UNDER THE HELMET - A Conversation with Open Pro

Hayden Hintz and Trevor Hunter just wrapped up their third Open Expert class championship in a row. We wanted to go under the helmet with these two to see what makes them such a strong team.

Mike: How did you guys get connected as far as the team goes?

Hayden: I’ll start then Trevor can pitch in. We’ve known each other since we were kids. We grew up racing together. We’ve always known each other and our families have known each other forever. Back in 2019 I needed a partner for Parker and it was getting pretty close. It was about a week or two before, I don’t really remember the exact time, but I was also buying a bike at that time; just a week before Parker. I was scrambling for a partner and a bike. Trevor happened to be racing the previous year at Vegas To Reno so I thought why not ask him. And he was all for it. He hadn’t really done too much of this, but he’s ridden everything. Here we are three years later.

A Conversation with Three-Peat Open Pro Motorcycle Champs Hayden Hintz and Trevor Hunter

By Mike Ingalsbee

Photos by Dirt Nation

Shown above: Hayden Hintz on the left, Trevor Hunter right. Main photo: Hayden Hintz on the move at Vegas to Reno.

Mike: What’s your take, Trevor?

Trevor: Yeah, pretty much that is how I remember it. Hayden called me over New Year’s. Of course, Parker was the next weekend after Hayden called me. I wanted to ride at least the fi rst race with him and see how it went from there. I was a little nervous, but I said, why not? I’ll try something new and something diff erent. We raced one week later and then we’ve just kept going from there. Mike: Sounds like you guys meshed pretty quickly. You said you grew up together. Were you just acquaintances or friends? Hayden: We knew each other since 5 or 6.

Mike: So, I guess like most racers you grew up on motorcycles?

Trevor: Yeah, pretty much.

Mike: I’m assuming again that maybe your families were desert families.

Trevor: Yeah, they’ve been racing together in the desert since the 70s or 80s. They’ve all been racing desert and Best in the Desert for a long, long time.

Hayden: So, you should hear the Tonopah stories every time we go there.

Trevor: Friends, right? Yeah.

Mike: Is that something you want to share? Or is that an inside joke?

Hayden: It’s just a joke. Every time we go, we hear the same old stories from racing Tonopah back 30 years ago. It’s just good old stories of them racing back then, you know, at the same locations.

Mike: What do you think about the technology now compared to what they were racing on?

Trevor: Quite a bit diff erent. Much better, faster, yeah it’s defi nitely much better. Our bikes today work pretty good; they are designed for what we’re doing. Mike: Does that make it easier, or are the speeds so much higher, it’s about the same?

Hayden: The new bikes defi nitely make it safer. They put a lot of R&D and engineering into them. It’s the same with aftermarket parts. When you fi ne tune a little bit after that, they’re pretty stable for two wheels; once you get going at a high speed. I feel pretty safe; I mean we have a few old bikes that I haven’t ridden in quite a while. You can defi nitely feel the technology diff erence. From the frame, to skinnier rim sizes, to electronics on the bike, fuel injection, you know, everything feels so much safer. Some of those old bikes, you know, back when the 500’s started coming out in the 80s and 90s, those guys were

Trevor Hunter rinsing off at the Silver State 300.

going just as fast as we are on a bike that is probably not as safe. I think we’re getting to that point where it’s safe for the speeds we’re going. There are situations where it does get out of hand or whatever, but it’s controllable. When you see some of these rally bikes go racing; that’s a lot of weight to be thrown around, but they’re pretty stable as well.

Mike: Interesting. You want to expand on that Trevor?

Trevor: I agree with all of that about the 500’s and stuff . They probably went just as fast if not even faster, but suspension has gotten better and the handling is better today. Everything’s better nowadays. Helmets and riding gear have all evolved for the speeds that we’re going. I think it’s defi nitely safer and much more comfortable to go fast than it was back then.

Mike: Trevor, what about navigation? What kind of navigation do you guys run? Is it piped right into your helmet?

Trevor: We both don’t run anything. Sometimes we get a helmet radio, but that’s only at some of the races. Sometimes it even works. Other than that we have no GPS or anything like it at all. We rely on the markings.

Mike: Wow, you too Hayden?

Hayden: When it comes to navigation, we go the old school way. There are ways you could put a GPS on your handlebars since we have quite a few electronics on the bike; including the battery that would power it. But we don’t really see the need. You don’t have a co-driver telling you where those corners are. You’d have to take your eyes off of what you’re riding to look at it. I don’t see it being very helpful. In some situations, I almost see it being more dangerous looking at a navigation device on a bike while trying to navigate or trying to ride at high speeds. The old school way of following ribbons seems to be the best. Best in the Desert does a pretty good job on the high speed stuff because of the trucks. They have to give them a lot more braking time. We get away with the old school method of just following the markings.

Mike: Wow, as an old school guy that really warms my heart.

