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/127773
one. I had fun riding the re and the day that I had to leave was very hard for m e. I kne w th at they wanted to go a d ifferen t way and wh en they had the chance to . sign Larry Ward - second in the supercross - I had to accept that. I didn't have the best of years and I know what I' m expected to do for them, and I didn't do it. At the end of the year I was getting it together but they had to go after Wa rd . That was the best opportunity for them, an d I hope it pays off for them. How do you feel about your whole American experience? I'm enjoyi ng m yself here. Has it been harder than you thought it would be when you first came over in 1993? No, not reall y. It was reall y just about h ow I expected it. I kn ew so me of th e guys from the States befo re I came here, an d I knew abo ut their will to win. The h ardest part has b een the amount o f races that th ey do here. I don't think that anyone else in th e wor ld under st ands the amount of top races th at they have in Ame rica . We had this pa st weekend off but the n we have 14 st ra igh t wee kend s of racing coming up . In any othe r part of the world yo u don't have that many big races in an entire season, and we're only halfway th rough! That's hard, bu t it's still a lot of fun racing here. I get to meet so 'm a n y new people and race on so m an y different and fun tracks. Every race is exciting and has a new meaning every time you go there. Who are you r best fri en ds here in the States? Albee and LaRocco are very good friends of mine, and I have a few others like Tom my mechanic and Scott from In-Flight, I've become real close to a few people and that makes it seem more like home. In the nea r futu re I will be looking into buying a house and maybe settling here for the futu re. So you're not going back to England when you 're done racing? Have you see n the weather forecas t over there lately? No, not the weather, but I've seen where the IRA (Irish Republican Army) has started up their bombing campaign again. Yeah, th at sucks, but w he rever you go in the wo rld you're go ing to find problems. But I'm really enjoy ing living here at the moment and I feel at ho me . Obviously I do miss my famil y and real close friends from bac k home, but they come to see me thro ughou t the year and it gives them an opportunity to have a holiday. Also, m y cousin lives about an hour from me and I'll be ab le to hook up with soo n. How close do you li ve to som e of the other professional race rs? Where I live at in Corona (California) is right in the middle of everything. Mickael Pichon is another friend and he lives two houses away from me. Albee lives a two-minute w alk away. Jeff Emig and Steve Lamson an d Goa t Breker an d a lot of those other guys live around here, too. They' re all real nice guys but I d on' t ha ng out with the m too much. I seem to ge t along w ell w it h e veryone arou nd here - I don 't think that I ha ve a p robl em with anyone. Back in England I live close to Paul Malin and th at' s abo ut it. Tom, m y mechanic, can' t understand how we see so many guys on th e free way with m otorcycles and stu ff every da y. To him it' s quite bizarre. Do you stiIl keep in touch with any of your old racing buddies from England? No, n ot rea lly. I see (former W o rld En d u ro Cha mp io n) Pa ul Ed m o n so n w hen I go back hom e but I don't really stay in tou ch th at much. He's busy an d I'm busy across the ocean so we don't rum ta lk th at m u ch . It's d ifficult to stay in touch. I' ve noticed that yo u r old friend Jason Bonham, who's dad John was the drummer for Led Zeppelin, h as been getting more and more in volved in American Supercross. I understand his band will be playing at the Houston Supercross... That's great, isn't it? It's one of the things th at I've been trying to help out with over the last few months . I think that h avin g Jason ' s b and will h el p supercross ge t b igger b y ge tti ng th e word out to m ore people. It's an exciting sport and at ju st ab out every ra ce you have so me celebrit ie s s ho w up , lik e Tommy Lee (of Motley Cruel or Pamela Anderso n (Baywatch) or Ma tt LeBla nc (Friends). We need t o sta rt u s ing th at to our advantage . If people knew what supercross was and how cool the sport is, I'm sure that we would see a lot more people coming out to watch it and getting interested in motorcycle racing. Do y o u han g with Bonh am very often? Yeah, I've known Jason since I was about three years old . I would be at races back home and we would see his dad pull up and people would swarm around him. Me being a kid a nd all, I would