Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Interview: Jeff Matiasevich On his way to' being the best? By Tom Mueller and Nate Rauba Jeff Matiasevich (pronounced . Ma-tas-avich) has come a long way in the five years he's been racing motocross, and potentially he could go even further. The l Svyear-old so u thern Cal ifornian came ou t of seemingly nowhere and jumped to hi ' AMA t h e f ro n t 0 f t IS year s Western Regi on Supe rcross Cha mp ionshi p Series. He is also o ne of th e hottest co ntenders in Mickey Tho m p son ' s U ltrac ross Ser ies, turned in a credi ble perform an ce in h is first 250cc Su pe rcross a t Da yton a wit h an l l th-place finis h, a nd was fifth overa ll in hi s firs t two 125cc Nati o na l even ts. . Hi s performances so far this year have helped him ma ke a nam e for himself , even th oug h h is nam e is unusual and difficu lt to pronounce. Race a n no u nc er L arry Hoffman even has problem s with it and a t th e San Diego, Cali fornia stadium race he told th e fans, " If he keep s on wi nni ng he 'll have to prom ise to sho rten his name." "A long, long time ago the Matiasevich family ca me fro m a pl ace ca lled Savonia, wh ich is pan of Yugos lavia," J eff sai d. " O nce people learn how to prono unce it, it's not so ha rd 'to deal with. Most of th e modern-day fa mi ly comes from Wattsvill e, Cal ifornia ; that's wh ere I'm from. My mom a nd dad are div or ced , a nd when my uncle and my dad moved down to Los Angeles to start a produce bus iness, I moved down too. I've been livi ng down in the L.A. area for seven years now." Over th e past couple of seasons the re has been abui ld- upoftop I25cc rid ers , a nd a lt hough Matiasevich cou ld have been considered one of th em , he seemed far from the top. , Mati asevich showed a flash of brillian ce at th e beginning of the '87 season with a come-from-behind victory a t th e Anaheim Supercross, but th en he fizzled and couldn 't come up with a victory until the final round in Los Angeles. " I was ready for the year (1987) and I rod e really well in Anaheim, " says Matiasevich. "We went on to Houston and I was the fastes t in practice, but I think I was just too amped up for the race and I fel l, From then on it was just bad starts, fa lling, just nothing "':,as clic king like it did at Anaheim. But after the Los Angeles victory th in gs began to ha ppen , and ha p pen fast. Mati asevich scored a victory a t the NMA Ch am p ionsh ips in Ponca City, Okl ah om a, a no ther at the AMA Ama teur Nati o nal Cham pionships in Hurr icane Mill s, T ennessee, and he was also the 125/250cc O lympic C ha mp io n a t the Florida Min i Ol ympics, a five-d a y long event co m b in in g m otocro ss, s ta d i u m motocross , TT a nd gra nd prix skills. He also did well at several forei gn even ts. Matiasevich 's status with Ka wasaki also imp roved co nsidera bly at th e end of th e season. After two years o n Kawasak i's Team G reen program, in wh ich riders are supplied with bik es, pans a nd ass ista nce a t races, Ma tia sevich lan ded a full factory su ppo rt ride for the '88 seaso n ' and is cons idered th e third man (alo ng with Su percro ss champ J eff Ward a nd Ron Lechien ) o n th e Kawasaki team. And with full support a nd all the winning he's been do in g la tely his fin a ncial sta tus obvi ously improved. " With all my sponsor s and everythi ng else figured in, I've already made about 10,000 racing SUPercross this year. I boug ht a new truck a whi le ago, but I'm pretty muc h saving what I make. You never know when yo u'll be fini shed with th e sport - or the sport will be fini shed with you - so it's not likely. I'm go ing o ut on a shop ping spree o r a ny th ing ." He has indulged in a 1988 T oyota four-wheel-drive tru ck. H e practically lives in it, as almost all ac tive southern Californians seem to do , as he drives aro und town to practi ce tra cks, the gym, his ch iropractor, to his girlfriend's house and everywhere in between. Just like an y teenager he ha s installed a trick stereo system that could eventually make him