Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

over"football and baseball in a few stadiums, but to win a supercross is still only $5000, and second place is, like, $2000, and that's a joke. No one's going to cover it when it's on ESPN and they announce, "The winner for the weekend is going to .get $5000'" It sounds like some Mickey Mouse race out in the desert. People are .more interested when Tiger Woods is up on a putt and they say, "This putt is for $150,000." You're more interested than if they say, 'This putt is for two grand." Who'd give a crap if he missed it or made it? A professional golfer's caddie makes more money when the golfer wins than a rider makes when he wins. A bowler makes $50,000 when he wins. The series is much, much better than it was, but I think there's a lot of room for improvement. You know, they don't let us sell our own T-shirts or anything like that. It only makes the supercross bigger when people see a picture of Jeremy or myself or Jeff (Emig) on a T-shirt or on a motorcycle. If you see Dale Earnhardt on a car, you think NASCAR, and that only makes it bigger. They want every penny and dime they can get, and I think they kind of need to step back a little bit and let the riders make a little money. What about the outdoor Nationals? That's a whole new season, st~ing out basically after the last supercross. I mean, you've had some problems there, but a lot of people consider you an outdoor specialist. Do you think you can tum it around there? I would have been the National Champion. But I made a goal· for myself at the beginning of the Nationals that I was going to give everything I had to the National Championship, everything train as hard as I can, ride as hard as I can to win that thing - and if 1 didn't, I couldn't look back and say, "I wish I would've done that better" or '1 wish I would have trained harder," or whatever. I really have no regrets about that. What was the most important win of yow: career? Was it the supercross you won just a couple of weeks after yow: father passed away, the Paris-Bercy Supercross last year, or maybe the Unadilla National? rd probably say the biggest one for me came after my dad died. It was, like, two weeks after he died, and I was just having a tough time again in my life. I didn't know if I wanted to race anymore, because the week before, I didn't qualify in Anaheim. Nobody really knows how it feels until they've had somebody in their life die, someone like a parent. But when 1 won that race, it kind of turned my whole career around - from there, my career just went straight up. It seemed like my dad was just pulling me along the whole time, and that meant pretty much the world to me, to win that first 'supercross. When your father passed away, did your mother persuade you to continue, or did she leave it entirely up to you? My mom and dad have never pushed me say: "Oh my God, how are you going to handle that? I couldn't even think about having a kid right now." I'm sure some people aren't mature enough, or their lives have been pretty easy. I dealt with my dad dying, and that was something that was taken away from me. Having a kid is a blessing, it's like a gift, and I can handle that pretty damn easily, I think. With all the bad luck and losses you've had, do you ever feel like you're cursed? (pause). I don't know. Last year in supercross, I was second in points with, like, two rounds to go. I feel that was pretty good, considering Jeremy was having the best year I think anybody will ever have and it was only my first year in the 250 class. Then I broke my jaw. Throughout my career, it seems like when I get to the point of being th.e fastest guy on the track or winning a race, something happens. Sometimes it's out of my control. It's like I get up there and then I get beaten down, but I get up there again, only to get beaten down again. After a while, it kinda takes a toll on you. The only other person I can think of that has come pack so many times is Mike LaRocco, and I'm sure he'd Sily that sometimes it's kind of hard to find that drive again, to keep going out there day after day when you're hurt and trying to come back again. Sometimes it wears on you, and I don't think people really understand how hard it is when you get up there and you're feeling good, and then you get beaten down and you have to start all over again. Everybody else just cruises right by; nothing ever happens to them. Some people just have it harder than others, I guess, but maybe later in life is when everything will go great for me: I'll have a great fanilly and things will go our way. Your year obviously has been worse than Jeremy McGrath's, but that's a perfect example of how quickly you can get hit by a slump. McGrath's had a million things go wrong this year. This sport isn't like any other sport. There are so many things than can happen mentally, physically, mechanically, . whatever. I've heard a lot of people say that Jeremy's had such good Luck in the past, that it's going to ca tch up to him and little things are going to start to hap- Is that why we never see much of you or LaRocco in the videos and ads and stuff? You guys are kind of anonymous; is that by choice, or is that because of the companies you are affiliated with? The first thing is that we're not winning like Jeremy and Jeff have been, or Kevin Windham or whoever. Jeff and Jeremy have been the top two guys, and of course every company is going to want to have the top guys. They're not going to be like, "Hey, we have the numberfive guy!" That's still cool, but it's not as good as .saying, "We have the numberone guy!" If things don't get better soon, Ryno, are you out of there at Kawasaki, or are you set for next year? I've already got a contract for next year, so they can't kick me