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/127607
RINTERVIEW Team Yamaha MXerMichael C raig e By Kit Palmer Photos by Donn Maeda and Kinney Jones here's not a motocrosser ou t there who hasn't dreamed of getting that phone ca ll. You know, the one where the phone rings, you pick up the receiver and on the other end of the line is a factory motocross team manager, and he asks: "So, kid, you want to be a factory motocross star?" Right when you' re ready to say " yes, " the dog jumps on the bed and wakes you up. Suddenly you come to the sickening realization that it was all a dream. Damn! Well, Micha el Ray Craig had one of those dreams. The only difference was when he woke up, there was no sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach. For him, it wasn't a dream at all - it was reality. The real thing. The voice on the other end of the phone was real - Keith McCarty, the MX race team manager for Team Yam aha. Shortly before making the call, McCarty . got the shocking news that his numberone rider - Da mon Bradshaw - had decided to throw in the towel, despite the fact that Bradshaw had, just one year earlier, signed a high-dollar, five-year contract. Yamaha g ranted his wishes and let Bradshaw out of his contractual obligations, reluctantly saying goodbye to the team's most popular and highestprofile rider since Bob Hannah's Yamaha days of the late '70s. Bradshaw's departure left a gigantic void on the Yamaha team, a void that had to be filled quickly. The team was left with just one factory rider - Jeff Emig. So, McCarty went shopping right away for someone who could best fill ' that hole left by Bradshaw, and it didn't take him long to find someone. That someo ne was Michael Ray Craig, a 25yea r-old family man from El Cajon, California, the same town that has b red such motocross champions 'as Rick Johnson, Broc Glover and Ron Lechien. "When I heard that Damon had quit I knew I had a cha nce," said Craig. " It was three days after Damon had quit when Keith McCarty called me. I was in Madrid, Spa in , a t th e time. The first thing that he said was, 'You got th e ride: I said, 'What?' He sai d, 'You got the ride - everything - the whole thing: I couldn't believe it. I couldn't wait to get off the phone so I could call my wife. I really, really, really wanted to tell her. "You're the new rider on the team: he said, and I kept thinking, 'No way: T Then he said, 'This is it, you've got your chance now, th is is what you've been working for, so do whatever it takes (to win).'" 34 Michael Ray Craig is the latest rider to sign a factory contract, A Kawasaki support rider since 1990, Craig will pilot a works Yamaha YZ250 in the 1994 Supercross and 250cc Na tional Championship MX Se ries. Craig will fill the vo id that was left in Yamaha's team when Damon Bradshaw an nounced his surprise retirement at the end of the '93 season. Unfortunately, McCarty's call came only a short time after Cra ig had already signed a deal to compete on the Noleen's Yamaha team, run by Noleen's founder Clark Jones. Craig race d just once - at the Mammoth Mountain Motocross - while riding und er Noleen's banner. Jones agreed to release Craig from his Noleen contract in order to help Craig fulfill his dream o f becoming a factory-back ed motocross racer. "Clar k has always been really good