Catching Up With…Broc Tickle

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• May 12 2009
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Broc Tickle has been around the circuit for a few years now, but has yet to have any major wins.  At the Toronto Supercross, however, the young Division Seven/Star Racing/Yamaha rider was able to climb aboard the final spot on the podium.  He was well on his way to repeating that performance in Jacksonville before a small crash on the 12th lap dropped him back to sixth place at the finish.  These are decent stats, but when you keep in mind the fact the Broc completely shattered his lower jaw at the beginning of the season, the North Carolina native deserves some real credit.

Do you have a preference between motocross and Supercross.

I think I’m actually better outdoors because I like the long motos and I have good endurance.  I have always been blessed with that kind of talent

When did you get your pro license and how did your debut go?

I turned pro back in 2006 at Millville aboard a Honda CRF450.  Everything went pretty good.  I wasn’t very good in practice compared to other guys, but I just went out there, just stayed strong the whole moto and finished 11th the first moto and I was pumped.  The second moto was a mudfest though.

Note: Ricky Carmichael lapped the entire field on that day.

So pretty much since then, you have been on the Division Seven/ Star Racing/ Yamaha team?

Yeah, I rode with them in 2007, 2008 and this year.  I am looking to improve outdoors and get into the top five, which would be nice.  I just want to get good starts and be up front every moto.  Whatever happens, happens but I just want to do the best that I can.  I know where I belong and that should be in the top five.

You are coming off of an up and down Supercross season, which started out pretty much as down as you could get with a broken jaw.  We saw you at Jacksonville and it looked like you still had some metal braces on.  Can you tell us about that?

Yeah they were a type of brace that they used to wire down my jaw.  It was so I couldn’t move it basically.  I basically shattered my jaw the worst you could possibly do it with out completely destroying is what they told me.  They almost had to put some artificial stuff in there; it was pretty gnarly.  Then I got an infection about four weeks after surgery and that’s what really held me back.  And then I got a pick line to take anibiotics.  Its like an IV that is really long and it goes up through your arm and it just stays in you.  I did that for about four weeks so I was out for about nine weeks.  It was a really bad infection and they didn’t want it to be in the hardwear, because if it got in there, they would have to take everthing back out and re-break it and do a bunch of stuff.

At one point they told me they would be taking it out in a week.  When I went in the following week, they told me it had turned around 180 degrees for the worse.  That set me back big time.  I was looking forward to coming back at Atlanta or so, but when I got the infection that set me back a few more weeks.  It was bad.

What happened in your crash?

At Anaheim I press day, I cased a triple the first time I did it.  It was the fourth or fifth lap and I didn’t even come close.  I smacked my chin on the bar, which pushed my jaw up, split it in the middle, and shattered both sides.  My elbow last year was pretty gnarly too, so it seems like when I break something I do it pretty bad (laughs).  I couldn’t hear very well for a while because the bone almost went through my ear drum on both sides.  I stopped right after I did it and was thinking, “Something is not right.”  Blood was coming out of my mouth, but I put my helmet back on; I don’t know what I was thinking.  Then I picked up my mechanic and went back to the truck and I was saying, “I’ve got to go to the hospital.” So I got in the ambulance, and they took me to UCI (University of California Irvine).

So you could still talk at that point?

Not very well! I went to a Supercross shortly after that and I couldn’t talk to anybody, I was just standing there.  This one guy, like two weeks ago said, “I thought you were being a dick to me because you didn’t want to talk to me,” but I had walked by him and smiled.  But he said I wouldn’t talk to him so he was mad at me (laughs).