.can do . I'm sure that if Arnold could
have more of a budget he'd like to
. have more riders, but th ey o n ly
budget him so much. "
Ryan was not without o ffers. H e
claim s a co u p le o f fa ctories
a p p roached him aft er the win, but
Ryan elected to remain a privat eer.
" No, I didn 't go with a ny offers,"
Ryan said. " I just thought th at
every thing wa s going good o n m y
H ondas, a nd I didn 't see a ny reas on
to switch in th e middl e o f the vear.
I wasn't losing money, I was making
it , and I liked th e H ondas a lot.
According to Ryan', th e o ffers ca me
aga in a t the end of th e year for th e
'SS season.
" I had deals (for th e 'SS seaso n) ,
but I didn't want to tak e th em. Ther e
wasn't enoug h money in it. I can
make so much money in Eu rope, a nd
they wouldn't let me go over th ere
(for vari ous internati onal races a nd
su percrosses).
"I wasn 't sure that a ll th e factori es
were go ing to ride the sa me races
wh en I made m y decisio n, because
with the Supercro ss (Series) nobody
kn ows for sure wha t's goi ng to
happen . I didn 't kn ow wha t was
going on (wi th the race season).
There isn 't a ny bonus money compared to like it was last year. That
helps o u t a lot.
" I don't want to so u nd lik e I'm
just doing it for th e money. I like
th e ra cing , but I ha ve to mak e
something o u t of it too. If I had to
race for free I'd still do it. If I won
a mill ion do llars in the lottery I' d
still race."
Alt ho ugh he turn ed down
reponed facto ry offers to race in the
Sta tes this year, Ryan was not left
withou t a ride for the 'SS season.
In stead o f rid ing here in th e U.S.,
Ryan will be headed to Europe wh ere
he will cam pa ig n th e World Championship 250cc MX Seri es GPs with
sponsorship from a French clothing'
firm, Fl yandJMP , an accessory firm.
Ryan says he's always wanted to race
in Europe a nd has tried unsuccessfully in the past to get a deal to race
there,
'