I was technically never really without a job. I had a plan in place before I left Planet Honda to start the new team, and I actually approached Chuck, the owner of Planet Honda, about buying the team out and letting us operate it. He didn't want to do that so the next step was to go ahead and leave.
Although I really didn't want to leave, I just wanted to do things differently. So the next step was to move out on my own and that is when we joined forces with the guys at Motoworld who already had somewhat of an existing team.
Q: That first year at Motoworld you guys had the full semi and four or five riders. Right away received quite a bit of publicity and the team did pretty well.
PL: Well my partner Tim, along with Brian Juhnke at Motoworld, collectively had a game plan. Motoworld had an existing platform with a team already and they wanted to take it to the next level - and we helped them to do that. I had other opportunities in the industry and actually had two quite flattering job offers. It really floored me that people thought that highly of me to make these job offers to me, and I have to tell you, I lost a lot of sleep over taking one of these two job offers or starting my own team.
But ultimately my wife Susan was the one who talked me into doing the team deal and at this moment I'm just the happiest guy on earth because it was the right decision. At the time you make a decision like that, it's pretty gnarly because you don't know if you're doing the right thing, but like I said, when I look back it was definitely the right decision. I'm very happy and content with the team and luckily we have been pretty successful - so I'm definitely excited about it.
Q: Were you happy with how things worked out that first year? I remember Damon Huffman and Greg Schnell put in a lot of good rides on the 250F.
