill themselves, but also like I don't really have many people come out and ride with me just because of the liability side of things. Like, right, if something happens, like what would happen? Right, you know what I mean? You gotta sign a waiver, yeah. Cause I I mean I enjoy teaching. Uh like I teach kids and do lessons and stuff like that. But yeah, it's uh the more that I've kind of grown with the program and have so many other irons in the fire, if that makes sense. Just having a kid come to my house and ride and end up getting hurt, like it's just like a liability that I'm not really like, yeah, this isn't worth it. Yeah.

Uh different twist on John's question. But uh, what is a restaurant or uh something that you've had in all your traveling that you wish Topeka had?

Ooh, that's a good one, actually. Cause like where I go a lot of the times, like pre-race meal, so I can get some steak and get some chicken and have like a good meal is usually Texas Roadhouse, which we have one of those. There's not really there's not really anything in Topeka that I'm like, it's missing this.

All right.

That's why I kind of like it too. Is like it's got the Menards, it's got the Home Depot, it's got the Lowe's, it's got Texas Roadhouse, it's got Red Lobster, it's got like the Olive Garden, it's got like the Yeah, the stuff that most people have. I feel like it's got everything. Dude.

Uh side question, not Topeka related. You do understand how you choosing Chipotle over Qdoba's wrong, right?

Yeah, absolutely not. What state your case, sir? Yeah, are you a Qdoba guy? Okay, are we just taking queso? Because I will say Q Boba's queso is better than Chipotle's. Yeah, that's a big thing. But the rice is trash at at Qoba compared to Chipotle. I feel like Chipotle's is a little bit moister, a little bit better. Okay. Well, yeah. I think I think Qdoba's is a little drier.

This guy's getting hostile over here.

Yeah, dude. Big, big deal. Uh, and then um, I feel like the the chicken at Qdoba tastes a little bit more fake. It's more like just like squares in a sense than I guess. I mean, I I guess I see them cooking it at Qdoba too. So I don't know what the situation is there. Maybe I just have an extreme bias towards Chipotle. That's all right.

We all got opinions. We all got options.

I'll say I'm Chipotle or Qdoba? Well, I like both. I probably personally go to Chipotle more often, but we cater events uh here at the church, and Qdoba will come and set everything up for you, which is a game changer. Chipotle, you have to go pick it up, you have to come set up yourself. They will come so like we can be in the middle of something, and then the event will already be set up because Qdoba came and set it up for us. Interesting.

That's kind of nice, it's super nice, like event-wise.

Yeah.

Yeah. I can't say I've experienced that, or that's a part of my answer after that.

I will say our staff, our staff is split down the middle on on either. Like there's like the trenches are drawn on

Where To Follow Kevin Online

you know, Chipotle. Yeah.

So uh maybe final question. I mean, where can people find you at if they want to follow along with what you're doing? Uh you got social.

We're getting you across a hundred thousand followers. That's right here.

Instagram, kevin.morands. Pretty sure TikTok's Kevin.moran's, YouTube's Kevin.morands, or at least Kevin Moran's. Uh, anything website related or program related, um, if somebody's interested in being a part of it or supporting, support at kevinmorands.com, or just go check out the website. A lot of information at kevinmorands.com. Dude, come back in.

Kevin, thanks so much for joining us, man. Both for our previous episode and this episode. This has been such a joy, dude. Yeah. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Thanks, brother.