deaf, if the high revving 125s he rides don't do it first. And he has a cellular phone so tha t he can keep in touch while on the run. It comes in handy, especia lly wh en hi s 125 seized aft er a bo ut 10 minutes of practi cin g a t a sem i-private track not far fro m hi s hom e. H e quickly go t o n the phone to tell Kawasa ki he'd need a no ther bik e. Wh y the su dden turnaround in hi s raci ng performa nces? " I th ink m y mec ha nic , J err y Campbell, had a lot to do wi th it ," said Matiasevich . " I wou ld say tha t he's th e key to my success, that and the support of m y family, brother and girlfri end , T iffany ." Ca mpbell was hi red by Ma tiasevich just before th e LA. Supercross a nd is co nsidered so val ua ble that Ma tiasevich 's fam ily pays him more th an th e a mou nt th a t Ka wasak i budgeted for a mechanic in J eff's su pport package . "J erry's been around, he kn ow s wh at to do a nd wh at not to do. He kn ows how to make me improve when I practi ce, and th e bikes a re excelle nt . It 's a big factor that th e bikes run so wei!. "( Last year) The bik es were a lways really good, every time I threw my leg over the bike I kn ew it was exac tly th e way I wanted , and it was running as well as a bike could possibl y run. That just added a no the r mental edge. It was just him working really close, trying to keep my head on stra igh t a nd jus t co ncent ra te o n what I was there for. " No w my KXs ha ve special suspe nsion by Kawasaki, th e motors are done by Dave Mill er Co nce p ts a nd th e bik es a re fas t, the re 's never anything to complai n abo u t.,. Not on ly has Campbell given Ma tiasevich good bikes to rid e, but he's also helped him improve h is rid ing ski lls by coaching h im when he rides a nd showing him the im po rtance of trai n ing. They often spend the who le day togeth er wo rki ng o ut a nd riding, then top it -off with a game of racq ue tba ll, o ne of J eff's favorite ways to train, and according to Matiasevich they are about equal and always hav e close games. Alth ough h e co m pe ted in the AMA 125cc Supercross events last yea r, Matia sevi ch never ventured into 125cc Na tional co mpetition. The on ly major races he ran o utdoors were the big a ma teur even ts, and he readi ly ad mi ts that his outdoor speed needs some improvement . " Supercross came natural to me, because I like to jump , but I've put a bu nc h of work into riding fast on ou tdoor terrai n. For mos t ride rs it 's just the opposite. " It was because I was still ri ding for Team Green at the time tha t I d idn't do any Na tional s last year," exp lains Ma tiasevich, "We (Jeff a nd Ca m p bell ) we re go ing to go to Sacramento (Ca lifo rn ia. site of th e H an g town 125/ 250 cc N ati on al ) since tha t one was close a nd we didn 't want to dr ive long hours. But we decided not to go, to just wait until I was reall y ready . I didn 't want to go ,there and just run 20th and get nothing out of it. We just made a decision to wait for the next year until we thought I was ready to do it . You go to a National and you get 20th and yo ur confidence sort of goes down. So we just waited until thi s year to hit all th e Nationals." Confidence al so seem s to be a big factor in Matiasevich's rise to success. Not only did he wait a year to build hi s confidence before hitting the Nationals, -but he also remained a successful Interm ediate cla ss rid er long before turning pro, mainly due to the guidance of Mark J ohnson, th e head of T eam Green at th e time. " We talked a bo u t moving u p to pro racing because I was runnin g aw ay (fro m his com pe titio n in th e Intermediate class ) and there was no o ne who could reall y keep up with me," Matiasevich recalls. " But J ohnson thought it would be best if I waited a little bi t, probably just so I cou ld build up my confidence a nd myself before I turned pro. There is Jeff M atiasev ich has been flying hi gh in stadium races this yea r and leads the 1 25cc AMA Western Reg ion S upercross Championship Series.

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