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/127669
]N E V W Motocro T R fE ยทยท sserJeff Stan n to ". " -.. . ". " . . . . a ree By Chris Jonnum "It's open, " . ~l is the re sponse to my knock on Jeff Stanton's hotel room door. It's the eveni ng before the Budds Creek National, and Stanton has ag reed to squeeze in a quick interview before he hits the sack. He's staying a t the official race he ad quarters, and I ca n hear th e so u nd of other rid ers jo king e lse w here in the hot el. Not in Stanton's ro om, th ough . The qu iet rider from Michigan - a thr eetime Camel Supercross and three- tim e 250cc N at ion a l MX Champ ion - la ys face-d own on his bed, an ice pack on his problem at ic back an d a NASCA R race on the telev is ion . O n th e floo r lies a brand-new rifle - a present from his new mech ani c, Wyat Seals . Stanton has never exac tly bee n one of the more social riders on the circuit - it's not in his nature. Still, one gets the idea that th is year, he's a little lon el y . For Stanton, the pa st one and a half seasons haven 't provid ed the highlight s to which he has become accustomed, as he watches a new breed of riders take over the only vocation he has ever kno wn. "Sin ce Rick (Joh ns o n) a nd Ward y (jeff Ward) have left, it isn 't as fun as it u sed to be fo r m e , " say s Stanton . "because the new genera tion of kid s are more the party typ e. You know, 'Let' s do th is, let's go out and get these girl s and do th is and that: When Rick wa s around we could go out and do som ething on Saturday and have fun, (w hether) it was playing basketball or just running around. That's the '90s things change. It' s jus t not like it used to be, so ho nestly, I just do everything by myself. I'm just a self-centered individual (laughs). I eit her do it with myself, or if my wife 's here, we'll go out and go run, or shoot baskets or play tennis. I just do everything with her. I mi ss friends like Ric k and Damon (Bra d shaw), (where) we could be friends and still go out on the race track and d ice, then come back and talk. Now, if yo u go out and dice with somebody, and yo u bump and (are) rough, all the y want to do is come ba ck a nd kick you r as s or something - or talk about you. It's just the '90s. Look at any professional sport; they just wa nt to fight each ot her and beat each other up. Basketb all ha s gotten ridiculou s - all our sp orts ha ve. Times h ave chan ged, a n d un fortunate ly the y've chan ged for the worse, I th ink." It wo uld be easy to assu me that Stanton is bitter - that he misses the attention that goes along with being a cha mpion. He 's gone from having tha t a ttention focused on himse lf, to seeing much of it d irected towards his teammate - Supercross sensation Jeremy McGrath . Isn 't he at least a little jealous? " N o , not a t a ll. He (M cGrath ) deserves everything he's got. H e's not just kicking my ass, he's kicking everybody else's ass. It's not like it's my single in d iv id u a l job. H e's ju s t d o in g a great job and he can take all that glory. He d eserve s it un til s omeb ody beat s him, and hopefu lly that will be me - at th e las t co uple o f (s upercross) rac es here , or next year. "You ha ve yo u r gr oupies that han g around yo u when yo u're w inning, but