Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/103448
INTERVIEW P138 AMA GRAND NATIONAL CHAMPION JAKE JOHNSON Jodi's hobbies include horses. a roll that we were usually just trying to figure out who was going to finish second. But now we've got three or four guys who are strong and could win this thing and then you have some fast guys coming up like [Brad] Baker, [Michael] Avila, [Mikey] Martin [Briar] Baumann who might not be championship contenders from the beginning, but who are going to be guys we're going to have to deal with week in and week out. Tell me about your team. I understand your mechanic is one of the younger XR gurus out there. Yeah, Ted McDermitt. I raced against his son Cory. Cory actually beat me out for the Horizon Award. Cory raced for a few years and then had a little girl and got a job and quit racing. Dave [Zanotti] got Ted to start building motors. The motors aren't something you can just bolt together. It's a team effort. Dave builds a lot of stuff out in California. He's 134-139 JJohnson Interview.indd 138 a talented machinist and has a lot of resources. I'm sure he could build an XR750 motor from the ground up if he needed to. Dave owns an environmental cleanup company. He's been around racing his whole life. His dad Mario had a team and won a championship with Steve Eklund. Dave raced motorcycles, but then got seriously into bicycling and raced in Europe. When did you first realize that you might have what it took to be a Grand National Champion? Well I won races here and there, so there was always hope. Really probably not until the last half of the season in 2010 when Joe [Kopp] and I were battling for the championship. I wouldn't say I lack confidence, but I kind of doubt myself and that motivates me. I've always felt if you get cocky you might start getting comfortable and losing that edge. Your generation of riders never experienced the big money years when tobacco money was in the sport. How does the current generation of riders make ends meet in these lean times? You know I guess everyone wishes they made more money, but I consider myself fortunate in that I have Dave Zanotti and I just have to show up and ride. We have some sponsors that help, but for the most part Zanotti is paying for just about everything out of his pocket because he loves to do it. I get paid on performance. I can go and make $10,000, or I can make nothing and take a ride to the hospital. I'm 12/12/11 1:46 PM