Jason Dodds: Florida MotorSports is a dealership out of Punta Gorda in Naples. Basically what we did was Jeff Yingling, Ryan Damm and myself, set up with Florida Motorsports and Freedom MX Racing, which is us. We wanted to put together a program where we could start our race team. Florida MotorSports allowed us to bring parts to the track to help fund the race team and that was their way of supporting the sport, and it helps us support the riders. We’ve been at a race where nobody has parts, and there you are, you’re going home early on the weekend and not getting to ride. Freedom MX Racing joined with Florida Motorsports in being able to provide the parts at the track.

FLmx: How did you get hooked up with them?

JD: Ryan and I have raced together some. He came in a little later than I did on the pro scene, but I’ve known him for years. Jeff, I’ve met obviously through Dalton’s racing and being at the track when I was running Gatorback.

FLmx: How’s your role in the Freedom MX Racing treating you?

JD: It’s actually great because all three of us, Ryan, Jeff and myself, we love the sport. The family atmosphere – I don’t really look at them as business partners or friends, it’s like family. It’s more like brothers, and we’re doing something that we all love to do and are able to continue to do it by joining forces.

FLmx: For sure. It reflects in the image you all bring to the track every weekend.

JD: Well, we want to help the people. We go out of our way to help anybody we can. Several races this year since we started this thing six months ago, I know of three or four times that we’ve loaned out one of our race or practice bikes just so someone didn’t have to go home.

FLmx: It sounds like no one else was going to do that.

JD: I mean, we’ve been in that situation. Before we started this, at a regional last year, PJ Larsen blew up a motor. They pulled one of our race motors out of our bikes and loaned it to him so he could qualify for Loretta’s. It’s not very often that you run across people like that, but in the motocross industry, it’s a pretty tight family. I think most anybody would step up and do everything they could to help.

FLmx: What’s the primary goal for the team every weekend?

JD: We want to be able to provide to the customer, which is the riders, who are part of our industry family, a means of being able to continue to ride on the weekends. We’re basically doing it to help fund the amateur team and to have the service at the track for the people.

FLmx: Talk about the amateur race team?

JD: Derek Hall and Dalton Yingling are our full time riders – bikes, parts, gear, everything, we provide for them. Aside from that, we have an amateur program that is based off of report cards versus off of results. Appearance is a big thing, but a kid that has A and B report cards is going to get the highest level of support we can give him as far as discounts on bikes and parts. A kid that has Bs and Cs may get a lower level of support, but he has that incentive to work harder and have better attendance in school, have his hat on straight, not crooked to get that higher level of support.

FLmx: Do you have a list of those riders?

JD: Hunter Davis is one of them. He’s an 85 rider. Trevor Boyles is a 65 10-11 rider. Brandon Westberry is a B rider. Those are just three of the guys we’re helping out. Our goal is to continue what we’re doing and provide that service for more riders.

FLmx: That’s interesting. These days, there’s not much of an emphasis on school…

JD: That’s one of the things that we set down with Florida MotorSports and came up with. It was a plan that we wanted to do. I always said that there’s so many kids that don’t have riding results, but deserve something as a reward. We post it every month and update it on our website, which is fl-motorsports.com.

FLmx: Are you looking to increase the race team?

JD: Ultimately our goal is to have a three man team, possibly a four man team. As financial backing comes, we’ll be a little more suited to do that. We’d like to be as big as the Xtreme amateur team. Hopefully, I’d like to take a two man team into the pro ranks, which would be Derek and Dalton. We’re looking to try and put together another semi for that as well.

FLmx: So, the future is boundless for you guys, then?

JD: Oh yeah. We’re diehard motocrossers. If there’s a will, there’s a way. You see so many families that will do anything they can to stay in the sport. Even once, Jeff’s boy Dalton goes onto the pro ranks and Derek goes onto the pro ranks, we’re still going to have an amateur team. It’s not going to stop when they go forward. We want to have an amateur and a pro team eventually.

FLmx: Are you looking into outside sponsors as well?

JD: Obviously we want to stay in the industry, but in the outside of the motocross industry, support we could get would be great. That’s where we’re looking.

FLmx: Is there anybody you would like to thank?

JD: First off, I want to thank our team. Jeff, Ryan, Kevin - one of our mechanics. Derek and Dalton for all their hard work. Florida MotorSports - I can’t say enough about CT and Sean for all their support. Paints and Coatings – Jeff and Carl – they help us financially more so than probably anybody could or would be willing to outside of the industry, so I want to thank them. Fly Racing – Rodney out there. Bob at Scott USA. Pit Posse. R2. Yoshimura – Richard, he’s awesome. RoostMX. Twin Air. Vortex. Wally at Bithlo and Waldo Motorsports for allowing us to have great training facilities. ABC Flooring center. Motomompix.com. MTF – Colleen and Bryan for opening up their facility to us anytime we want to use it to train. Naples Printing. You guys at FLmx are awesome and do a great job.