At Canada's first urban endurocross—the Red Bull Rocks and Logs in Calgary, Alberta, on May 26, 2013—Team Husqvarna's Cory Graffunder made it known that he was back home in Canada by claiming first place in the pro category. Until then, it had been four years since Graffunder made tracks on Canadian soil.
Born and raised in Vavenby, B.C., a small community that is located about an hour and a half from the city of Kamloops, Graffunder learned to ride dirt bikes as soon as he was old enough. It was single-track trail riding with the family until age nine when the desire to compete kicked in. Graffunder joined the off-road circuit and advanced from beginner to pro quickly. After winning everything on the Pacific Northwest Motorcycle Association calendar and in the Okanagan Hare Scramble Series, he turned his attention to motocross. Not long after that, Graffunder switched gears once more and relocated to sunny California to pursue the GEICO AMA EnduroCross series.
Graffunder started to shine as an endurocross rider in 2009, finishing off the season in the top five. Since then, he’s always made top five—except for 2011 when an injury put him out for most of the year. For 2013, though, Graffunder would like to close out the season in third place, and he’s well on his way to doing so.
RidersWest caught up with Graffunder two days after his second-place finish at the gruelling Prairie Dogs Last Dog Standing Race in San Bernardino, California, to talk about his racing career, his ride with Husqvarna and his thoughts on the Red Bull Rocks and Logs.
Your most recent race was the Last Dog Standing and you ended up in second place? Yes, it was pretty tough. It’s the third year I’ve done it. They try to make it an extreme race, like an Erzberg-type race. It was a long day. They had four different races throughout the day. The first three were about an hour long and the last one was two hours—it was a long day. They had a couple of pretty nasty spots—spots where I was even getting off the bike and walking it down ledges. It was extra tough being sick too. I really pushed through that to finish.
You’ve competed in Canada, the U.S. and Europe, so what has been your toughest race so far? The toughest thing I’ve ever done was Hell’s Gate. It was a really long day. You start in the morning before the sun even comes up and half of the course is frozen so there’s a lot of, like, creek valleys and frozen water and rocks. You pretty much ride up and down creeks the whole day. Erzberg is definitely tough but it’s a relatively short race—you’re typically done in two hours.
Who is your toughest competitor this season? Right now, Mike Brown seems to be the guy to beat. Taddy’s always kinda’ been the man in endurocross the last couple of years but he seems to be a little off his pace this year and Mike Brown has definitely stepped it up. He’s the guy with the target on his back right now. Cody Webb was going really fast too but he just broke his foot a couple of weeks ago so he’s going to be out for a while—but those two guys are the top guys.
Do you have any specific goals for this season? I’ve gotten a sixth, fifth and a fourth (in the endurocross championship) and my goal is to get that three. I want to get third in the championship so basically I want to be on the podium every race, and if I can do that, I feel like I can get a third and just keep building on that. If I can get it, I’ll shoot for the second and eventually the top spot.
Tell me about the Red Bull Rocks and Logs. That was really cool. I hadn’t done any racing in Canada since I moved down here, except for Xtinction in 2009. I felt like I definitely needed to be there and I wanted to be there. Red Bull did an amazing job and the course workers did an amazing job. The track and event was totally up to par as far as any other endurocross races I’ve ever been to . . . Luckily, I was able to take the win so that made it even better.
You’re on a Husqvarna TXC310R this year. What do you think of it? It’s really good, especially for endurocross. It’s kinda’ funny because most of the teams in the last couple of years would ride 250Fs and they would build it into a 280 or 300 and the 310 is basically that when you get it. You don’t really have to do anything to it. As far as the motor goes, it’s plenty fast. It’s a really light bike; it carries its weight really low so it feels even lighter when you ride it, which is exactly what you need for endurocross—something that doesn’t wear you out and you can move around easily and when you do crash, it’s easy to pick up. This season, the tracks have been quite a bit different, especially the X Games tracks. They’re in way bigger stadiums (and) they’re way faster. For example, most of the time, like in Las Vegas, I will use first gear the whole track and then when we went to Barcelona, I was in second and third gear the whole time. The speeds are way higher and the straightaways are way longer and the tracks seem to be quite a bit easier. The guys riding the 450s, even the KTMs on 350, I think they have a bit of an advantage—just powerwise with the faster tracks—but all in all, I’m really happy with the bike.
You’ve been able to make a living from racing, so do you have any advice for others looking to pursue a full-time career in racing? Just go for it. There’s nothing really that can hold you back. I was super fortunate to come across some help along the way and that really gave me a leg up as far as training, nutrition and financial support goes, (which) are all the pieces you need to become a pro. I think that is important, but just go for it.
Cory Graffunder is sponsored by Husqvarna, TLD, Dunlop, FMF, Stillwell Performance, Rekluse, Faast, Sidi, Dirt Tricks, GPR, Silkolene, AME, Hyde, CV4, TM Designs, IMS, ARC, Uni, Accelerade, Super B, PG, 509 and USWE. Go to the GEICO AMA EnduroCross website for race results, photos, videos and more.
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