On the heels of a 65cc Limited (10-11) Championship at Loretta Lynn's Ranch in 2016, California's Hunter Yoder had set himself up as one of the next big things in the American amateur scene. He was signed by the Factory Connection (GEICO) Honda team, the same squad that groomed a ton of kids into the best pros, including Justin Barcia, RJ Hampshire, Jordon Smith, Jo Shimoda Chase Sexton and Jett and Hunter Lawrence today. Yoder eventually scored one more Loretta's title in the 450 B Limited class in 2019.
Then that team lost its GEICO deal and folded, suddenly, at the end of 2020. Most of the riders on the team found deals elsewhere, but Yoder was left with nothing and hit a very rough patch, leading him to nearly leave the sport entirely.
The Partzilla/PRMX Kawasaki team gave him a shot last year and Yoder did well. He's even better this time, off to the best start of his young career in the 250SX West Region. Yoder has two top 10 finishes through three rounds and is currently 11th in points.
We spoke to Yoder after the Anaheim 2 Triple Crown to talk about his "dust up" with Garrett Marchbanks, his time with GEICO Honda and much more. The mental hurdles he had to overcome since the end of his factory support were not small, but he's turning the corner now and getting better and better.
Racer X: All right, Hunter Yoder, not exactly the night you want to be talking about. But, just kind of take me through the ups and downs of it.
Yoder: Yeah, I rode free practice really good. The track was awesome. They built it when it was muddy, which, you know, is not the greatest, but, it was super tacky in the morning and I love ruts, so bring it on, you know? It was really hot today. It was hot, it was windy, and it just dried it out. It was like riding on concrete eventually. That’s when I struggle bit, with conditions and bike-wise. I prefer ruts and traction all day long. Some guys are opposite. So I just struggled a little bit, and I was just slow all day long. That was the bottom line. I didn’t quite jive with the track. Unfortunately it was, not a rough day, but a very mediocre day. We’re going to learn, and if we don’t have bad days, we don’t learn anything. I got knocked down twice today, get back up three times, and we’ll keep it rolling into Phoenix. I had some good laps with some good riders, but unfortunately I had more bad ones than good. It’s not a good ratio to have on race night, but it is what it is and I can’t control it. The race is done. I could sit here and whine and pout about it, but I’m not going to do that. I get to race in two weekends in Phoenix [Glendale], then we get to have a little bit of a break. I’m going to have some fun this week. I’m going to go play ride and lighten the load a little bit, then we’ll come into Phoenix and have a good night there.
Talking a little bit more beyond this race, and just looking at your career a little bit. You're finding yourself, I feel like sometimes, in battles with guys who you raced as an amateur. So, you know about where you fit in with that group a little bit, but your career path has been a lot different than those guys. You almost quit and then came back into it a little bit. So, do you kinda still measure yourself against them, or are you in a different mindset with racing them now?
Honestly, the last year there was, there were certain guys that I wanted to beat, right? I always kind of had those certain guys that were on my mind and I feel like that could have hindered me, you know, just reading the backs of the jerseys and the numbers. So, this year, I've come in with little to no expectations. Whoever I'm racing at the time, whether it's number one or number 999, it doesn't matter to me. At this point, I'm racing for a position, I'm racing each position one at a time.
I’m kind of getting off track a little bit here with your original question, so to kind of loop around like it's, you know, I spent a lot of time with Juju [Beaumer] as a kid. He stayed at my house, he's from Havasu. So he would come and stay for a couple of weeks when he was younger and I'd go there and hang out. He's obviously, you could argue, on one of the best teams. But at the end of the day, and I know he's a rookie, but he's not somebody I'm worried about, necessarily. I'm not saying, ‘Oh, I've got him covered and I'm faster.’ It's simply that I don't worry about which direction they went or how they got there. I've been very open about how rough the three years I've had were, and I think sometimes I let that hinder me a little bit and play a bigger part than it should. So now my mindset is, ‘Listen, this is your job.’
If we went back a year-and-a-half, I wasn't sure what my job was gonna be. So now that this is my job, I'm gonna put 200 percent into it every time I'm out on the track, whether I'm racing a champion, or whoever I'm racing for position. I got in a little scuffle tonight with another rider. And, you know, after the race we had a little, I don't want to say an argument, but a talk and he said, ‘Listen, next time I'm behind you, you let me go by you.’ I said, ‘Listen, dude, I race to the checkered flag. I don't care who I'm racing. I race to the checkered. If I let you by, I'm never going to get better.’ If everyone let each other pass, we would each win each weekend or we would get the same position every weekend. You know, this isn't scripted. I put my heart and soul into this and I'm not going to pull over and say, ‘Oh, here you go, buddy, here's my position because you're quote unquote better than me.’ That's not how I work. And like I said, I bust my ass and I put a lot into this. The average person doesn't understand how many hours I put into this. So there's no chance that I'm reading numbers and saying, ‘Oh yeah, you can go by me.’ That's not how I work and that's not how I was raised, and it's not changing now.
Are you satisfied then with the way that this journey for you has gone to get back to this level?
Yes. If I had it, you know, the perfect way, maybe it would have been a little bit different. I'm pretty open and honest about this. Before GEICO shut down, I was in the office with Jeff and Ziggy and Borch negotiating for four or five more years onto the three or four that I had already done, [it was a contract] for the pro stuff. So I would have been set until this year or next year, even under GEICO. But at the end of the day, like I just told you, I can cry and pout about it and pull the poor me card. But Julian [of Partzilla/PRMX] gives me a great platform to perform on and he and I both want to get to the top of the sport. My goal is to be at the top and that's his goal, too. Like I said, I could cry and whine and make all these excuses about why I'm not this or why I'm not that, but I'm gonna put 110 percent into this and I'm gonna be the best I can be. So that's all behind me. I could have had it the easy way, but I've gone through a lot of stuff. I feel like that's what's changed a little bit this year. I'm like, ‘All right, that's behind you now.’ I have a two-year deal, so I've got next year as well. I've earned that. Everyone can say whatever, but I've earned a two-year contract, which I wasn't sure was ever going to come back ever again. I’m kind of just rambling and ranting, but, it's how I feel. It's just the raw emotions and I'm gonna go out on the track and do the best I can every time. Whether that's first or last, I'm gonna show up and do what I can.
