Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Interview Motocrosser Jeff Emig By Eric J ohns on y no w, you probably kn ow what hap pened to motocrosser Jeff Emig. Busted for possession of marijuana and, as a result, gi ve n his walki ng papers fro m Kawa saki, the form er s u perc ross a nd N atio na l MX cha m p io n is qu ick to put thi s incid ent beh ind him and sta rt replanning his future. During the early winter of 1985, Team Honda rid er Ron Lechien wa s arrested in the Tokyo Airport for possessio n of a co ntro lled su bs ta nce, namely marijuana. Legend has it that Soichiro Honda, found er of the motor gian t, had to pull some strings to get Lechien throu gh cu stoms and out of so me very se rio us trouble. Lechien wa s ord ered to fly imm ed iately back hom e to Am erica, wh er e upon land ing, he wa s informed that he had been terminat ed by Honda. The Japan ese motorcycle companies are a conserva tive lot, and any thing resem blin g a drug offense, no matt er how sma ll, is serio us ly frowned upon. Well, some 14 years later, the sport of mo tocross has expe rienced another m a riju an a possession scandal, this time centered upon Team Kawasaki's Jeff Emig. Arres ted o n Sunday, August 22, in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, for public consumption of alcohol and possession of marijuana, Emig was fired by his Kawasa ki employers just a few days late r. Jeff Emig is, without a doubt, one of the most popular and charismatic racers in the world. In fact it can be argued that when things were going well for him back in 1997 - when he clinched both the AMA 250cc Supercross Cha mpionship and 250cc ational Championship - his celebrity rivaled even that of the sport's go lden boy, Jeremy McGrath. However, during the past two seasons, Emig seemed to ge t lost somewhere along the way, his results dropping off from p revious ational Championsh ip-caliber levels. Then it all came crashing down on Emig in La ke Havasu . In an effort to find out how he' s doi ng an d w ha t his futu re plans are, we contacted Jeff at his home in Rive rside, Ca lifo rn ia. And wh ile a bit pe nsive, the form er four-tim e AMA Ch ampion rem ain s op timistic, and po siti ve about his fu tu re place in the spo rt. Her e's w ha t he had to say. B no we k t ou t at Q Je ff, bygav asw,u .has all thno w' wahabit,plarayeddo andu Lake H Now at th e mu ck k in g rumor mon ering died down how yo feel? 1 m doing we ll an d I'm excited about doing some' thing new. Never in my career have I had so methin g ta ken away from me. It's also been exci ting for me to re eive a ll the support from the ind ustry and all the c people that have ca lled to say, 'a nything I can do to help yo u: has been overwhelming. Peo ple have called from Europe, Australia, all over America. People from diffe rent sports have also called me to offer their suppo rt. All of this has made me feel very good about pe0ple in general. A Was everyone un derstanding abo ut what happened? Well, not exactly. The initia l thing I had to do was call my father and explain to him w hat had happened , to' tell him I got in trouble and that it was my last ride with Kawasaki. You know you want you r father to be proud of you, and he wasn't proud about w hat had happened . Now I have to wo rk hard and make him and eve ryo ne see w hy I'm a cha m pio n. I just mad e a m istake and it's been a major glitch in my progra m. A T h e Lake H avasu incident too k place over the w e ek end and w it hi n th e spa n of two da y s, Kawasaki let it be kn own that you had been term inated. It all happen ed very qu ickly. Did tha t su rp rise yo u at all? It see med stra nge to me because it all happ en ed so qu ick. I never had a m eetin g with a ny bo dy a t Kawasaki and it wa s a real cut and d ry situa tion. He y, I know Kawasaki has bu siness reasons for what happen ed , they're looking at it from a bu sin ess side. But on a personal side, a number of people fro m Kaw asaki called me and said , 'I' ll help anyway I ca n: That made me feel good a bo u t people and tha t a s po nso rs hi p is Q '" '" '" -A N N :;; .<:I E Cl:I Q. Cl:I en 36 not just about ha ving a logo pasted o n you. I didn't speak to Bruce (Stjernstrorn, Kawasaki's MX race team man ager ) himself. However, a lot of peop le in the compan y we re sad a nd wished me well. Whatever ha ppen ed was a business decision, and no matter w hat happen ed , Kawasa ki is an aweso me co m p a ny that makes awesome p rod uc ts, and I had "a great four yea rs th ere. I a lso ro de for th em all th rough m y ama teur caree r. But all of this is the harsh reality o f bein g a profession al athlete. I ha ve no bad feeling towards Bruce and Kawasaki , bu t it wasn' t a happy situa tion there for me. We had been figh tin g a little bit all year and I just wasn 't comfortable. re e se as o n started yo mentioned us Q Be foyouthwould eventually ma yu to have yourtoown that like race team. Is that an idea yo u now entertain, or wou ld yo u ra ther hoo k u p with an es tab lis h ed team? Well, I'm not doing any th ing w itho ut so me serious ' m o n ey backi ng m e . I' m no t spend ing m y o w n mon ey - the money I ma de from racing. That would be a financial disaster . I need sponsors to do that. A Q Has the phone been ringing a lot? Yes , the phone has been ringing. However, I've been real patient. I'm taking it all one step at a time . I'm going to be leaving in a few days for a race in Italy (the 'Fastcross,' held outside of Milan ) and I'll be rid ing a Yamaha