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/127698
·INTERVIEW Two-time Supercross Champion Jeremy McGrath - - - ---You try ea ting so me of th at , it wo n't be fun . What about snowboard in g, you try any of that? Yeah, , try to ge t in so me of th at b u t usu ally, by the time we get snow here in California, I'm starting to ge t read y for . raang. Ho w man y race s do your parents Jack and Ann get to go to each year? . The y probably get to go to abou t, I'd say, maybe 10 out of 36. Does yo u r dad still lea n in an d try to give you some advice or an yt h in g, or do es he pretty much let T eam Honda take care of you? He lets Honda take care of me. He kind of ste p s in w he n he knows I h aven 't been doin g m y stuff d uring the week. He gives me a lot of moti vation to ge t my training don e. Your si ster Tra cey ha s been getting down on the track, too. We see her and her camera everywhere. She 's sta rting to tak e so me phot os of racing and ge t published, but she's still just learning. I don 't know if this is wha t she really wants to d o or what the plan is, b ut I kn ow sh e likes to wa tch th e races more whe n she's takin g ph otos. After the '93 title you got a car, what did you treat yourself to this year? Actually, I bou ght myself a par ty boat. It ' s a 30-fo o t p ont o on b o at' h a v e docked up at Lake Havasu . Did you guys have a victory party on it? Yeah . We had one good weekend. If 1995 goes the wa y the last four years have, you pretty much have a chance to step into the history books. I really hope so. I want to win n ine races again. That will gi ve me more win s (28) a n d m ore co nsecu ti v e tit les (th ree) . (Rick Johnso n ha s 28 su percross w in s, and Bob Hannah has three consecutive titles ). I'm go ing to try to be in the best sh ape I've eve r be e n in th is ye ar and give 150%. , wa nt to go ou t and domi nate like I did at the start of last yea r, but' want it to be a little bit eas ier. So if it doesn't start happenin g tha t wa y in th e be ginn in g, we ll I'm just go ing to w ork m y butt off e ven more until it do es . There was one noticeable difference between your '93 and '94 seasons: In '93 you got the good starts and ran .away and hid almost every time. In '94 you didn't get very many good starts but you § howed everyone that you could make the passes to get the job done an even more impressive way to win. But what happened to a ll your holeshots? I'm really no t su re. In '93 my bik e was really good and we had good traction off the starting line eve ry tim e. We jus t had a grea t se tu p and everything was worki ng really good . , gu ess that so mewhere d own alo ng th e line be for e th e ' 94 se ries, we lost some thi n g on ou r se tu p and , was having trouble get tin g good s ta rts. We just cou ldn't get the s e t u p th e w ay we wa n ted it fo r th e starts and a lot of othe r bikes definitely ga ined on us. Abou t halfw ay throu gh the season we switched back to the old se tti ngs from th e ' 93 bike an d by th e en d of the year ' w as ge tti ng s t a rts again. What's more gratifying for you - winning with a holeshot and a runaway or a totalIy tight, knock-down, drag-out fight, where you end up winning at the very end? Well, , kind of like it eit her wa y! Winnin g is winning, but the feelin g you get in the tight races where you win at the end is a great feeling. But' think I'd rather just make th ose other guys feel . 28 could have taken it easy to take care of th e title, but ins tead gave it 110% an d e n ded up cra sh in g. Wh er e do es th at dri ve come from so late in th e season? , think just because you've already won the series and the points battle is over and everything, that you don't want to lay down on yourself and the fans . Once sbmething like tha t h ap p ens you get used to it and that's dangerous . I'm not like that an d I' m not a quitter, even after I've already won. Wh at kind of mu sic do you liste n to? I listen to everythi ng : Meta llica, Pearl Jam, O ffsp ring - whatever I'm in the ' mood for. What about race da y, when you're sitting th ere in th e back of you r tru ck with yo ur h ead ph on es, gellin g ps yched up fo r th e rac e. What k in d of music is go in g to get you pumped ? Meta llica! Do you still get nervous be fore a race? Yeah, , th ink eve rY0!,e d oes . When it happen s to me and' let it ge t to me, , get real tigh t and ride like a motorcycle cop on' a su pe rcross track! But overall, supercro ss is like a show, and I'm a little bit o f a s h o w- o ff. I lik e s u p e rcr oss because my favorite thing to do is ju mp. , like to have fun with that and ' like to have fun with each track, mor e or less challengin g the track as much as other rid ers . , ra ce be tt er against th e track