Misti Hurst: From AMA Pro Racing to Writing the Book on Cornering

In this episode, I sit down with Misti Hurst — former AMA Pro Supersport racer, senior California Superbike School coach, mountain bike mentor, mini-moto mom, and now… published author.

With over 20 years of experience racing and coaching riders around the world, Misti is one of the most respected voices in motorcycle education today. Now, she’s turning the throttle in a new direction with her debut book, Life in the Fast Lane: Discovering the Art of Cornering — a powerful mix of riding techniques, behind-the-scenes coaching stories, and deeply personal lessons from the road, the racetrack, and life itself.

We talk about:

• Her journey from street rider to pro racer and coach
• Working with Keith Code and the evolution of CSS
• The psychology of fear, coaching, and breakthroughs
• How she teaches kids, mountain bikers, and Moto Moms alike
• What it really took to write this book — and why now
• Her new Kickstarter campaign to bring Life in the Fast Lane to print

If you ride, coach, teach, or just love a good comeback story — this one’s for you.

🎯 Support Misti’s Book on Kickstarter (launches Nov 11, 2025):
👉 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mistihurst/life-in-the-fast-lane-discovering-the-art-of-cornering

Transcript

Angus Norton (00:01.65)
Okay, so...

Is there like, is there like a, like a, a one truth about motorcycles that you would maybe never coach out of someone? Like even if it's a rational or personal, like have you ever come across something like that?

Misti (00:18.286)
One truth I I don't know that's a tough question I mean I'd have to probably just say that you know as much as We never want to think of the inevitable like there's there's danger factor in riding motorcycles and you know I've I've lost people near and dear to me because of them and yet

we still ride and you know, so I think that maybe that's it that you'll never, you know, you'll never coach out of someone and nor would I ever try to not ride. Let's just put it like that.

Angus Norton (00:53.855)
Well, the reason I bring it up, as you said in the book, the perfect ride is a dream bike. One of those dreams where you can control everything. You see, and I was sort of reflecting on that a little bit. mean, obviously you talked about how life has changed. It's becoming a mum. It's mum, not mom.

Mum. That's right. Or it's oat. It's oat in a boat because you're a Canadian. Like what would 24 year old pig dragging Misty say if she saw you now? Do you think?

Misti (01:13.902)
It changes, it's bruh now. Bruh, bro.

Misti (01:23.095)
Ahem.

Misti (01:26.882)
Ooh. You know what? I think she'd say fricking right on. You did it. 24 year old peg dragging misty, all she wanted to do was ride motorcycles for her life. I had just found the passion.

And all I wanted to do was ride all the time. And so she'd look now and go, damn, like you're, you're making a living doing what you wanted to do. You said, screw the nine to five job and, you did it. So, and then, and then she'd probably say, now give me that book. Cause I could probably learn a thing or two.

Angus Norton (02:02.037)
Right. Yeah. So like the looking in the future. And so as you think about the campaign, I'm just, I'm just a huge fan of like real content based on real experience, not like a five second tick tock, like 22,000 Canadian is your goal, right? And that's a bold goal. Now, if you hit it, what happens if you hit it? And what happens if you blast through it in terms of, you know, getting this book to market? And I'm going to put all the links up here because

Like I really hope that folks I see folks, you know, spending like, I'll give you an example. The only, Patreon, thing that I pay for is Matt Oxley's podcast. Cause it's so good. Like him, it's so good, you know, and I think it's like a couple of dollars a month or something, whatever. There's very few that I, that I pay for, but I pay for Matt's one. Matt's been on the podcast as well, but like, what happens if you hit it and what happens if you blow past it?

Misti (02:43.246)
you

Misti (02:58.574)
Yeah, so basically Kickstarter is an all or nothing crowdfunding platform and and and the reason behind that is that they want to make sure that that you deliver the product you're promising to deliver. So if my goal amount is 22,000, which it is that is what my budget is for creating a first run of the product and by the product. mean you'll have

to get the softcover version, an exclusive Kickstarter only signed hardcover edition. You can get the ebook. You can donate any amount just because you want to support the project and see it come to fruition. And then there's other higher tiers where they're a little bit more exclusivity and they're kind of exciting.

Which I'll get into just a sec because I want to answer the big question, which is if I succeed with hitting the funding goal, then I can deliver the product. And then if I go over it, that will just start fueling further expansion of sort of life in the fast lane concept. And along the way you hit sort of these stretch goals they're called. So you have your basic funding goal.

