Catching Up With…Jarred Browne

bayodome

• July 28 2009
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One of the strange this about Washougal was the inconsisntecy we saw across the board and the fact that it was not a mud race.  Aside from the top two riders in the 450 Class this weekend, pretty much every other top finish was a surprise.  Among those pleasant surprises was Suzuki City’s Jarred Browne.  The young Californian rode smooth and calcularted all the way to a solid fifth place finish in the second moto.  If it was not for some bike issues in the first moto, Jarred could have very easily scored a top ten overall.  We rang up Mr. Browne earlier to find out how his weekend went, and also to learn a little about the talented privateer.

You turned a lot of heads at Washougal.  How was your weekend overall?

Things actually started off a little rocky.  My first practice was decent but towards the end of the session I lost my rear brake.  I guess I was about 18th fastest in that practice though.  We threw some new brake pads in and they seemed to be working, but then I went out and lost the rear brake again in the second practice.  Just to be safe, we changed out the entire brake system for the first moto.  I got a pretty bad start and ended up tipping over on the first lap, but I was able to get into 19th pretty early, then my brakes completely failed. When I got back to the pits, we found that the brake pad material had become unglued from their metal mounts.  I don’t know if we just had a bad batch of pads or what the deal was.  I ended up with a 23rd in that moto though.

In the second moto, there was a little bit of carnage off the start, so I just picked my way through that and worked my way into 13th and just plugged away.  I ended up moving up from 13th to fifth by the end of the moto.

Is that your best finish ever in a pro moto?

Yeah.  Other than that I got a tenth last year at High Point.

There was definitely plenty of carnage in that first turn and there were almost two separate pileups, but you still managed to work your way up even after avoiding that.  You obviously must have felt pretty comfortable with the track.

With the start being so short, and then with a hard left hand turn into a hard right, the start can be a little tricky.  I didn’t get the greatest start either, and did get a little caught up in that first crash.  I’m sure people will say that a lot of fast guys crashed in that turn but I still passed a few fast guys.  I think I passed Millsaps with about a lap and a half to go for fifth place and I had Nick Wey on me the whole time.  Overall I felt pretty good.  I was one of those tracks where you had to go slow to go fast.  I am not really the type of guy who likes to hang it out on the edge, I am more of a smooth, technical rider, so I think that’s why it suited my style.  The track got pretty choppy towards the end of the day, but I grew up riding in California and at Glen Helen a lot, so I was still pretty comfortable.

How did your deal with the Suzuki City team come about?

When Matt Goerke got hurt, I got hooked up with them.  They helped me out a little bit last year and when Matt broke his leg, they called me up as a replacement.  I had a decent ride at Red Bud and they wanted to keep helping me, but they were not sure if they would be able to.  They were able to find one so they were able to help me out at Millville and then Washougal.  I really appreciate the help those guys are giving me.

Looking at the results from the beginning of the season, you don’t really appear until recently.  Why were you not racing?

I was actually coming off an injury.  I got hurt back in February, was out for three months, and began riding again about two weeks before Glen Helen.  I didn’t race again until High Point with the Suzuki City guys.  In the first practice I was sixth fastest in the first moto and ran right outside the top ten in both motos, but crashed.  The same thing kind of happened at Colorado, but then finally at Red Bud I got things figured out and had a 12th overall, and then another 12th overall at Millville.

Lets take a few steps back and discuss your roots.  Where did you grow up and how did you get into motocross?

I’m from a town called Nuevo in California.  It’s actually right on the other side of Starwest and Lake Perris, so I am right there in motocross central.  My dad did a little bit of desert racing when he was younger and my mom rode for fun.  They got me my first bike when I was three years old and I haven’t stopped riding since.

You were a Suzuki amateur team rider for a while, right?

Yeah, I was on the Suzuki amateur factory team for three years.  That started after about my second year of riding the B-class.  I had pretty good showing at Loretta’s and Suzuki picked me up, so was on their factory team from 2005 through 2007.  In ’05 I won five championships in the B-class, but then after that I had nothing but injuries.  In 2006 I had three concussions in three months, so that was a pretty bad deal.  But that same year I did really well at the Mini O’s in the motocross portion against Stroupe and Canard.  People were beginning to talk about me again and I was getting pretty excited.  It was looking like I would move to the Rockstar team that Suzuki had at the time, but that team folded.  Then midway through 2007 I blew out both of my ACLs so I had to get knee surgery and that took me out for seven months.  I finally turned pro in 2008 at Glen Helen.

So what are your plans for the remainder of the season?  Are you going to remain with Suzuki City?

Yeah, that’s the plan right now.  I’m improving each weekend.  I need to work on my starts a bit and I think if I can do that then I will be able to finish pretty high up there.  My plan is to continue finishing anywhere from fifth to tenth and hopefully land myself a ride for Supercross and Outdoors next year.  However, I know it’s going to be tough with the economy and with lots of teams struggling right now.  But I think that if I can keep putting rides in like I did at Washougal, it can happen.