tha n I do ag ainst the other riders. If , ride a track the bes t , can, then the race will just com e by itself. Yes, I still get a little nerv ou s but I' ve been rid ing for such a lon g eno ugh time tha t it actuall y feels normal to be out there in fron t of eve ryon e. . What is y o u r favorite part a b o ut a su p ercross track? , think whe n you have a killer section of who ops, th a t' s a p retty good th in g. Some of them ge t a little difficult, but' think that's the most challen ging part of an y track, and I like a challen ge. What is you r least fa vorite part of a [Z track? My le ast fa vo rit e are proba b ly th ose ~ s low, sw itchb a ck co rners th ey h ave, ~ where th ey go 180 d egrees a. d then n 52 another one right away. Like a left and ~ an im me dia te right for the first comer section. ' think that sucks. it What section do you think you excel the most at? , thin k' can stay low on ju m ps pr et ty well, at least a littl e bit lower than the other guys. , think that's wh y ' have a little bit of an advantage. Is that part of like the BMX influence? Yeah, , think so. It's whe re you just kind of suck up the air by ap p ro ach ing the face of the ju mp and pu shing yo u r bike down (going) up. You can scrub off the height and save time by jus t usin g you r body to stay low. , try to push the bike in to the face of the jum p, let off the gas and let you r body soa k it up, not your suspension. You make it sou nd so ea sy! It' s just so me thi ng ' picked u p a long time ago when I was still riding 125s. It was a great way to make up lime. A lot of gu ys still do n't d o it, so it mu st be a li ttle b it h a rd e r than it sou n ds. Som e guys just take the ju mp and go as high as th ey can. , d on 't th ink th ey realize h ow much tim e yo u can ma ke up by stayin g down near the tra ck. How old are you now? Twenty-three. So what motivates you now? It's still the challenge that motivates me. It's a big challen ge to be the bes t gu y out there ; to be the winner all the time. , like be ing the gu y in the spotligh t, the guy who wins - not the gu y who just gets in the top five or top 10. , don ' t want to be there just to participate. , go to wi n. 0: & 5 domina ted by ge tting a big lead every night and winn ing big. Whenever you guys are racing clo se together, like you and LaRocco in Houston last year or you and Jeff Emig at San Jose, do you ever yell at each other or anything? (Laughs) No, not rea lly. Can you hear the crowd yelli ng? Oh yea h, we ca n h ear th at for s u re. Especially if they bu rst out loud on a big pass or a big ju mp. You can really hear that as if yeiu were sitting righ t there in the gran ds tan ds with them . How much longer do yo u think you will want to be a racer? I don't know .. .. Ma ybe a no the r fo ur yea rs. , just signed a two-year deal wit h Tea m Hond a /1-800-Co llect, so if , d o th ese tw o ye a rs and everything goes well for me, maybe "II d o ano the r oneyea r or two-year deal. It all dep ends on h ow' feel. If m y riding mot ivat ion is still there and' kno w that' can still win, then' think I'd like to keep on doing it. Who was your hero growing up? It was Ricky John son for sure. , used to watch him race all the time on Videotape a n d go s ee him at th e r a ces wh en I could. He was definitely a great champion. He w as alway s in grea t sh ape . He rod e hard and' looked up to him, that's for su re. It appears that you've tried to pattern your image a 1ittIebit after him, too. He was really accessible to crowds and he did some really exciting stuff, even when he was way out in front by himself. I try to make an y race exciting. I thi nk it's important for the fans to get a sho w. I think it' s kind of borin g just to ride a straight race, even if you are winning. , wa n t people to keep th ei r eyes on me even if I'm winni ng by a lon g way. Do you th ink the next Jeremy McGrath is out there looking up to yo u right now, ju st like you used to look up to Rick Johnson? Probably; , don't really know about that. I sti ll ge t this we ird feelin g wh ere I still don 't feel like I'm the reigning cha mpio n o r a n y t hing . I mean, , wo n tw o cha mp ionships in a row , bu t' still thi nk of my self as bei ng kind of young. But some people kind of consider me a veteran now . , don 't feel like that at all. , feel like the underdog no matter what, eve n if' am winning the champion ship. , think of LaR oc co a nd Kied rowski as havin g been up there a t th e top for a long time, wa y before me, and it's jus t n ice to be able to beat those guys. It motiv ates me to try to win every race , enter. You have never been one to settle for second, even when you have a championship all but wrapped up. Like the race last year at Dallas, where you