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 Motocross Champion/Unlimited Supennoto Champion Grant Langston For me , tha t wa s th e m ost di ffi cu lt season I've ever done. I had t o overcome lack of fi tne ss, A inj u ries , bad l uc k , bad starts, and e veryth ing . I mean, it rea lly was a tough season for m e. I ke pt plugg ing away , but I wanted the champion sh ip so bad that I got it through all that was go ing ag ain st me . The best reward is that number-one plate. Tw o years ago , I came so cl ose. I won half the races in 200 1, and it didn't seem that di fficu lt . but now I rea lize how di ffi cu lt it is to win rac es and how much harder it is to win a championship . In 200 1. every th ing was go ing my way , and I missed a race . I came back. and then I lost in the fi nal m oto. This year, I w as the guy playing catch up . Q w e interviewed you at Hangtown, and you pre dic ted yo u could " see myself cr ossing the fi nish line at Steel City with my hands in the air . someone holding a nu m ber- one plate." It didn't happen exactly how you 'd predicted, but it was close . You 'd have to be pretty satisfied after all that. Definit el Y. It was my dream. It's like , some A people have th eir opinions about me going to the 125s, but it w as something I wanted to do , and m y dream w as to win the 125cc Nationals. T wo ye ars ago . I came very close, and I never wanted to li ve wit h " sho uld 've" or " would 've," an d I c ame back , and I did it. Now that I've done what I want ed to do in the 125s, I can concentrate on 250s. It 's an ad venture. and it's going to be a long road, but it's going to be good. thought Woods had let me by , but that wasn't the case .i l th ink he was ge tting frustrated because he ended up sixth in that moto and I ended up third. so I pulled some more po ints out there. So there was a lot of tensio n that was cr eated and some things said that maybe peop le m ight want to take back, but at the end of the day , KTM got wh at they wanted, I got what I wanted, and everyone gets along just great now. Q T here were a lot of mindgames going on in y our team between you and Ryan Hughes during that championship battle. How did that affect your guys' relationship and t he team atmosphere? lt was to ugh, I th ink, because I think with that. there was a lot of tension, and it forced some A of the tea m m embers to almost take sides. I think. in some w ays, Ryno did tu rn some peo ple on th e team , bu t when you' re wo rki ng fo r a cha mpionship, it was hardest on Larry Brooks, wh o had to try and k eep everyone together. Larry didn 't want to see a war break out , and he di dn't want to see his t wo guy s take eac h othe r out . and he had a to ug h job. T he people on the team had a tough job, and I think things became a littl e more difficult when Ryno came in yelling and screaming because he thought Josh Woods pulled over for m e th e second moto at Binghamton, wh ich isn' t what happened. You can see on the video th at I forced my wa y by on the last lap. I think that caused a bit of a negative vibe . H o n e Sti y • if you we re i n Hu gh es' s hoes . wouldn 't y ou suspect that maybe yo u r teammate moved ove r for your other teammate, and in the heat of battle be k ind of upset . t oo? Q Th e thing is, Brett Metcalfe pulled over for Ryno in the second moto at Unad illa . so that's why I A thought he was out of line. Basically, the rules before B ingham t on , the champion ship was bet ween the KTM guys and Brown. KTM instructed Woods , Rodrigues and Metcalfe to not hold us up . If we 're behind them, let us by, because only me and Ryno could 've beaten B ro w n . KTM had never won a National Championship , so w e wanted to beat Brown. But after Washougal : with Brown out of the champi onship , it was " Rac e, but don't take ea ch other out. " M etca lfe had p u ll ed over for Hugh es before, and Joaquim pull ed over for me at a race , so we had both benefited fro m our teammates' working with us before th e ord ers were lifted, but I think he 32 JANUARY 7 , 2004· eye I EI n Q NOW. this is the second m aj or cham pionship t hat you 'v e wo n t hat you didn't defend. Does it bother you t hat you 've neve r attempted t o defend a championship? Not really. I gue ss I like th e fact that I've left on A top. I th ink when you go back to defend a ti tle . it's one of those things where there's nothing to ga in and everything to lose, and I gu ess I'm just th e kind of guy that likes to look forw ard to new goa ls once I've accomplished something . I won the World title, an d tha t's wh at I wan ted to do in Europe - I did n't particu lar ly wan t to sta y there any longer, but th e funny story i s. it was only at round four of the GPs in Europe when Mitch Payton actually called me, and he sai d , " Hey, y ou know , wou ld y ou be inte res te d in co min g t o th e Un ited States and raci ng for m e?" I was like. " YEAH!" It was kind of a sho ck. I was j ust dr iv ing to a GP in m y RV, and I get th is ph one c all . " I wan t yo u to ride for m e. " It w as a big shoc k on the ph on e - I h adn 't ev en thought about it before that. It wa s like . I was thinking of sta ying at least another year or two in Eu rope , and eventually I decided, aft er th inking and think ing. that whether I ,,":oh the GPs or not, I wanted to go to the St at es. That's where I wanted to be . I enjoy it here. and my moth er and sister w er e alread y h er e . so that 's wh ere I wanted t o go . KTM ob v iously had first option on me , so Pro Circu it offered me a deal, and KTM match ed it , so I was obliged to stay with KTM . But by round si x , I w as already under contract to ra ce in the U .S . So , like I said , I wo n there, and I wanted t o win here, and I've don e that now. My ultimate goa l is to win a 250 champion ship, and my goal of goals is to win a supercross ch ampion sh ip . I think people consid er that highly un li k el y , but I li k e a cha lle nge, and I th ink I've still got 10 years of rac in g in m e, an d that's my ultimate goa l. eVIl's Q w ell , Ricky Carmichael' s out now, and Chad Reed mayor may not be back by Anaheim. I think, with those two guys in there , many people would consider you a threat for a pod ium, so with t hem out. logically, yo u'd be a threat t o win. l'd li ke to think so . I don't think some people quite believe I can be that good in supe rc ross , A but it's someth ing I want to do . I want to show people that I can be competitive in supercross. My 250's a lot better than it was last year, and I'm coming into this year - knock on wood · hea lthy and much more comfortable on the bike. I'm actually rea lly exc ite d. In the World Supercross Series, I was looking, an d basi cally it looks like it'll be between myself and Fo nseca, so th ere 's a possibili t y of the World title rig ht there. I' m really excited. I'm alrea dy looking fo rwa rd to this season. Q A t 21 yea rs of age . you've got a World Championship, a few National wins , a National title now (actually. two if you include the Supermoto Unlimited) . That's a lo t for a m an your age. A T hank s. Q s peaki ng of doing a lot, what was with that supermoto thing? What made you decid e to do th at ? YOU know what? I'm not trying to brag , but I always tell people that I'm a natu ra l in an y form A of motorcycle racing - or just racing . As a k id , I won go -kart races - m y dad used to own a raceway - I've won flat-tra ck races, I've won motocross. supercross, street bikes . I've done it all at some stage. You know, as a kid, you' re doing all th is stuff for fun. I'm pretty much a natura l at all th is stuff. so for Supermota rd , I realized this is a new th ing that's fun, and I went out and did a co up le races and ended up with a champi onsh ip th ere. I was a little disappointed I couldn't rid e the 450cc class. because I didn't get to qualify for that. It was great fun. I was surprised. My goal wa s to m aybe be on the pod ium. bu t I didn't th ink I'd win, and I actually won qu ite com fortably . I wanted to ride th e 450, but the rea son I didn't get to was because the only rac e that fit into my schedule to qualify was Dallas, and I won my heat th er e with the qu ickest tim e, and in the main event. I pass ed Ward and Henry and my clu tch