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/127717
heat race, you battled for the lead with your Suzuki teammate, Ezra Lusk, before crashi ng an d dislocating your s houl de r. What we nt through your min d when you realized that you were injured? Well, I w as reall y d isappoint ed . I had spent so little time on a su percross track, but I was qu ite su rp rise d at how comfortable I felt. I was p ret ty smooth, but, obvious ly, I was still mak ing too many mistakes. But wi th the littl e amo u nt of time that I have spent on these types of tracks, I wa s quite happy with the progr ess that I had mad e. Then wh en I fell, I though t, " Oh, my wo rd, what the heck is happening?" I didn't know how long I would be out for, but I rod e the following Th u rs day afte r Orlando. It wa s a sim ple injury wi th a quick healing. I was happy about that. Prior to th e Orlando Supercross, how many ti mes had yo u ra ced s u p ercross? I've ra ced s u pe rcro ss q uite a few times in Eur op e. Probably about five times in the las t three years. But to me, the su percro sses over here are a lot more inv olved. In Europ e when we race it's jus t a fun kind of thing, th e track s a re s m all a n d there' s good mon ey . But in Ame rica it's hard racing. The Ameri can s really race hard. It's definit ely very di fferent. With th ree world championships under y ou r bell, your obvious strength li e s in outdoor motocross racing. Coming into this season, do you find yourself holding back a bit in the stadiums, saving yourself for the Nationals? No, I'm not holdin g back at all. My goa l is to co me over h ere and u ltim ately, be fore I lea ve Amer ica, w in bo th the supercross an d ou tdoor lili es. I'm working just as hard at supercro ss - no, actu ally h arder th an I am a t outdoors . Bec au s e I n e ed it m ore su percross experie nce, that is. You just said, "Before I leave America ..." How long do yo u p lan to stay and race in the States? Well, I've set a goa l of three yea rs. So it . looks li ke I h ave th ree ye ars to meet those goa ls. Are things going as well as you expected? You kn ow, I was d e fi n ite ly set b a ck fro m th e inj uries. I had some inj uries (w ris t) at th e en d o f last season, and en tere d th is cha m p ionshi p to t all y unprepared. I hadn' t spen t m uch time on the bik e, and as an indi rect resu lt, that' s wh at caused my injury at Orl an do. I wasn 't fit, and I wasn' t comfortable eno ug h with m y racing. So the injuries did se t m e b ack, bu t a s lo ng as I'm improving every week,l'm happy. Many Eu ropea ns feel th at th e reason Ameri can s ha ve be en so successful in mo tocross is th e ti me th ey spend on s u percross tracks. Are yo u lear n in g thi ngs in sup ercross that you feel will help your rid in g outdoors? Probably, yes. Outdoors is a completely d ifferen t kind of thing, and I' m sure that you can pick u p one or two little things that will help yo u ou tdoors, but well. ma ybe not th at mu ch . Su pe rc ross is com pletely abo ut rhy thm, an d you ha ve to be smooth . How are you adapting to all of you r new competition? Do you feel prelly well accepted amongst your new rivals? Well, I s u p pose tha t th e y ' ve go t no choice, real ly . They have to acc ept me . (Laug hs) I was friends with a lot of them from when they would come to Europe, so I know a lot of riders from the earlier days. Where do you live? I live where mos t of the othe r guys do in Co rona, California. Why di d you choose Corona? Well, actually, I was looking at a place in Red ondo Beach, but then I d rove out there a cou ple of times and saw how far it was from all the tracks. I figured , well, I' m here to race motocross - rat her than spen d three hou rs in a car every d ay. Why not live wh ere the tracks are? My frie nd Jam es Dobb was a lready living out there, and he kep t his eye ou t for a hou se for me. I we nt and saw it - a nice hou se - and I took it. Who do you spend most of your time with? Well , I pra cti ce with my teamma tes a lot, because I go to the Suzuki track. I h an g out with m y mechanic and hi s wife a lot, as well as wit h James and his girlfriend. So, what is the strangest thing about America? Urn... (Laughs) I'd say that it's the sad spee d lim it s . Compare d to Europe, whe re you can go 130 mph on the au tobahn, the 55-m ph speed limits in America are qu ite terr ible. I W.e II, then, what is your favorite thing about America? I defin itely thi nk th at it' s the wea ther. The Eu ro pean wea ther is te rrib le. You go over there in the wi nter and there's snow, slus h an d mud, a nd th in gs a re just bad. Here, this is winter ? It was 90 de gr ees the othe r da y! . So , do yo u co nsi der yourself to be a "Califo rnian" no w ? No t at all, I'll always be a Sou th African guy. And the weathe r in South Africa actually the lifestyle in South Afri ca, is mu ch the same as here. Asi de from riding, d o y ou h ave any oth er hobbies? (Laug hs) Well, the way I've been riding lat ely, I don't reall y have any lime for anythi ng other than practice. I' ve just . been training my butt off so that I may imp rove. But this year I definitely want to get my chopper license, and start rid ing Jet Skis. You want to start riding street bikes? Like what, a big Harley-Davidson? (Laug hs) Oh, no . My heli copter pil ot 's license . It looks as if your practice bike has the same works Showa conventional forks as your race bike... . The reason they are on my pr actice bike, is that you can' t be practicing and racing o on two totally d ifferent ma chines . They have go t to be runni ng th e sa me. I' m reall y happy w ith the fro nt forks. We went sus pens ion test ing yes terday, and Tom from Show a is to tally clued up. So how does th is year's bi k e compare to the wo rks Su zuki that you raced in the Worl d Ch ampionship last year? It is totall y different, from en gin e cha racteristics to suspension. But it is also very good and competitive. Ca re to make a predi ction yet, about the 250cc outdoor series? Nab. Not yet. Do you think it is go ing to be tough learning all the new tra cks, or are you a rider that adapts quickl y? Well, I u sed to be, but aft e r being in Europe for so long - w he re you have two to three hours to learn the track - I .h ave lea rned to take my time. I d on ' t think new tracks will be a p rob lem, bu t I'm not going to und erestim ate any body right now . La Rocco, Kiedrowski, a nd probably even McGrath, are going to be tough. I'm not going to go in overconfide n t, and say that I'm go nna wi n. I'm d e finitely goi n g to work h a rd a t it, tho ug h. l~