So if I hit that, product is, you know, then I have the funding to, you know, pay for an editor, get the cover designed, send it to the book fulfillment company to get it printed. And then shipping and all of that is all included in that budget. If you go past that budget at certain levels, there's different stretch goals unlocked.

And that means, I think if we hit 35,000, then I can upgrade the paper and the sort of cover quality for everybody that purchases. So it's kind of like group incentive, right? It's like, hey, if we all just support this project a little more, then we'll get a higher quality product because there's more print requests, et cetera.

Misti (05:20.19)
Another one is, you know, the highest stretch goal I think is that I'll make an audio book of it. Cause a lot of people have said like, are you going to do an audio book? So, yeah, the, definite goal is to hit that, 22,000 Canadian, which, just means then, you know, the way Kickstarter, you can look at it as your, your pre purchasing the book, your,

you're pre-supporting it to say, we believe that you're capable of delivering this product. We want to support it, and we're going to prepay for it so that you can get it published.

Angus Norton (05:59.317)
And you've got, so you've got coaching, you've got coaching calls, track rewards, even like dual signed books with Keefe code, right? Yeah, yeah, that's cool. And that's all detailed on your site. Do you want to just plug those things a little bit as well?

Misti (06:09.814)
Yes.

Misti (06:15.04)
Sure. basically right now we've got a Kickstarter pre-launch page up, which the ideal scenario here is that you'll click notify me on the pre-launch page. That way on launch day, which is November 11th, then everyone who's clicked notify me will get an automatic message saying.

Okay, the campaign is live and now you can contribute. And from there, you just look on the different rewards levels. You can donate as little as a dollar just because you want to support the project, or you can go through the different tiers. I've mentioned a few of them. There's going to be an ebook version for 15 bucks.

There's going to be a dual hardcover signed by both me and Keith. So this is pretty cool. It's going to be limited in quantity to the first 150 backers. So for people that are interested in sort of the only dual signed version available, that's kind of a cool one to jump on. And then there's a couple other.

tiers that are fun. There's a $125 Ride the Dream slot where $25 of that will go into a fund that I'm creating for a youth development program so that then I can select a youth or run a big program for a bunch of kids to give them the skills earlier on. So that's kind of like a

a kindness tier and that also gets you into a thank you opportunity for a day at the Superbike School. So basically whoever backs that one at the end, there'll be one person will have the opportunity to go to a Superbike School, no charge. So that one's kind of.

Angus Norton (08:18.661)
that's cool.

Misti (08:19.648)
Very exciting. And then, there's a, there's, were talking earlier about how you wanted to do a track day with me. Well, guess what? There's an option for that. A tier where you can do a track day with me, you know, and if you didn't want the actual coaching or we could design it for coaching less intensive in a certain way, that's an option. And then there's also a super fun option. It's the highest tier option. So.

Angus Norton (08:30.101)
Okay.

Angus Norton (08:40.383)
Yeah. Yeah.

Misti (08:49.038)
kind of good for someone who's keen to support at that level of a $5,000 contribution, so potential sponsorship sort of support. it's a creative tier where they can suggest a chapter in the book and we can sort of co-come up with it together and I'll write an exclusive chapter based on that person's suggestion.

You know, could be a student of mine that has a cool story that they want to share, could be, you know, a request to write a chapter on something that maybe I haven't covered yet before. So that's kind of a fun way for backers to sort of get involved a little bit as well. And then there'll be, you know, like there'll be a supporter page on my new website, which I'm super proud of having designed and

created all by myself, which is not visible fully to the public yet, but it will be. And there'll be a thank you page and then updates just for all backers throughout the whole campaign on where we're at with the funding, what stretch goals have been unlocked along the way, what that means for me and some real life.

examples of what it's like to try to go through this whole process because that's a big learning process as well is, I mean, to be perfectly candid and honest, like I cried the entire day after I sent it out that this was what I was going to do, publish this book because it just felt so like raw and real that like, my gosh, I just said now to the public.

Angus Norton (10:17.961)
Yes, yeah, clearly. mean, yeah.

Misti (10:40.61)
that I'm gonna do this. I'm committed now. So I just sort of tried with like the emotion of it all. But then I started getting just lovely comments from friends and previous students and supporters. like, then I cried because I was like, my God, people are so nice and I have such good friends and I'm so lucky. And it's been quite the...

emotional roller coaster and process of like learning, learning all about book publication, printing stuff, quotes, paper quality, designing websites, branding colors, logos, chapters, ISBN numbers, like my brain is exploding, but it's very cool.

Angus Norton (11:21.396)
Yeah, sure.