out, even if they try. But I don't think they would. From what I hear, I'm sure they're not the happiest with my results, but they see that I have the speed and that I've won before, but I'm just having one of those times. I think everybody knows that each race I go to, each lap I ride, each bump I go over; I give 110 percent. No matter what I'm doing - riding bikes or playing basketball or whatever - I try to win. That's just the way I am. I'm super-eompetitive, and that's why they want to keep me. That, and the fact that they love my sense of humor. What other athlete outside of ow: sport do you look up to the most? I like Michael Jordan. Not just because of who he is as a person, but because of how many championships he has, how many scoring titles he has, hQw many gold medaLs, whatever. He always comes back for more. He's focused; he can tum it on and tum it off any time he wants; he always wants more. I also like Evander Holyfield. He's always in great shape and ready. I also like Miguel Indurain, the winner of the Tour de France (bicycle race) five times in a row. And when he finally lost the race, it was over. Yeah, he didn't try to prolong his career to make money. He was done and out. Jeff Stanton was kind of the same way. He's another person you didn't see in a billion ads. When he was done racing, he was done. MXer Ryan Hughes, but has he just found the smooth line? Yeah, I definitely do. I've been fast outdoors, but like I said, I'm kinda going through a slump of falling down. Once you kinda get in that slump, you get a little depressed, and this whole year I ha'ven't been the happiest person, and when you're not happy it's kind of hard to have fun at a race or even be positive but I know I'll come back. One good race and I'll be ready; it's not like I'm five seconds off the pace or just getting smoked out there. I've beat everybody before, and I know 1 can beat them again, so I'm not really too worried. I want it to pick up and I'd like to win a few races this year and then move on to next year and hopefully get a championship. I've always told everybody that I've dealt with, sponsorwise, that I'm not going to quit until I've won a championship: That was always my goal when I was younger. Who knows, I'll probably be racing until I'm 40! Remember how close you came in '95? Does that kiJ,td of stick with you, that you came that close? . Yeah, I think about it every once in a while, that if 1 would have just won one mota or passed two people or whatever, to do anything. If I would call my mom and tell her I'm quitting, that I don't want to race anymore, she'd say, "Are you sure? Think about it, make sure, and do what's right for you." I couldn't ask for two better parents. They raised me great, they never pushed me, they never tried to use me to make money or anything like that. My mom stands behind me 100 percent in whatever I do. If I do bad, she's happy; if I do well, she's happy, just as long as I'm safe. Yow: mom, Cath:!!, still comes to a lot of races, doesn't she? She comes to all the races tllat are close, and the ones that I can take her to or whatever, she still likes to go. At one time, we were thinking about flying her to all the races - because every race she went to, I won. But lately it hasn't been that way, so maybe I'm not going to fly her to every race. You have anotlier big change coming up in yow: life, too: You and yow: girlfriend, Jen, are expecting a child in November. Yeah, she's pregnant and expecting· a little bambinQ, a little Ryno. I'm stoked about it. I've talked to some riders who pen. Well, this year, little things have started to happen, and I don't know how much fun he's having now. I think once he's been beaten so many times; he's kinda thinking that he can be 'beaten now. And everybody else is thinking, "Well, he can be beat." You never seem to have a lot of people around you at the races. You seem to keep to yourself a lot more than some of the other riders. I don't need a lot of people standing around, telling me how great I am. Some . other riders seem real insecure or som~ thing whet' they don't have anybody around them. I don't need anybody telling me I'm so great. I don't care. I'm the happiest when I'm sitting at home by my pool, relaxing by myself. I have nobody around me bugging me, I have no pressure on me. I kind of feel uncomfortable when there'S a ton of people around me. I think LaRocco and I are the same way. A lot of people think he's stuck-up, but I think he's just kind of shy and not into the big scene. His deal- and my deal - is to win. It's not like we're after all the secondary stuff, with people swinging from our you-know-whats. Before it is over for you, will you go to Ew:ope? Yeah, I've·been thinking about it. My primary thing is in the United States, of course, but in the back of my mind I've always felt that, before my career is over, I'd love to try Europe, because that is still motocross' purest form of the sport. Next year, I got a deal with Kawasaki. I want to do the best I can. I want to win a championship and all that. Once that year is done, I'm going to check in my heart to see how many more years I still want to do this. I want to do all the things I really want to do and then be done with it, and when I'm 40 or 50 years old, I'll have stories and memories tllat will last me forever. I'm not going to want to retire and then say, "Hmmm, these guys are going slow; I think I should come back and kill everybody." When I'm done, I want to be done. Then what are you going to do? I don't know. I'd like to race cars, but it seems like you have to be a kabillionaire to race cars, and I don't have a kabillion dollars. And you can't drive a stick. (Laughs) And I can't drive a stick. o 41

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