And with the combination of attitude, equipment, and teammates, I’m confident that he will be challenging exactly for that - until the end.  Capturing one win so far, and second place in points to teammate Tyler Bowers, we caught up with the 29 year old family man.   

Chad, finishing fourth overall last year; your season was “okay”, but probably not quite the way that you wanted it to go.

 Yeah, definitely it was not the season that I wanted - at all.  You know, the year before we had won it, and I came in last year really, really pushing to win again – but the season simply did not go our way.  I didn’t have the greatest starts, and had some bike problems - just every time that I turned around something was going wrong.  So I went home (Wisconsin) this past summer where I worked for my family, and taught some riding schools – now I’m back out this year and just going back after it again.

Last season you had some health issues too right?

Yeah, I did have a couple rounds where I had a bad flu bug at, and a couple that we all had colds at.  During one of the rounds I was puking the whole night, so that wasn’t any good (laughing), but unfortunately that kind of stuff happens - you just try to overcome it, move on, and go forward. 

Some circumstances appear that they were simply beyond your control...

Yeah, you are right, but anytime that something does go wrong you’re always better off blaming it on yourself, because then you look forward to the next year and you figure out what happened and why those things went wrong - you try to just get ahead of the game and figure it out.  It’s never right to blame it on anything else or anybody else. Ultimately, you’re the one riding; you’re the one getting the results - it’s really in your hands. 

As far as your bike, do you feel more dialed in this season? 

Oh yeah, definitely; we’ve been down with Merge Racing doing a bunch of testing.  The motors are great, and so is the suspension.  I’ve got a ton of hours on my practice bike already, and haven’t had any breakdowns or any issues at all - we should be good to go.

Of course the season has just began, but so far the Babbitt’s Team has done pretty well; is this good indication of what we’re going to see during the rest of the series?

You know, I’d really like to think so - but you never know with racing.  In these initial rounds, I think everybody goes into them to figure out where they’re at, and what they need to do to get to where they need to be.  I’m sure there are a handful of riders that have left these first couple, and gone home to work on the things that they needed to get done; whether it was getting the bikes faster and working better, or getting in better shape as a rider – really just everything.  You really use Des Moines as an initial marker; then you come into Grand Rapids swinging – but still doing some fine tuning. 

How do you feel with Tyler and Josh on the team? 

I think that as a whole we’re a great team.  Josh and I have a couple titles under our belts, and Bowers has also definitely thrown in some good results.  Tyler is young, so it’s good – he brings some youth to the team.  In turn JD and I can bring in some experience to the team, and as a whole, just have a good year.  Hopefully we can all be on the podium one, two, three all the time. 

With your past experience and success; how do you approach the start of another Arenacross series – has your preparation changed much from your early racing days?

You know, the best thing I’ve always done is to just go out and ride as hard as I can the whole time, and then simply judge your situations as they come at you.  If it’s getting a little sketchy or there’s a certain section that’s getting a little hard to do, and you’ve got to back her down a little bit just so you stay on two wheels, then you do that.  Definitely you pace yourself a little more at the beginning of the season just because at the end of the season, if it comes down to it, you definitely go after it a little harder.  I definitely believe that pacing yourself and being consistent is the most important thing.  I primarily just train a lot and ride a lot.  With me teaching schools a lot more; I’m working a lot more with my training and riding than I ever have done during the season.  Usually I go to work in the summertime at my parent’s business and whatnot, but I’m staying busy with training all the time now.  So that’s a little bit of a change, but I think it’s a good change.  It keeps me active, and keeps me moving - and it makes me want it more because working during the week ain't all that fun.

You have won a couple of titles already; how important is winning this year’s championship?

Well, you know, it’s always important!  It’s extremely important to go out and win races; if you’re not winning, no one really seems to care about you a whole bunch - as bad as that sounds.  If you’re not up front a handful of times throughout the season, then no one really pays attention to you.  If you want a ride for the next year and you want a job, it’s definitely very important to be out front! 

Especially in this economy I would guess.

Oh, definitely; I think everybody’s seen it.  The motocross industry is a want item, not a need item.  Right now, the economy is bad and everybody is downsizing with everything.  If it’s a want item, it’s definitely not as important as a need item.  There are a lot of people that can’t even take care of the need items let alone do the want items stuff - it’s definitely affecting everybody.

As wrap up Chad, is there anything that you might want to add? 

Just a huge thank you to all my sponsors; of course Team Babbitt’s with (Team Manager) Denny Bartz, (Owner) Eddie Babbitt, my mechanic Rob Goodwin; really everyone there - just the whole crew.  Also all our sponsors like Merge Racing, Moose, Ti Lube, Monster Energy, Kawasaki, Moose Racing, and Maxxis,   I also definitely want to thank my parents, and my wife and daughters who have been behind me for the last however many years I’ve been doing this - a special thanks to all of them!