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When you get a rider like Phil Nicoletti to come on your podcast and talk about his amateur career it’s like a holiday. You get plenty of information that you’ve never heard before, which is a present for you listeners, but you also get a bountiful harvest of F bombs. Just like at the family dinner when your Aunt Karen gets three glasses of Chardonnay in her. Phil’s delivery on some of his stories are just top tier.
If you haven’t listened to Nicoletti on the Squad Pod, then what is wrong with you? It’s available on the Vurbmoto Podcast Network and you can get it now on any pod catcher of your choosing. I use Spotify, so do that.
I went and pulled eight of my favorite quotes from the interview and ranked them by which ones are the best. Why not six quotes? Well that’s too few. Why not nine quotes? Well, that’s too many. Since this is a family show, I went ahead and edited out the F bombs in this column, but the pod remains unedited.
I’m getting Phil a swear jar for Christmas.
1. “I’m the oldest of five, I’ve got three sisters and a brother (laughs) my parents weren’t messing around. They’re all quite successful, ones a lawyer, one worked for the Yankees and now she works for a hedge funds company, the other one is in law enforcement, my brother has a geology degree and going to be a teacher, so I’m the *bleeping* loser in the family that rides dirt bikes.”
Poor Phil.
2. “I was winning locally quite a bit and we always heard about Loretta’s. We had Jason Lawrence and Jay Weller and they were my elite at that time. When I was 7, 8, and 9 and all that, I just wanted to be like them. I remember they would come back with like 5N on their Cobra 50s, or 3N, or 1N, whatever and I’m like ‘holy *bleep* you know?”
Even at a young age, Phil was cursing like a sailor in the 50 class.
3. “I never did baseball or football because that was always the season of riding dirt bikes. I always went against the football players because they thought they were badass in high school, they’d always wear their jerseys on game days and whatever, you know? So, I always thought that was pretty *bleeping* corny.
Even if the jersey was mandatory to wear on gameday, Phil didn’t want to hear it.
4. “I started riding downstairs in the basement of my house. That was before we knew that the throttle could be adjusted and I don’t know, my *bleeping* dad set me up for failure. I was in enclosed quarters with cement foundation, I wish YouTube was around back then. I smoked a concrete wall and we put the P-Dub away for a little while.”
Phil may be the only rider to practice in his basement.
5. “Well, (Bleep) you did your research, huh?”
Why would you be surprised that I did my research Phillip? I’m going to win the 2023 AMA Media Member of the Year Award.
6. “That was the first year that I met Zach Osborne at the Frozen Ocean regional. I thought his mechanic Al Albiker at the time was his dad because Zach’s dad Mark was never around. He was always working or doing his drag car racing or whatever. We met Zach and we battled tooth and nail and that *bleeping* regional. I remember it clear as day today. Zach, as everyone knows was a short little stubby fat kid, but *bleep* he hauled ass!”
Zach Osborne was destined for greatness from the start.
7. “I think I went 5-4-3 in 2004, Zach Osborne dominated, Picone went 2-2-2, and third place came down to me and Dunge. It came down to the last moto and he and I were tied, and it was a winner take all for third. Dunge in the second moto actually crossed jumped me really bad on the middle table top because he used to be really bad. In the movie The Beginning you can actually see him cross over on me off the face and I jump off the side and I cartwheel. Everyone says that Dunge is a good guy and a clean rider, well go back and watch that video, he’s not very clean. (laughs). I’m joking. We bullshit about it now.”
The Dungey call out here is amazing.
8. “I was doing the High Point regional and my Kawi was slow as shit. Sean Hackley was there and he always had the most badass Kawi’s ever and his shit was just *bleeping* yarding me.”
Sean Hackley was the Disney kid for a reason!
Listen to the full show.
Main image: Jason Friberg
