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/128218
Team' Yamaha's Timmv Feny FOlWard nmmv Ferry looks to improve on last year's second-place 250cc National Championship finiSh end of the second matos, but my speed's great, and really I'm over the Epstein-Barr, I'm just trying to race my way back into shape. I noticed that in moto two at Hangtown. In moto one, you caught and passed your teammate Chad Reed, but in moto two you couldn't catch him. That was actuall. y something totally different. I rode good the first moto and got by Chad and got a little gap on him in the beginning. In the second mota, he did the same thing to me. He was ahead of me the whole time, but I was right behind him, and he got away, so it's kind of like we just flip-flopped motos. In the second mota, he got out and got away, and I couldn't pull in that gap. Q A I hear you're considering a two-stroke ride next year. Do you think you'd be faster on a two-stroke? Because you switched early in the supercross season and tried it. That was totally different. I was trying something in supercross because I would honestly like to see what I could do on a two-stroke in supercross. It seems like all the guys I'm racing against are all the guys on two-strokes - you know, I'm kind of like the only four-stroke guy that's really up there every week, so I'm kind of curious to see how I could do on a two-stroke because I haven't rode one in three years, and I feel I'm a better rider than when I left the two-stroke to go to the four-stroke. But for sure I want to ride a four-stroke outdoors. It has a lot of power, and it's a good bike for the nationals. Q A BY STEVE Cox PHOTOS BY STEVE BRUHN T eam Yamaha's Timmy Ferry has been racing professionally since the early 1990s, and it seems he has just hit his stride in the last few years. Nowadays it's not too uncommon for riders in the second half of their twenties to be riding and performing well, but it is pretty uncommon for those riders to be actually doing better than they ever had when they were younger. That is what Ferry is doing right now. In his third year on the factory Yamaha thumper, 28-year-old Ferry is looking to improve - and if he got second in the 250cc National Championship last year and third a year before, improving is going to require him to knock off perpetual defending champ and fellow Floridian Ricky Carmichael. Can he do it? Only time will tell. We talked to Ferry the day before the Mount Morris MX National. With the whole E~stein-Barr vi.rus you:ve been struggling with, do you thmk commg back early for the Nationals during the supercross series helped you or hurt you? Q I think it helped me... It made it a little bit harder because I was thrown back into racing without really riding a lot, but had I sat out two extra weeks, I don't think at Glen Helen I'd have been in any better shape. And I think really racing at a race pace is more important than being at home practicing by myself. How would you rate your own performance so far, considering? I'm really happy. My goal for the first three races, through Mount Morris, was to finish on the podium - and I've done that at the first two. I have good points; I haven't lost a lot - there's been a few guys that have had some bad luck and lost quite a few points - so all in all, I can't complain, considering how long I took off. HOW are you coming along with the illness, and what do you expect for the rest of the Nationals? I'm over that now. The main thing is taking just over two months off - not doing anything. So getting back in shape is the thing that's kind of... Well, I don't know if it's holding me back, but I've been stronger before. I need a little bit more at the Q A DO you sometimes feel like people maybe don't notice you? You always seem to run up front, but the guys around you seem to get the attention, not you. Yeah, it kind of seems like that, you know? I mean, it doesn't bother me because, other than giving my sponsors what they're paying for, I don't really care about what people are thinking, you know? But yeah, I think I probably do get overlooked. I'm kind of where LaRocco was three or four years ago when he was always getting second or third and everyone kind of looked over him. Now I've kind of jumped up and taken his spot, and I'd like to change it just to get my sponsors more recognition. It's kind of weird - I'm always there, but I need to win to be as popular as Carmichael or Reed or someone like that. So I'm trying. I'm kind of getting second or third right now - hopefully first will be soon. Q Hasn't it kind of been that way your whole career though? Even when you were winning stuff as an amateur in the A class and stuff, you didn't get the immediate factory ride like a lot of guys do. Q