Pierce Brown Fires Back at Daytona

I don’t think I even need to tell you, but that ride was NOT garbage! You don’t just luck your way to a podium finish in Monster Energy Supercross! After five months off the bike! At Daytona!

Pierce Brown returned to racing on Saturday at Daytona and ended the night with a pro-career best, third place finish. Maybe a little tough lovin’ is the just medicine the supercross doctor ordered! (Yes, I totally stole that ridiculous nugget from the broadcast.)

“I was off the bike for four and a half months and it’s been about eight or nine months since I lined up,” Brown said. “The nerves felt like it was my first race ever. I did not expect to be on the podium… I couldn’t be happier.”

“It’s definitely been a building process,” he said of the long recovery period. “I got six weeks of an offseason and I came in super unprepared and I just kind of rode out there… But I trusted my ability and next thing I know I was in third place. Justin Cooper was right there on me at the end and I just had to put my head down and dig deal… A lot of lows and a lot of highs, but this is definitely a high.”

When we met with Pierce to film the latest episode of B&W we truly had no idea of how the day would go. More often than not, the only thing that we have planned where we’ll meet the rider and what time we should arrive TO shoot! And, for this project, that’s all by design. From a filming perspective, we are doing our best to be a fly on the wall and not put any influence on, or lead the athlete in to acting any type of way. In short, we’re trying to give you a real glimpse into what it’s like for these guys on a normal Tuesday when they go to work, just like the rest of us.

So, when Kyle and I shot with Pierce and his day wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, we knew it was going to be a good episode. We love Pierce, and all the folks over at TLD/GasGas, and we’d never wish for a rough day for any team or any of the riders for the sake of a good video. But, we knew it would be good because it was gonna be real, and sometimes we need real. We can’t always just show the Instagram version of a day where nothing bad happens, where nobody’s having a tough time, and where everything is just perfect. The reality is that it just ain’t easy making a living racing dirtbikes, and this is the kinda stuff that makes it a JOB for them. If it wasn’t for these days, that red plate wouldn’t be so special and the trophies would just be hunks of plastic and wood, meaningless without the sacrifice it took to earn them. 

When we released Pierce’s video lots of opinions were being passed on by keyboard quarterbacks and couch-side riding coaches, many questioning whether the methods used his tech, Kristian, were appropriate or effective. And as we said before, our take on that is that we have no idea what the relationship between rider and mechanic, rider and team, team and staff, is like.

Maybe for some riders a little tough love goes a long way, and with results like we saw this weekend, it’s hard to doubt whether or not it’s working for Pierce and the TLD team.

So, let’s all calm down a little when we see a coach/mechanic, etc. being a little hard on a rider.

Main image: Octopi Media