10 Minutes + 2 Laps with Kolby Carlile
Corn dog mic activated: Kolby Carlile at the DuQuoin Mile [Photo: Kristen Lassen for AMA Pro Racing]
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In “10 Minutes + 2 Laps with…”, we take the same amount of time required to complete a Mission AFT SuperTwins Main Event (give or take a red flag) and use it to catch up with, and hopefully learn a little about, some of the more prominent figures on the Progressive American Flat Track scene. This week, we caught up with Progressive AFT champion turned Progressive AFT commentator Kolby Carlile.
AmericanFlatTrack.com: Hey Kolby, I have to say, you’ve made a seamless transition from racing to commentating. You seem very natural in the role. What’s that experience been like for you?
Kolby Carlile: Once I started getting hurt there in 2022, I started doing it just for fun with (“the voice of American Flat Track”) Scottie (Deubler). I had no intention of actually trying to do it full-time like I'm doing now. But I feel like I've always been pretty articulate on the podium and things like that, so I think that's why it naturally flowed really well. And then obviously I've had chemistry with Scottie for so long. It’s all really culminated into what we have now.
AFT: Does that chemistry go back to him originally interviewing you on the podium and in the pits when you were first coming up?
KC: Yeah… And he’s a racer himself to begin with, and then we’d actually done some traveling together a long time ago. So we’ve just built chemistry and rapport over the years. Not even from the interviews, necessarily, but just seeing him at the races and talking in the pits during the weekends.
AFT: You both share the self-deprecating humor and your personalities mesh in that sense too.
KC: With us being friends, we can kind of mess with each other a little bit and make little jokes. I think that comes off well with the fans because being a little bit looser and funnier, I think deep down that’s how our fans want us to be. They don't want us to be fully serious. I think that’s just kind of how dirt track fans are.
AFT: I have a theory, and you can tell me if you agree. I feel like one of your strengths is the fact that you can relate to the experiences of pretty much everyone out there. You had significant success – Singles title, Production Twins wins, SuperTwins top-fives – but you also know what it’s like to struggle with injuries or having to fight just to make the Main. Thoughts?
KC: I think that's a great point because I truly have been all over. I've been on my own team, I've been on bad teams, and I've been on the best team in the pits. I have had the highest of highs, winning the championship and having some good results, and then the lowest of lows, being injured just repeatedly there towards the end, having a lot of surgeries but no luck.
I also think I've got a good vision of what I'm actually watching. I've got enough respect for my (former) competitors, that even though sometimes I can't do what they can, and I can't go as fast as some of them can, I still feel like I'm well versed enough in what they're doing that I can call them out if I think they could be doing something better. That’s a fine line to walk at times, but I feel confident in it, and I think that helps bring another layer to the commentary.
AFT: You mentioned having had experience with what you termed the best team in the paddock… It may be hard for some people to remember – but I’m sure you’re not one of them – that Estenson Racing endured some real struggles developing the Yamaha to get it where it is now. Back in ‘21, for example, you and JD (Beach) had to give everything you had just to sniff the top ten. And now they’re on the box pretty much every week.
When you see what they’re doing, do you feel a sense of pride in having played a role in that development, or are you just wishing you had ridden a bike like the one they have now?
KC: Honestly, I don't think we played much of a role. I'd like to think we did, but I just think that the leap they took at the end of 2021 coming out with flywheel, and then just all of a sudden figuring out the electronic package in 2022, that bike was night-and-day better than what I, JD, and Jake Johnson rode.
There were times where JD and I were battling to the death for 14th and 15th. I mean, we were going tooth and nail, and we just couldn’t do it. We just didn’t have the equipment under us. Plus we were going up the Indians, which wasn’t easy.
But that bike that they rolled out on in ‘22, they just figured it out. So yeah, I really wish I could have ridden that one because I think I could have done well. I think I could have gotten some top fives and maybe a podium… And maybe on the right day, I could have even won. That bike was way better from what we had… Look at JD – look how his results just transformed overnight on the oval tracks.
AFT: At a minimum, one has got to give Estenson credit for sticking with the program and putting in a huge effort to make that leap.
KC: Yeah, it would have been easy to switch to Indians. But that’s not the vision they had. And I mean, they poured so much money into getting it to where it is now, and it was good to see them get there. I just wish I could have been on that bike.
AFT: But even now it’s a fight. You look at what the Harley is doing… The XG has been racking up the wins.
KC: I think with the rule changes, something's going on with them. Two years ago, (Estenson) were really, really good. And last year, they were still very good, but this year something just off. Dallas (Daniels) has to be perfect to try to go for these wins.
AFT: Every time we do one of these, we ask the same two bonus questions. First, can you name an interest or hobby of yours that is completely removed from racing, engines, or wheels?
KC: I like to read.
AFT: What do you read?
Speaker 2: I'll pretty much read anything, but right now I'm reading Dungeon Crawler Carl.
AFT: I have not read that, but I keep seeing it get recommended.
KC: Yeah, it’s phenomenal.
AFT: Okay, last question. What would be your death-row style last meal?
KC: Chicken Parmesan.
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