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/128340
Mees's sixth-place finish at the Pearia home top-! 0 finishes. n satisfied his season-lang gaol of bringing didn't make it. In Springfield we had some bad luck off the starti ng line - just a lack of expe rience on the mile. But t he half miles have been right up our alley. I never thought I could do as good as I did at Lima. I'm not really a cushion rider, and I got an eighth there. After that one my confidence level has been so high, but we 're just taking it race by race and step by step, do ing the best we can. I think there are some races that we could have done better at, but we 're having a good year so far. It's a lwa ys difficult t o gauge where you think you should be when you're a rookie , but go a head a nd try t o a nyway. At the beginning of the year, Johnny said to me , 'I want us to be in the top 10 this year.' I thought, 'Let's A big part of Mees development as a smooth rider could be attributed to tuner Johnny Goad (left). "Johnny keeps me calm," Mees says. away, but he' ll talk to me about what's going o n, and we do n't argue abo ut it . He asks me wh at I'm do ing, and I throw in what I think we can do bet te r. Then he throws in w hat he thinks, and we just go from there , and nine times o ut of lO we co me out ahead . But does he listen to you , or does he just talk? At the beginning he would just kind of tell me , but now I think that he really listens to me , and he'll explain why we should do th is or shouldn't do that. I tell him what I can or can't do, and he just coaches me through it, and that's what I need. I don 't mind if someone puts pressure on me, because I work well under pressure. I'm not the kind of guy who will freeze up if he gets yelled at . Just tell me what I'm How important Is it to you to get Rookie of the Year? It's pretty important because I thought that I won it last year, but the AMAsaid no because I hadn't ridden a full year. Do you think t ha t 's a st upid r ule? I don't know... I mean, if you tum GNC and beat the guys that have been there all year, then you had a better year than them , and you should be eligible for Rookie of the Year But rules are rules, and you have to go by them . . But it is important to me because Jake Johnson won it, and he's from back my way, and John Raun Wood won it, and he's from back my way. It would be good to keep it on the East Coast , but Rob Pearson's after it as well, and he and I had a lot of batdes during our amateur days. I'm sure "We're taking it step by step, but it doesn't matter if I run 1Oth, or if I run fourth, or if I run dead last or don't make the main, as long as I learn something that I can put toward the next race." make that the goal.' The re are a lot of races left this year, and I don' t have much experience on the miles. Like I said, we're taking it step by ste p, but it doesn't matt e r if I run 10th, or if I run fourth. or if I run dead last or don't make the main, as long as I learn so mething that Ican put toward the ne xt race. Johnny is telling me what I'm doing we ll and what I'm doing bad, coaching me thro ugh it. It's a big help having him by my side . So let's talk about your relationship with Johnny Goad. Here's a guy who won a champlonshlp with one of the most talented riders ever, Ricky Graham, and he has worked with a lot of young riders like you since then, with varying degrees of success. He seems to have very high expectations of whoever is on his motorcycles. What is it like to work with him, and have you been on his bad side yet? O ne time he got on my case at Iowa, w here we got fourth . He told me , 'Yougotta get off the sta rt, you gotta ge t off the start.' Then I went out and did a stupid little pract ice start, and he got all upset about that. But he has never really yelled at me. He gets impatient sometimes when I don' t do as good as we shou ld be doing. He'll make this certain face that he has, and I have to look do ing wrong. Johnny 's not the kind o f guy who will ge t all e xcited if I do so mething right . He doesn't get e motio nal. He'll just say, 'I liked that.' He certainly can't complain about your riding style. A lot of young guys seem to come into this deal feeling like they have a lot to prove, and they ride like it, often endangering their competitors unnecessarily. The veteran riders I've talked to about you seem to trust you a little more because you seem to be settled down on the track. You don't take a lot of unnecessary chances. I'm excited, but I'm focused, and Johnny keeps me calm. If I feel like I can make something happen o ut there, I'll take chances , but I won 't take risks. If I know that I can run it underneath somebody and make it, then I'll do it, but I won' t take myself or somebody else out. I want to be known as a clean rider, but aggressive as well. I don't want to blow it. Bette r to get fourth than fall down . We're o ut to get points and work ou r way through [the field]. We don't want to get known as, 'Well, he was running good until he fell down.' People don't want to hear that. www.cyclenews.com this will be a heck of a batde as well. What do you think about Rob Pearson? About his sty le of riding? I think that a lot of peo ple might not like it, like you said, that he's trying to show it too quickly But I like Rob, and his . team and his dad. We get along great. The one year when we we re going for the AMA Horizon Award together [at the Dirt Track Grand Championships], he fell off and got hurt. and I was kind of bummed because the Horizon Award was my goal, but I definitely wanted to win it after a clean run with him. We just lost a rider, Aaron Creamer, who wasn't much older than you are. How did that affect you? Me and Aaron Creamer were good buddies . He stayed at my house a few times, and we went o n road trips toget he r. I loved the guy to death. Race rs are all your friends, but then you have your best friends, and Aaron Creame r was on e of my best frie nds. W hen he got killed, it definitely made me think twice about what I was doing. But you have to look at it as... stuff happens. You know, Eddie Adkins made a good point when he talked to me on the pho ne after it happen ed. He told me . CYCLE NEWS • SEPTEMBER 8 ,2004 27