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/1127887
P94 Interview MONSTER ENERGY YAMAHA'S DEAN FERRIS also a backup plan, so if nothing came about here—because the timeline was getting pretty short— I had a backup plan to keep rac- ing at least [in Australia]. Those two bikes are very different from one another, and to go out and win on a KTM after years on Yama- has, that seems from the outside to be almost bipolar, doesn't it? Yeah, it does. I was just doing what I needed to do to get some support. That's what it was all about. You definitely can't pick and choose. But it might actually be a testament to you as a racer that you can jump from one to another like that and go out and win. It's definitely something I've been good at—adapting. But I'm thankful to those guys for sup- porting me, and they would've been happy to support me for the rest of the season, but they were also happy that I got a call to come to the USA. So, no hard feelings or anything? No, no! No, they were stoked for me. They were the first people I told, and they were so happy that I finally got something because it's not about KTM and their race team, but about Recover8 and the support that those guys showed me. What about being back in the GPs for a little while? That was before all of that other stuff, but that was also a desperate call for some support. It was about four weeks where I could get a bike and do some racing and get some support because I was kind of on the bones of my ass and trying to pull things together. I was, like, pulling old tires out of the shed and stuff to make it happen and squealing out for a bottle of oil "It sounds silly to say it now because I'm so far back, but I want to get a couple podiums and ultimately be top five or six in the championship." Australian MX Champion Ferris thinks he has what it takes to be a top-five rider in the U.S. and that kind of thing, so a fac- tory ride in the GPs was pretty appealing. It didn't work out, but I'm still thankful that those guys took me on. It seems like maybe it turned out to be harder than you thought to get a ride here because you an- nounced you were coming here before you had a ride lined up. Was there any particular objection you ran into that was stopping you from finding a ride here in the U.S.? No. I mean, everyone had kind of filled up—the teams— and everyone was focused on supercross. By the time I called, it was the end of motocross, and everyone was already looking forward to testing supercross