Cameron McAdoo Interview: Indianapolis Press Day
March 15, 2024
Do you have a favorite city you like to visit?
I really like Indy. My wife and I actually talked about it at the airport yesterday - we love coming here. We go to St. Elmo Steakhouse, we get the shrimp cocktail (it'll clear you out). There's cool coffee shop, cool brunch spot that we've found. We love the stadium - so Indy's a good one. We probably wouldn't live here, but it's fun to visit for a few days. We also really like Arlington - going to Dallas, it's just clean, it's nice.Does it feel better racing with your teammate as opposed to other guys? Do you guys train with each other a lot? And when you're out together on a track, is that more comforting to you?
We love Daytona - it's cool in its own way, especially with it being bike week. And we've learned that we don't stay by the beach in Daytona, 'cause I need my sleep. It's pretty loud there.
When we did the residency in Salt Lake, that was really fun because we went to Park City almost every day during the week - it's gorgeous up there. Got to go to the Olympic Park a lot.
Not really comforting wise. The position I finish is the position I'm gonna finish, and I wanna win. Obviously I would rather my teammate have success rather than, you know, others. And Seth and I have a pretty cool relationship. He's someone I've really respected ever since he turned pro - his rookie year I was on the team. And just his approach to racing, his approach to life, even when he was fairly young - it was really respectable and it was relatable to me. He works hard. He stays quiet, he deals with struggles just like we all do, but he deals with them rather than running away from them. I saw that early on. His first year, whether it be whoops - he wouldn't just like quit on them. He's a no ego type of guy, fun to ride with during the week. We don't have the same trainer or anything, but we do link up in Motos and ride together. So that's fun. I see what he does during the week. I see what he goes through. When he has success, I'm pumped for him! And I think some people have seen that last couple weeks. We've done some funny things and, yeah, it's cool to see for him. Obviously I'm racing him just as I'm racing every competitor and I'll race him the same way. But yeah, he's fun to share the truck with.Is it hard to build personal relationships in this sport when you all are competitors? At least with the riders?
Definitely. I think a lot of riders have made it even harder. And I'm one of them. We want to put our doors up and be super tough against each other, there's not a lot of comradery between the riders it seems. Just for me personally, I've never seen a benefit to hating my teammate. For what? Just because we're both racing for the same thing or we're going for the same goal. If they've never really done anything to me, why would I not like them as a person? I'm creating stuff in my head, in a sense. And I think that's worked for a lot of guys. Like, RC was great at it - he wanted to hate James. He wanted to hate Chad. And that gave him motivation, and I think that's how he worked and we all just work differently. So for me, I want as much positive energy as I can have. Some of my teammates or some of the other riders, I don't really talk to at all. But I don't, I don't hate 'em, we maybe don't share much in common. So I don't work to be friends with my competitors, but I also don't feel like I need to be enemies with any of them.What do you think so far about the track, after walking around a little?
Initial thoughts - it's interesting. The way the whoops go into a flat turn is gonna be interesting. I don't know, but I expect it to really turn 'em into jumpers. I don't ever really like that so much, but I like the challenge. It looks cool. There's some different obstacles and different ways that it connects through. Also, it's gonna be soft - we always know Indy's gonna be soft. It's gonna be rutted, but looks good.You said last week that you like the soft rutted conditions, right?
Yeah, I do! I'm down for anything kind of. I do like when it gets rutted up and technical just because it separates. But I think there's also a fine line between letting it go and they do really well at keeping it rutted and technical and separating but not dangerous. Still raceable.
