In a professional journey that has spanned more than two decades, Salt Lake City marked Twisted Tea Suzuki rider Kyle Chisholm’s final outing as a full-time competitor in Monster Energy Supercross. The 37-year-old has called time on this stage of his career, without ruling out the odd appearance in future, and detailed his decision in this Fast Thoughts interview.

Image: Octopi Media.

Emotions ahead of final race…

Honestly, it’s just been mixed – I have had that all year. It’s like some relief, it’s been a long time of racing. Sometimes I go out there and see the whoops and I’m definitely scared to go through those things, but that’s my job and I have to. So some of those things I won’t miss that much. But yeah, it’s just mixed, some relief, happiness, sadness – I’m going to miss it. Like I said, I wish I could race forever, but obviously, I can’t. It’s just mixed emotions.

Certainty of your decision…

I don’t trust myself to just quit completely, right? That’s why I’ve said this is my last full season, my last time racing all 17 and a full year. I love racing, like I’ve said, I wish I could do this forever, if I could I would, but obviously my body’s not going to let me do that. So honestly, I foresee myself doing some races in the future, I’m still doing the Playoffs this year, maybe a couple of outdoors before that. Even like what Dean Wilson has done this year, I love racing, so I’d love to go do some races around the world, right? Nothing is set in stone, I don’t really have any plan that’s 100 percent. I don’t see myself just going cold turkey and never racing again, like what [Adam Cianciarulo] has done, but we’ll see what happens.

The mindset change over the 20 years…

Well, it’s definitely changed. When I started, nobody had kids, people retired earlier – I always hoped I could race until I was around 30. Even back then, my dad was like, ‘no girlfriends around,’ like there were definitely no kids, so I kind of grew up in that era. I think it has changed, guys are racing a lot longer now, look at Eli [Tomac] and Jason Anderson – all of those guys. It’s definitely more of, I wouldn’t say a family sport, because growing up it’s a big family sport. My parents, brother, sister – everybody supported me. Look at Chad [Reed], he’s a pretty good example, where you can have kids and still do good at racing. For me, one reason I’m glad I’ve raced as long as I have, my kids are nine, six and two – again I always wish I could’ve done better in my career, but I think it’s cool to be able to show them what I do, and I think they’re at an age where, I hope they understand it. It’s been cool to be able to still race and they’re old enough to get what I do.

Image: Octopi Media.

Career expectations and highlights…

Results-wise, I wish I did better. Growing up as an amateur, I won a lot of championships. I had a lot of injuries at bad times in my pro career, but that’s part of it, right? That’s just what we deal with, so with that said, I feel like the thing I’m most proud of is not giving up – it would’ve been easy to just throw in the towel. Like I said, I love the sport, I’m a fan of the sport and I love what I get to do, so I think that’s what’s always kept me going. All those times when there were bad injuries, my love for what I get to do kind of overcame that. As far as highlights, I guess getting a career number, things that you wouldn’t think maybe… I don’t have the championships and the race wins, right? But getting a career number back in 2010 I think it was, I had a great year, came off a big injury, and it was a good year for me. Then the other thing was just being in opening ceremonies, back then too. The last few years, I don’t want to say I’ve lucked into opening ceremonies, but back in like 2010-2011, being in opening ceremonies was a pretty big milestone for me.

Thoughts on reserve-type roles in future…

I think JGR kind of did that a few years ago. I think it’s a good thing, because in our sport, with the injuries, we do a lot of races and don’t have a lot of time off. Sometimes those injuries just compound for some guys and you see a lot of them out. I think it depends on the team, it’s probably a unique situation though, do the teams need another rider out there for sponsor obligations and stuff? For me, I enjoy testing and developing the bike. I’m sensitive to the feeling on the bike, so I think that’s kind of what makes me good at doing that. Again, depending on the team and if they’d need something like that, yeah I think it’s something that could be useful.