Hayden: We do run a radio on a few races; the longer races in particular. It’s so we can talk to the crew without having to stop.

Hayden Hintz taking on the Laughlin Desert Classic infi eld course jumps on the way to victory.

Trevor Hunter taking taking his turn on the Laughlin Desert Classic course.

Mike: During the race, are you talking to them, or are they talking to you more often?

Hayden: We have to get that fi gured out. Between bike noise, earbuds and the helmet, radios are just funky. We haven’t really dialed it in. We’ve had a few situations where it didn’t help and then a few situations where it did help. We’re still trying to dial it in to where either the rider only talks, or the crew only talks. The back and forth on a bike is just too much.

Mike: You feel the same way, Trevor?

Trevor: Yes. Most of the time I don’t really want or need someone in my ear when I’m racing. I may be interested in the gap to the rider ahead of me or behind me if that’s possible, but other than that, I don’t really need a whole lot of talking. Mainly I use it if we have a problem with the bike or something

we can let them know earlier. Getting tools ready or whatever we may need in the pit.

Mike: I’ll start with you, Hayden, what kind of crew do you run when you’re racing together as a team?

Hayden: For the past three years, it’s been the same exact crew. Every once in a while, I’ll have one or two extra people come, but it’s usually my dad, and my girlfriend. They’re my chase crew. For the longer races like Silver State or Vegas to Reno we have stationary pits. They just hang out in the pits. They give me splits and give me gas and whatever else I need. Trevor has his separate crew as well.

Mike: Who’s on your crew, Trevor?

Trevor: It’s mainly just my Dad. Sometimes my brother will come out or my mom every once in a while, but mainly just my Dad.

Mike: So it’s a family aff air, that’s pretty cool. I think that’s pretty common in desert racing.

Trevor: Yeah, very common. Heaps of fun to spend some time out there.

Mike: You’re both second or maybe third generation racers?

Trevor: Yeah, I’m third generation, I guess you’d say.

Hayden: I’m third generation as well.

Mike: Everybody says that motorcycle racers are the best because they learn to read the terrain. How much of that is a desire to go fast and how much of that is for self-preservation? We’ll start with you, Trevor.

Trevor: Like, all the time. I’m more into selfpreservation than going fast. Going that speed you want to be heads up and know what’s coming. You don’t want to get hurt or crash going that fast. But at the same time you’re racing to win and to run as fast as we can. It’s close, but maybe a little more selfpreservation. For me, I like to keep it on two wheels and keep it safe and walk away from every race if I can.

Mike: I’m sure it’s similar for you, Hayden.

Hayden: Yeah, I agree. I’d rather fi nish every race and walk away than be carted away. It is a super fun sport, but there are dangers to it, obviously. Taking every precaution you can while doing it is what we always try to do. Mike: I’ve talked to a lot of guys that are sidelined with little nuisance injuries; they hurt their hand or, bruise their ribs, something like that. Not that that’s minor, but I would assume that trying to stay healthy is a big part of racing.

Hayden: Yeah, it’s a huge part. When you miss a few months that takes you out of the championship. And then that’s it for you. If you have a resume stacked up you might be good for the next year. If you don’t, that might have been your golden year and you threw it away. We’ve been fortunate to be healthy. The past few years there have been minor injuries like you’re saying, but nothing that will make us miss races or anything like that. We’ve been pretty fortunate with that.

Mike: Trevor, do you have stuff you do during training to stay limber or build your cardio; things like that?

Trevor: Well, not a whole lot to stay limber and fl exible; at least as much as I should. I ride a bicycle almost every day and run a little bit and do upper body workouts, but nothing crazy. Just enough to stay strong, fi t and competitive. You have to, to run with all those guys. It’s defi nitely key to stay in shape for a long series and long year like we have.

Mike: Hayden, you were the rider of record for the team; does that mean that it was your bike that you guys were racing on?

Hayden: Not necessarily. In some scenarios, the rider of record does mean that. But in

Hayden Hintz making time on the Laughlin Desert Classic infi eld.

all honesty, we just did that the fi rst year because I needed to sign up and I didn’t have a partner yet. After we won the number one plate, I believe you cannot transfer it to anyone, even if he was my teammate. It’s kind of been a just leave it as is thing. We haven’t really talked too much about it. The bike situation has been a 50, 50 on bikes every year. The fi rst year it was actually my father’s bike, and Trevor’s father paid for half; I’m not 100% sure. We sold the bike at the end of the year and made some money but it wasn’t too big of a deal. The second year we actually got picked up by a team and got a bike to ride for the year. That wasn’t too bad. It was pretty nice to ride a bike that wasn’t ours. At the end of the year things were working out so we ended up buying that bike. That’s the bike we raced on this year; for most of the year.

Mike: Correct me if I’m wrong, but at Tonopah weren’t you on a Yamaha, Trevor?

Trevor: I was on the Kawasaki but at the last one we raced a Yamaha.

