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/128245
AMA f 25cc National Mo to cross Champion/Unlimited Supermofo Champion Grant Langston Tke Vice Langsto n's last-minute decision to sw itch to the 125cc class results in his first National Championship that was always a big uphill batt le for m e th e whole seaso n ju st trying to get throu gh to 20 -2 5 m inutes into the race before I had to dig deep. My hand buckled off th e handlebar at Hangt own , and I didn' t ride all that well, and then at Mount Morris I crashed in practi ce and put my hand out and refrac tured the bone in my hand . It was pretty difficul t to deal with for those coupl e of rounds . I had my hand taped up and a brace up until Budds Creek , whic h was my first good round of the year. Bubb a came back , and I got second behind him . I think th at was awesome . Th en we had a weekend off before Red Bud , and I got a terrible start in the first moto, but I rebounded for a second pla ce in the second m oto, and each weekend I was chipping away at Brown 's lead. When Troy was canceled, I got another weekend off, and we went to Unadilla, and I got second to Bubba there again and found myself one point behind Brown for the lead. Q Q B y S TEVE C OX PHOTOS BY STEVE BRUHN t seems some people in th e m oto cr oss world have a Ishort memory - esp ecia lly if th ey hav e reason t o forget. But for some of the others, the announcement t h at Grant Lan gston wou ld be ch as in g the 2 0 03 AMA/Chev y T rucks 125cc Na tional Champ ionsh ip seeme d to create qu ite a stir. Those people reme m bered how m uch faster he wa s tha n basically everyone else in th e 200 1 125cc Nationals, winn in g motos by near-Bubbe -ltke margins at times. Th e fact that he m issed a co m plete round and th en still basically had the cha mpi onsh ip in the ba g until h is wheel came apart in the last moto of the year said some th ing about his determination, toughness and speed. But to Langston , that meant a poss ibili ty o f going through the rest of his career with " should' ve" and "c ould' ve " as frequent thoughts. Now, that's no longer the cas e. Gra nt Langston is, and alwa ys will be, the 2 003 125cc National Motocross Champion, j o in ing co untrym an/frie nd Greg Albertyn with his own AMA Nati onal Titl e. A s dominan t as Fr ench ride rs are in term s of Sta teside MX racing , South A fr ica now h as m ore AMA Nat ional Champions than Fran ce. 30 J A N UARY 7 ,2004ยท cue I e n e vv T O start with , can y ou wal k us t hrou gh what the deci sion -m ak ing process was like for yo u t o move d own to the 125c c cla ss aft er Jam es Ste wa rt got hurt in Vegas? A lt wasn 't aft er Bub ba got hurt, it was actu ally discussed before th at. When I was injured during the supercrosses, I didn't feel comforta ble with the bike. I told m y team I woul d pre fer to ride 125cc outd oors. At fir st I don' t thi nk they were too excited about th e idea, but we discussed it prior to Vegas , when I ha d j ust started rid ing aga in, and th en I guess it helped KTM 's decision wh en th ey saw Bubba get hurt bec ause they realized , "Okay, we hav e a chance at a National Title now: With Bubba not th ere, I sho uld be th e favorite . The n th ey calle d m e up to say I could m ove down. Q A nd th en , wit h only a week un der your belt on t hat bike, you w on the second m oto at Glen Helen. A t that po int, you seem ed pre tty co nfident. A Yeah. It went good for m e. I felt good there , and it was a go od race for m e considering I wasn 't near ready. But then, shortly after that, I struggled with my wrist for a while, and I thi nk m y confi dence went down becaus e of it. I was struggling physically already , so s So you were st arting t o sm ell blo od t hen? 1\ For sure, but at Washougal, I had some sort of a ./"\.bug - I don't even know what, but I was sick all week . I didn 't even want to practice Saturday, although I put in some laps in the second session - but I came across the finish line and landed in a pile of riders and bent my wrist so far back that I had to get a pain injec tion and get my hand dressed up again . But at the time at Washougal, it was proba bly th e toughest race day I've ever had. I was sick , my wrist was hurt - if I wasn't in the cham pionship hunt, I would never have ridden. And it tumed out to be a good day . I didn 't ride very fast - I was just circulating m ore than anything - but Brown ended up cra shing out, and I got the points lead. From being sick, I never really recove red, because then we went to Millville, which is my favo rite track, and I had no energy . It was a very disappointing day for m e. By lap two , I was so drai ned and out of it that I was j ust circulating. It was very frustrating for me because I would normally expect a lot more from myself. Binghamton was a so -so da y. I went down on the fir st lap and went from 40th back up to 10th, then got thi rd in the sec ond moto, so Ryn o ca m e back a cou ple po ints at eac h round. Q S o w ere y ou st artin g to f eel the pre ssu re t hen ? A w ell . I had been suffering from some bad starts, and th en th e firs t moto at Steel City I got another one, and th en Troy Adams cartwheeled , and his b ik e took m e out. So I had to co m e bac k from 28th back up to eighth. The final moto, which tumed out to be th e final on e, and we ended up running 2-3 . I do remember thinking that , no matter what, I need ed to bea t him, becau se I just had a gut feeli ng tha t Troy was going to be canceled again , and I would have to leav e with the po int s lea d just in case. It tu rned out good. Q It soun ds like a lo t of dra ma for one season .