FROM THEN TO NOW WITH DAVID PINGREE

                                                                      Photo credit: Racerx.com
David Pingree is a former factory SX/MX/SM rider and team manager. Now he is a Racer X editor and firefighter/paramedic. David took the time to talk to me about his racing career and what he has going on now.

David I just wanted to start this off by saying thank you for your time and agreeing to do this interview.

First off, tell me what got you into racing?

I grew up in Montana and my whole family rode; we would go to the mountains and ride old mining
trails as a family. I was riding a PW50 when I was three. One of my dad’s friends had a son who was
racing and we went and watched him. From that point on my dad was hooked. I didn’t really care about racing too much at first but once we got into it I loved it.


Your first year on Pro Circuit in 1995 you won a race and got some podiums but said the bike wasn't as good as it could be. Then in 1996 you were a title favorite, alongside Kevin Windham. What was the biggest change in those years?

When I started with the team Ryan Hughes was doing all the testing and bike development. He had been with them the year before and they expected him to win races so they were building the bike around him. But Ryno wasn’t the best test rider and the way he rode didn’t suit most other guys. Pichon and I were not stoked with the motors that year at all; they had no bottom end and you had to rev the piss out of them. In 1996 I was expected to win and so I was doing all the testing. We won the Bercy supercross in Paris and things were going really well heading into the season. I was second in points before San Diego and I ended up breaking my femur during practice there. It was a bummer because Windham broke his collarbone earlier that week so he missed the San Diego round too. I could have moved into the points lead with a conservative finish.


You started the 2000 season off with a win on a Suzuki, and had some solid finishes all year long. Unfortunately, you had some bad luck and just missed out on that 125 west title.  What are your thoughts on one of the tightest title battles we've ever seen?

That season was great and miserable all at the same time. I got cleaned out in the first turn of six main events that year… six! I somehow managed to hold a 12 point lead going into Minneapolis but a mishap coming out of turn one bent my front brake carrier and I rode the whole main with my front wheel locking up. I almost made up for the lost points at the last round in Dallas where I went down in the first turn, yet again, and worked up to second at the finish.

A lot of people may think Ryan Dungey was the first American rider on a KTM to win a Supercross but you did it in 2002. Can you give us a some insight on that race?

We had come a long way with the development on that bike from the year before. The engines were
amazing but we started to see the four-strokes moving into the class. I was doing well in that
championship as well but I just had a couple little crashes and issues that kept me off the box in the
opening two rounds, but I knew the speed was there. At A2 I started fifth or sixth and just plugged away until I got into the lead. I had a nice gap on second but Stewart was coming from behind and closing fast. The last two laps I dropped several seconds off my lap times because if I didn’t he would have caught me. I put the hammer down and held on for my last supercross win and the first win by an American rider on a KTM [Grant Langston had won Dallas in 2001]. That’s a small stat that is pretty insignificant but I still like to throw around.


Was there one thing in particular that made you retire from racing Supercross full time?

Well, the week after that Anaheim win my bike broke in half in Phoenix. After a career full of injuries it was just the last straw, you know? It really drove home the fact that so much is out of your control in this sport. You can be doing everything right and still get hurt really badly. I was ready to move on.


You do a lot of work with Racer X Online. What is you role for them?

I’m one of their Editors-at-Large and I have a list of things that I provide. I have the online column, Ask Ping, Electronic Ping in the magazine, I handle all the bike testing duties for the website and I provide text for features and whatever else they might need in a pinch. You have to be able to wear a lot of hats in this industry and especially at Racer X because you are asked to do a lot of different things.


I remember watching a old VHS copy of a 1993 movie called "Action Figures" with you in it, and now you have your own set DVDs for sale. What do they include and where could someone pick up a copy?

My Motocross 101 DVD’s are still for sale if you go to that website, or you can buy them at ITunes. They have done really well. It is an instructional riding video but we tried to raise the bar and do some things that nobody had done before.


Supermoto caught on pretty big here for a while; how did you get involved with that?

I actually had a friend who was doing it and he talked me into building a bike and trying one. I told DC I would go do the big finale in Reno that year and write a story about the budding sport. Well, the racing was a lot of fun and I ended up getting a bike from KTM the next year to do more of the rounds and I won the final race in Long Beach. At that point Troy Lee offered me a spot on their team, the premier team in the sport at the time, and I jumped at it. I spent a couple years racing for them and then transitioned into the race team manager role. They were trying to be more of a player in Supercross and motocross and they needed somebody with some experience in that discipline.


You were team manager for the TLD Honda team for a number of years.  What made you go that route in the industry?

The opportunity came along and it was something I always thought would be fun. As a racer you have all this experience and knowledge from doing it for so long and it’s cool to be able to share it and help somebody else. I loved the racing. Being up in the manager’s tower was as close to being on the bike as you can get. But the travel was a drag and the time it takes at the shop to do the job right is overwhelming. I knew it wouldn’t be a long-term deal for me because I wanted to spend more time at home with my family.


I know you've been asked about this a few times, but what exactly caused your bike to break in half  in Phoenix in 2002?

KTM in Austria sent over some lighter pistons that tested well on the dyno. However, they were never endurance tested on actual bikes and, obviously, they weren’t strong enough to last. The skirt cracked off the piston on the face of the triple and my triple clamp sheared off when I augered into the landing of the jump.


You are now a full time firefighter- what made you chose that career, and what are your thoughts on it so far?

I knew nothing about it until I met my wife. Her dad was a fire captain and we visited him a couple times at the station. It seemed really exciting and fun and something you could be really proud of at the end of the day. The way an engine company works together as a team is very similar to how a race team works so there were a lot of parallels to be drawn between racing and the fire service. I was slowly taking classes from 2008 on, while I was racing Supermoto and managing the race team. Those were hectic days. Sometimes the mechanics on the team would get mad because I would cut out of work early to get to class but it was something I really wanted to do. I worked for a couple different departments before I found the right fit. I’m with San Bernardino County Fire now and I love it. It is so cool to be learning something new every day and starting all over at 40. Just like there are a million nuances in the racing world, I have to be trained in structural firefighting, vertical and horizontal ventilation, wildland firefighting, auto extrication, search and rescue, confined space, HAZMAT, rope rescue, low and hi-angle rescue, swift water rescue, vehicle fires and a million other things and all the equipment and skills involved. On top of that I am a paramedic so I have to be able to respond to any type of medical emergency when somebody calls 911. There is a lot to know and a lot of pressure at times but it is really rewarding. By still staying active with Racer X I can still be involved in the sport I love on my own terms, so I’m in a really good place.

You've had a very successful career in the moto industry and now are well on your way in your 
firefighting career. Thanks again for your time and hope to see you at the races.