Angus Norton (11:34.549)
No, well, it's great. as you know, I do, I don't do this podcast. I do for the, for fun. You know, it's not, don't have a lot, but I have sponsors and adverts and that stuff. I really just like to get people's stories out there. And what I've learned is that stories like some of the younger races that are up and coming, like Kenzie Masahura, for example, who's been a student and sponsored by the school. And he rode with me at the Ridge actually, or young up and comers like Kayla or, uh, call Matt Buchanan who's a New Zealander now he's racing in Moto three this year.

Misti (11:47.747)
Uh-uh.

Angus Norton (12:02.707)
And I hear about their stories and how much work and sacrifice and money it takes. Even even at the Moto3 level where Cormac's at, it's still really expensive. They don't get paid a whole lot of money. It's a real grind. And I think people don't quite realize that they see this is glamorous job. And the fact that you're investing in kids, too, I think is a really good thing, because I feel like the American talent since the Wayne Rainy days has kind of dropped off. Like you're just not seeing Americans winning at the world level anymore. And it's always

I don't know why there's a whole nother discussion. So quick fire. Quick fire. Most underrated skill writers should master.

Misti (12:37.825)
yeah, quick fire, okay.

Misti (12:44.75)
visuals. Visual skills.

Angus Norton (12:46.773)
Okay. Hardest you've ever laughed while coaching.

Misti (12:51.95)
my gosh, that's a hard one. I don't know, maybe the time I almost flew off my bike because I gave the wide view signal for the first time in my coaching career at the straightaway and almost got flung off. And so after I realized I wasn't going to die, I laughed like that was probably a dumb thing to do.

Angus Norton (13:13.013)
Who's fastest, Rick Rayner or Misty?

Misti (13:16.95)
Me.

Angus Norton (13:17.685)
Hear that Rick? Most badass coach you've ever ridden behind.

Misti (13:25.836)
man, no, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna do too favoritism, but I'm gonna say that anytime that I get to ride behind a Superbike school coach and we get to work on stuff and chase each other is fricking awesome.

Angus Norton (13:26.665)
You don't want to show favoritism?

Angus Norton (13:40.593)
you get to ride with like a like a like who was it who is the rider you rode with in Europe he was an ex-wheel superbike guy yeah that must be pretty cool

Misti (13:50.511)
Troy Courser, I rode with Troy. Yeah, I rode on the back with him, which was absolutely terrifying and probably one of the scariest, but also very informative things I've ever done. So that was very cool, very cool.

Angus Norton (14:03.093)
So he would be up there. Okay. What's more important? Maybe this is hard. Apex or exit.

Misti (14:11.118)
Well, I think apex leads to the exit so apex or in the words of Johnny Haynes line line line line line line

Angus Norton (14:20.701)
the exit and best post-ride snack.

Misti (14:25.335)
wow, I would say a cold beer. That's always good. Nice cold beer. Dope.

Angus Norton (14:26.389)
for you. Proper American right there. proper Canadian shit. okay. So it'd be what's the, what's the stuff you guys drink in Canada? What's the beer up there? I can't remember. yeah. And, what's that fast food restaurant up there that you're, what's the one this before Whistler, Kim, Tim Hortons and maple syrup. well, so

Misti (14:37.038)
Really good craft beer. Not not.

Misti (14:44.664)
Tim Hortons. Tim Hortons. Donuts? Yeah, no, I'm not a donut.

Yes.

Angus Norton (14:55.605)
So everyone that's listening, like, you know, if you're a writer or a coach, you know, just somebody who wants a good story. I know from having spent many days on the track with Misty that, you're going to get a ton out of this. And in many ways that it's great that Keith's behind it too, cause I've been trying to get Keith and Coda write another book. So in many ways it's kind of like another book, but, but with a very specific spin of your life and lessons around it. I think it's.

I'm very excited and I'm going to be backing for sure. And I know we're planning to do another podcast with Rick at some point, which will be more technical. We're going to get into the elements of writing at a deeper level, which we did with Johnny, by the way, and others. And that's why I wanted the Rick or Misty question, because I'm going to replay that a lot.

Misti (15:37.944)
Mm-hmm.

Misti (15:42.874)
He'll be like, dang it, dang it.

Angus Norton (15:45.339)
Yeah, that's right. Hey, well, Misty, it's been an absolute pleasure. I'm really proud of you and I'm really happy to see you getting your story out there. So thank you.

Misti (15:58.937)
Thank you, I appreciate it. You've been a huge supporter and there from the start and really like someone that I've leaned on to help get me through this whole process. So I appreciate the support as well. So thank you very much.

Angus Norton (16:12.349)
No, it's my pleasure.