be, like; ' What'.s everyone h an gin g around him for?' I didn't really un derstan d wha t Led Zeppe lin was or how big it w as. Jason lost a little inter est in the sport after his father passed away, but it's always been in his blood . He was a top intermed iate back in Englan d o nce, and su pe rcross has always been some th ing that he wanted to be a part of. Ho pefull y his playing d uring the opening ceremonies at these few races will he lp him an d the sport. You 've mentioned seeing a few celeb rities here and there, which is something about California that seems to impress a lot of visitors. What about the girls in Southern California? I don't understand the girls here! You treat the m nice and stuff and they don't seem to appreciate it at all. But if you treat them like shit they seem to respond more. It's the same problem for Albee (who is from South Africa) and I'm even a little m ore shy than Albee is. It's been a lit tl e m ore difficult for m e. I g uess there's pretty girls wherever you go, but I still p refer the girls back in England because I can communicate wi th them. That's because everyone speaks English! (Laughs .) Right! No, back h ome they dress d iffere n tly . Her e th ey dress like cowboys or some th ing, or gir ls will wear a nice little skirt or some thing and then put on a pair of white socks and sneakers like they were 15 or some th ing. But m aybe that will grow on me and I'll end u p m arri ed to a n American or so mething. Have you ever gone out to Lake Ha vasu with all of the other American riders? N o, I don't really care for places like that. I wo uld like to go when it's not so crazy just to see the lake and stuff, but not when they have a million drunk people out there for holiday or whateve r it is. What do yo u think has happened to Gre g Albertyn in America ? Things haven't panned out for him the wa y a lot of people in Europe thought they would... Greg's had it tou gh as we ll. The thing here is th at the race season is so lon g. Europeans get to race with Americans on ly after the American season is over. Like at th e Motocross des Na tions? Right, and before that race Europeans have just 15 grands prix (in the 250cc class) while Americans have 29 major races before they go across and ride the Motocross des Nations (in September). The last cou ple of years Europe has done very well and even England beat the Americans once. But the Americans have been through so much, then they have to go across the ocean for one race in a place they've never been. And it's no more America vs. this country and then America vs. that country - now it's like America vs. all of Europe. It's them three guys against all of Europe now. If an . American comes up beh ind anyone, no matter whether they're team is winning or not, that guy is goi ng to try and race the Am erican and block him or whatever . Anyway, a European team wins and then everyone thin ks that the Americans aren' t th at fast. Bu t loo k at G reg an d look at how he's doi ng. Peo ple in Europe m ight no t thi nk he' s fast anymor e, bu t they don ' t und er st and w ha t h e ' s up against here. When the AMA championships are o n the lin e th e Americans ride a little differently than they do at the MX des Na tions. Look at someone like (Frenchman) Frederic Bolley: He won a supercross in Europe last year against the Americans bu t when h e comes to America to race a rea l supercross he has quite a job just qualifying here. That's what Greg is now seeing and that's what Europeans don't understand - just how fast the racing really is here. How would you characterize the differences in the trac ks? America is much more technical with all the doubles and triples and whoops and all that. The tracks are also very wellprepped here, much more so than Europe. And the tracks are much faster back in Europe. I'm more comfortable on the tracks here now; when it comes to racing I finally think of myself more as an American than a European. If you had to give advice to a young European rider who had dreams of coming here, what would yo u teIl him? The quicker he gets here the ·better. All he 's doing is losing time w hen he's over th ere because in order to compete here you h a v e to know w ha t yo u're up against, and you jus t do n' t real ize what th at is or how fast they are until you' ve actu ally come here. I'm a perfect example of this. I didn't really race supercross for six years w hile I raced the GPs in Europe, and it's taken me th ree yea rs to learn it! Kid s from Europe have to get across and race with these guys here as soon as they can because they have no idea what it is they're up against. It's a 0 lot harder than they think.