there . I've been doing some testing with Enzo Racing and Ross Maeda and the FMF guys, and I have a good bike to work with. I'v e never worked with FMF before and d idn 't know anything at all about w ha t they had to offer, but they have been very helpful. A During yo ur car eer, you have won a Supercross Championship, three AMA National Cha mpions ips and som e of th e biggest race s in the world. Can you stilI conjure up the motivation to win aga in ? Yeah, yea h, defin itely. I' ve bee n racing since I was four yea rs old and it' s in my blood - being a competitor - I' ve got tha t in me and I thi nk I can win again . A w e' ve h eard from so me peo ple in Euro pe tha t there are a number o f h igh-p rofil e Gra n d Pri x te am s very in te res ted in yo ur se rvices. You h ave alwa ys been a phenomen al outdoor rider, would yo u conside r packing it all up and riding the Wor ld Ch am " pion sh ip circuit? The World C ham pions hi p? Yea h, I've ac tua lly tho ug ht about it a lot and a number of people hav e contacted me. I've also tal ked to Ryn o (Rya n Hu gh es), and he's let me know w hat's goi ng on over there. O ne of the big th ings he said was, 'The tracks suck! ' But I guess they are working on that and that the organizers (the Actio n Grou p) are pu tting together a Dirt Wurkstype crew to go to each event and work on the tracks befo re each race . Q A How have all the oth er ri ders reacted to your situation? It's not li ke everyone ou t there is a sai n t. Yea h , you kn ow so me of the rea l st raight ones snickered at me, but most everyone was super cool. I attended the last Nationa l at Stee l City and it was super cool to be there and watch all the drama unfo ld. I've been through all that, so it was cool to be the re seeing it from the ot her side. But to answer your ques tion, everybody has been rea l coo l to me and no one is diggingon me. Q A A lo t o f people un de rsta nd what happen ed at Lake Havasu and h ave been very supportive of yo u. Ho wever, I would assume th at not everyone h as rall ied a ro und yo ur cause. How do yo u an swer to th ose fol ks? I hav e not ha d to deal with m uch of th at ye t. Unless . " you live the life in which I d o, the life of a pro ath lete, y ou wou ldn 't und erstand . Lik e m y fat her, he doesn 't know w ha t I d o with my d ays and nights. It's a . situation wh ere y(lU do n't pass jud gm ent. I got arres ted, but shit, how many people ha ve driven ho me drunk from a vict ory pa rty? I'm not ju stifying w ha t I did , becau se it' s agai nst the law and against the ru les of the spo rt and ag ains t every thing abou t bein g a professional athlete. You work all day lon g to be a be tter athlete. I made a Q A mista ke and now I'm paying for it. It's been a big learning experience. You are a very p opu lar, high-profile racer. Has an yone come at yo u with a real off the wall-t yp e of er to su it up for them? It's been interesting. I have certainly had some very interesting offers, but the mo ney is p re tty far off. I've even had an offer to race a 125. It's an interesting tim e for me now because I can race whatever I wa nt. However , I know my place is on a 250, but I might go after the 125 deal - I don' t know, I have a lot of opportunities to look at right now. But in rea lity a lo t of this might hurt me fina ncia lly right now. When yo u come down to it, I' m going to take a hit with money. A You and Jeremy Alb recht are close, How d id w hat happened in Havasu affect yo u tw o? Yea h, Jere my jus t bou ght a new hom e and nee ds secu rity . If he leav es Kawasa ki to wo rk with m e th at wou ld be g reat. If not , I und er s tand becau se he need s his secu rity ri ght no w . If I had a d eal which wou ld be secure for the future, I th ink he'd go wit h me. But right now I'd prob ab ly say he'll stay with Kawasaki. A With the Fastc ross approac hing, how did yo u end up choosing to rid e th e Yamaha? Well, with w ha t happened , I was in a positi on to be able to ri deall the bikes a nd get a feel for a ll of th eir cha rac teris tics . It's been ki nd of fu nn y because everyo ne ha s been sayi ng, ' Wh ich b ike d ~ yo u like best? ' What happened was that I had an oppo rtu nity to rid e Brian McGavren 's Yama ha YZ250 and it feIt good so I went wi th it. Q A A t th is po in t in tim e, you' re out of the facto ry 18w heelers. That withstanding, what will yo u miss most abo ut bein g a factory worker? The fact that I recent ly bega n rid in g p rod u ction bikes, I can really appreciate the work don e by the factory teams to develop the bikes they sell to the public. After I was arrested and let go by Kawasaki, I had people telling me, 'Go bu y a prod uc tion bike and race Binghamton: But it's not like that. Why do you think a fac tory team has an 18-w heeler to work ou t of? They te all year lon g - th e w hole team - to make the bike's st bett er a nd learn . There' s a w ho le m ot or co m pa ny behind the race team . To buy a stock bike and race it is not possible. You need spec ial tires and parts - everything. All of that makes me apprecia te w ha t I had and the su ppo rt I had . After I was let go , I spo ke to every sing le guy on the team and told them how mu ch their wo rk mea nt to me. A Je ff, a lot has changed for yo u in a very s h ort amount of tim e. Wh ere do you go from here? A~"It' s all u p to me. I ha ve to pu t out the effor t again .~ a nd be a cha mpio n aga in. Q Q So you're going to be around for a while? A Su re! Sure! Th is is what I do.

• Cover