Mike: So, you guys aren’t necessarily brand loyal; until they start paying you? Whatever works, right?

Trevor: Yeah. Luckily I do some testing for an online media source. I kind of have a stable of bikes at certain times that we can use if it’s available. If a bike would be a good fi t for the race... If I have one in my garage and it’s ready to race, and we thought it’d be a good

bike for that specifi c race; we take them out. We usually do pretty good on them.

Mike: Wow, that sounds awesome. So what are you guys planning on next year; you coming back for another round and going for another championship?

Hayden: We’re trying to fi gure that out. We haven’t heard too much from manufacturers, so we’re still waiting. We would defi nitely like to, but between work and budget wise, it’s gonna be a tough call.

Mike: What do you think Trevor?

Trevor: Yeah, pretty much whatever happens. Hope we can come up with something but it’s a tough game with motorcycles and trying to fi nd support for racing.

Mike: I’ll start with you Hayden, what was your favorite race this year?

Hayden: This year Silver State was pretty fun. We had some problems, but the course was fun. I enjoyed the Silver State course as always.

Mike: That course is so diverse. The sections through the trees seem like it would be a roller coaster ride.

Hayden: Yeah, that one is defi nitely a bit diff erent than most of the races that you do on the West Coast.

Hayden Hintz wide open at the Silver State 300.

Mike: What about you, Trevor? Do you have a favorite from this season?

Trevor: I’d say Silver State or Tonopah. At Silver State we struggled with some bike problems and I struggled with my riding that day. But of course, it’s still fun. The motorcycle only race had some slower sections and more technical sections. That is always fun to do; more like traditional motorcycle racing. Mike: Do you guys have any good stories from some of the races or miraculous fi xes that you did out in the boonies? You know, did you whittle a piston out of a mesquite branch or anything? Hayden: We actually had a pretty adventurous year. I’ll start with Parker, where we ran the full course. We’ve never ran that total course I believe, or possibly it was years ago. The bike was always able to go a certain mileage before that race. We were pretty comfortable that it would go the mileage, but I ran out of gas. And it was at the fi rst race of the year. I think it was a combination of me trying to bypass the pit and all the sand washes that we haven’t ridden before.

Trevor: This year for me; Silver State was probably the most eventful. It was a super close race for the lead the whole time. Towards the end of the race I came across a road crossing, during a speed section luckily, where someone didn’t open the gate. I ran straight into the barbed wire fence and got stuck in it. I got passed while I was trying to get the bike out. It was kind of a disaster, but could have been a lot worse. If I was going faster I would have got hurt. That’s probably the most eventful one for me.

Hayden: We were leading up to that at Silver State. We were fi rst bike on road. I left pit three and about a quarter mile out of pit three, I didn’t hit a barbed wire fence, but I came across one that was not open yet. I had to stop, hop off my motorcycle, open the fence, get back on and go. I got to the pit where we were planning on swapping the tire to give Trevor a fresh one because we were fi rst bike on road. But the second bike was right on us so we didn’t have much time. Trevor had to scramble out of the pit which I think is why he wasn’t riding too comfortable. I’m not 100% sure because we never really talked too much after that race. There is frustration in that kind of stuff . That’s what piled up the fi rst three bikes and left Trevor behind after he hit the barbed wire.

Mike: Trevor, how do you recover mentally after that, it must have really blown your mind.

Trevor: Yeah, I was pretty frustrated just with all the mistakes I was making before that. In the moment, I thought it was my fault; that I must have gotten off the course or something; it was my mistake that caused me to hit the

Trevor Hunter in thick dust while battling his otherwise teammate Hayden Hintz at the World Hare & Hound Championship.

fence. At that point I just told myself to just relax, stop making mistakes, you can get hurt. I kind of held back a little bit from there to the fi nish just to be safe. I was wearing a GoPro so I saw on the video that I wasn’t really in the wrong; that gate should have been opened and I went where I was supposed to. After the race, I felt a little better about myself. But still, I was making a lot of mistakes all day and that’s kind of one of the bigger ones that I wish wouldn’t have happened but it did.

Mike: Nobody’s perfect, right? Everyone’s gonna have a bad day once in a while, hopefully as teammates you guys can prop each other up. Is that the case? You ever have that situation where it’s just not your day and you can’t wait to hand the bike off .

Hayden: I would say that’s just about every race. One race I do halfway decent and Trevor’s like, “oh, I felt like crap.” Then the next race I felt like crap and Trevor is like “I felt good” so it’s always a battle.

Mike: Well, I wish you guys’ good luck next season because it’s really interesting talking with you and entertaining having you race with Best in the Desert.

Hayden: Thanks, thank you for all that you guys do as well.

Trevor Hunter tackling the challenging terrain surrounding Tonopah, Nevada at the World Hare & Hound Championship. Trevor: Thanks Mike.

Hayden: Thanks, thank you for all that you guys do as well.

Trevor: Thanks Mike.