Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

INTERVIEW sudden everybody wants a piece of that pie. Rick)"s going to have to kee~that all in perspective, because that kind of stuff can beat up on you real quick. The way I look at it, there's a big pie but everybody takes a piece, and when you go to eat, and there's none left. You have to save some things for yourself. Save some time for yourself to get your thoughts straight because if you let them, they'll take every piece of pie in that bucket. I was bad about not doing that - I'd be the last guy to think about . myself. Now I'm different. The only people I really think about to a certain extent is me and my wife. I always think of my mechanic and the guys that are involved with our team, but when it comes to anything else, I don't care less. And that's really the way it's got to be. You just get so much shit going you get strung out. So you're saying that you have to make yourself number one before you can be number one. That's right. And I don't know Ricky Carmichael at all, but I hope he does well because I think the sport really needs that. I think that's something that's good about all of these smaller teams (like Carmichael's Pro Circuit team). They give a lot of these kids that may be good enough at one time to go into the factory truck but there was no room. So their equipment wasn't so good because they didn't have enough money. Well, now these other mailer teams are going to let guys like that into the sport. There are a lot of comparisons between you and Ricky because of where you're from in the Southeast, the family situation - it's the American dream. Carmichael's family goes to every race. Would you have separated from your family more at that time? It's a tough situation because he's still a kid and his parents are still there. In a sense he's still a kid, but really he's not. You know, I was flying around the country when I was 13 or 14 years old going to amateur races and a lot of the times I got on the airplane without my parents. 1'd go to California and test for two or three weeks and test, then I'd go back home. That was a big stepping stone for me for the rest of my career because at that age there were small decisions that I had to make on my own - I started that at a young age. With Ricky, or anyone else for the matter, they're going to have to give him his space, because everybody says that they make him ride and ride and ride, and it's good that they want him to do well, but they could push him to ride on out the door. And I'm not saying that they're going to do that, but they have to really understand how fragile the situation can become. It's important for parents to find a new role when it all starts t a happen for a kid that good. Yeah. He has a mechanic, he has a team manager, so basically he's working for Pro Circuit. He needs to be more or less under their tent. When he needs his parents' advice, he needs to be able to go to them, but they really need to be spectators. That's kind of how I had to tell my parents, because they wanted to stay involved and it was really tough for them to separate themselves. There are a lot of scenarios out there like that, a lot of kids with parents still hanging around, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with parents going to the race, as long as they go to the race as spectators. Don't go as his coach, or even really as his parents, but as spectators. If you do bad in a race and if it needs to be discus ed, it needs to be discussed between you and the guy that's responsible for that team and your mechanic. I've seen in magazines or heard people talking about you turning your back on the sport. I've always defended your decision to leave by saying, 'Bradshaw gave up something too much for the sport - he gave up his youth: That's what people need to remember. They're still kids, even though they might be 17-year-old kids making a lot of money, flying all over the world, getting on TV, working for a corporation, but they're stiJJ kids. That's the reason I said they have to keep it fun. That's all aspects of life, a kid's personal life, his life at the track and his life at home. In my book, you can't eat, breath, sleep and shit this race track. When I left Gainesville, when I drove out of that parking lot, that was the end of that race. I didn't want to talk about it, that was it. And it's the same thing if I do bad. I want to try to leave it there when I leave, because the next day is my day off. It's my day to enjoy whatever I want to and if I have some spare time I'll go and do some other things. Bob Hannah was a hard-ass, and he'd tell me stories of tracks where we had been mountainbiking on, how he would run the same track every day of the week on foot. But he still had his fun. He had his airplanes, that was his relaxation. He'd come home from a race, and the next day he was out playing in his airplane. He ate, breathed and slept motocross more than anybody, but he still had fun. Has your relationship with your parents gotten better? It's gotten a little bit better, but it's still not the way it should be. We're trying to get things ironed out with the farm (in North Carolina) and with a lot of money that J spent up there. A lot of my money I've made over the years is still sitting up there. I'm still well enough off to where if I don't want to race, I don't have to race, or I don't have to work or whatever. It's not really the money thing, I'd just like to do what is sitting there, and we just can't do it together. We're trying to get things ironed out, and maybe after that's all ironed out and I don't have this big burden on my shoulders, things will be better. It's heaged in the right direction, it's just kind of a slow process. I don't even really think about it until something comes up that I have to deal with. It will get better eventually. Howald are you? Twenty-four. I'll be 25 in July. So you're still young. Yeah, I'm young, but I damn sure don't feel like it. Not that I don't feel like it because of injuries or anything like that, but it just seems like I've been doing this for so long. I'm actually younger than McGrath and Emig and those guys. The last question is, what do you want out of the second coming of bamon Bradshaw? I'd love to be in the top five, I want to be consistent, I want to be there every race. Regardless of this outdoor season being new, I still treat every supercross like it's brand-new. I don't even know where I am in points and don't really care. I just want to win a couple of races. I'd definitely like to win a upercross and I think I'm capable of that if I can just get out of the gate a little better. The same goes with the outdoor races. I'm just going to get stronger as time goes on and hopefully it will get better from there. I'd also like to make all of the outside sponsors happy to where this tearn can escalate even more next year. I want to do it as long as I'm competitive and as long as I'm healthy and having fun. I'd like to get the team going for these guys and if I feel that I still want to do something with the sport then I'll still be involved with it. It's good to have you back. It's fun, from a different perspective. It's totally different for me this time. ('X

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