Cody on the line at Woodland MX for the Quadcross NW opener.
Cody Irving is one of those guys that started racing young and has grown up into the Pro ranks of ATV riding. He’s raced inside and out, North and South, a little XC and mostly MX. Honing his skills he competed, and won, in the very first season of the Northwest’s biggest series – Quadcross NW. Forever in the history books, Cody gave us a few moments of his busy life to answer 5 of our questions.
You’ve raced a lot of MX, and won the inaugural Championship for the Quadcross Northwest series. How does that compare to other wins in your career?
It has to be my biggest accomplishment in my professional career. I’ve won some cool races in the past, but it was my first real professional championship. There was competition at every race, and there was always something to overcome, so all in all it was an awesome feat, and I’m glad we were able to pull it off.
What was your best race this year and why would you say it was your best?
That’s a tough question. We had a lot of great races this year. Woodland went awesome, sweeping both Pro motos, as well as the Pro Am motos. Then I was able to do the same thing at Spokane and Albany later in the year. So as far as wins, I’d have to pick Woodland, just because it was the opener and my favorite track. Now, if we were talking about where I felt at my best, it was definitely Horn Rapids. I didn’t end up winning the pro race there, but I felt awesome and came from way back to get into the lead before losing a tranny and some other fine parts.
Cody at the QXNW final round at Washougal MX.
You won almost every pro race in 2012, what to you attribute to your success?
I couldn’t pick just one thing. We did a lot of cool things this year. I won at least two motos at every round I entered at Quadcross this year. Never lost a Pro Am moto, and only lost 4 motos all year in Pro. I felt like we had done a pretty good job. Only had one bike failure all year, so that was great. Honestly, preparation is key to being successful. I trained all year getting ready for the series and learned so much about racing throughout the series. Making sure the bikes were fresh before each round was key as well. There’s nothing like having a great support team behind you. I wouldn’t have won a single moto if it weren’t for my pops. The guy can do it all.
You used to head south to race, and like many riders have since stayed closer to home in the last few years. Would you rather travel south again, or see more top riders head this way to compete in the Northwest and experience the tracks up here?
That’s kind of a two edged sword. I really miss traveling and being able to ride all those tracks down south. I feel like it’s something everyone should experience as it will definitely help your skill base. Those tracks are just different, fast with awesome flow, we don’t really have anything like that up here. Our tracks are much slower and quite a bit more technical. Now, as much as I’d like to have those guys come up here and race, which would be the best thing for racing up here, I miss those tracks. I’d love to be able to do both. Get those guys to come up and do our series, and then go hit some races down there.
Cody said he felt his best at Horn Rapids.
What would you say was your biggest challenge to overcome this year, and how did you overcome it?
Training. Before Quadcross NW came around, I never took training seriously. I never had a reason to do so. We didn’t have long, professional motos like the AMA Nats or the races down south. So keeping on track with my program and really building a strong fitness base was key, but man it was tough. I will say though, once I got started, it was easy to keep going. Those first few weeks were a bit rough, but I wanted to win! 2nd place isn’t where I want to be, so I trained my ass off and learned a lot for the future!