Casey Keast Update | Rolling with the Punches

Casey Keast Update | Rolling with the Punches

By Billy Rainford

Kelowna, BC racer #300 Casey Keast has spent the last month training with Kevin Urqhart at his Bulldog Training Facility in Menifee, California. Casey is down south in preparation for his first run at a few rounds of 2021 Monster Energy AMA Supercross.

Casey is the current Future West Moto Arenacross champion and has no shortage of natural talent that shines through on the tight indoor-style tracks.

We got in touch with Casey at around 9:00pm on Thursday night, assuming we would be talking to him from the comfort of his Carlson Racing Shift Husqvarna pick-up truck and 5th-wheel trailer. Unfortunately, that’s not where we found him.

Casey’s week took a strange turn when their almost-new truck broke down in Tucson, Arizona. They were forced to unhook the trailer and get the truck to a dealership where they were told the fuel sensor was the issue. That meant they would have to leave the truck with them for a couple days, which was a problem for obvious reasons.

When I spoke to Casey and Kevin, they were in a U Haul van and trailer about 13 hours from Arlington. They were now going to have to drive through the entire night in order to make it to the stadium in time for their 2:00pm COVID-19 tests.

I did my best to tell Casey how good this story will be when a few years pass and he’s recounting it in hindsight. If anyone can roll with the punches the road can throw at you, it’s Casey. He said he won’t let himself get too frustrated.

Now, they’ll have to get a hotel room instead of relaxing at the track in their own rig for the first part of their 3-race stay in Texas. Fortunately, Brent Carlson knows someone from Arizona who will drive the truck and trailer to them in Texas. The truck is supposed to be ready at noon on Friday, so the two shouldn’t be put out for too long.

No, it’s not ideal, but these are the cards they’ve been dealt and they have no choice but to jump through the hoops they have in front of them in order to have the best chance of doing as well as Casey has the potential to.

Casey said that he was off the pace when he first arrived at the practice tracks in California, but that after a couple weeks he had picked up the pace and was feeling comfortable.

He added that the process to get clearance from the CMA went very smoothly. He wasn’t able to get his traditional #217 but that he has no problem with the #300 that was available from the AMA.

We’ll be sure to check in with Casey after he makes his way through his first-ever AMA Supercross and we also appreciate him taking the time to talk with us, even through the obvious stress they were under when we did.