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/128355
t the n he starts riding relaxed and then he's really to ugh to beat. But I knew if I stayed close to him throughout the year, just keep ing pressure him, I'd have a chance . That was my goal, to keep pressure on him and see what happened . Did you have any idea a bout Lafferty 's question a ble knee go ing into t he first round in Arizona? We're good friends, and he said he hurt his knee a little bit, but he'd been riding and did some local stuff and did pretty well. The extent of his knee injury, I don't think anybody knew at that point. Isaw him at the 24-Hour [an industry ride], and he was riding and hobbling a little bit. But if you're a motorcycle racer and if you see one of your buddies limping, that's just common. I didn't really know the exte nt of it. In the Arizona race, I caught up to him [on the trail], made sure he was okay, and he said his knee was hurting. I didn't think that what happened in Arizona would mean that this was now going to be a breeze [without Lafferty, w ho later had surgery on the knee]. There's still Steve Hatch, David [Lykke] is riding well, and Michael could easily be back for the next round . [Laff rty ended up sitting ou t most of the series.] e David Lykke started off st ro ng and was in the hunt all year. Did that come as a surprise to you? L ykke surprised me a little later into the year. He's always ridden the rocks we ll [out West], he's always been know n for that. He also came out riding for KTM the first time, so I think he rea lly had the desire to show that he could still be a player and he came out really strong. Michael had his injury, Steve [Hatch] was still trying get up to speed, and I was kind of floundering at the beginningof the year, 50 I think two things happened: He was riding well, and he stepped into it before everybody got the ir program going. Pretty much after the second round, things started changing for myself, and I started to pick the pace up. Th e title chase was extremely close all year. It was really close, and what made it close was, as the year went by, my speed picked up. But with Michael out and Steve having some problems, I didn't have a guy to gap us as much as I needed. I'd beat [Lykke] at a race by four, five, six, seven points, but there was nobody that could get in between us. I don't think the season would've stayed as near as close if we would've had the guys in there. When the series went back East, with guys like Barry, Chucky, Robbie Jenks and all those guys, Icould get a lot more points then, because I would get in front of those guys and gap [Lykke]. The first four or five rounds, I beat David, but I couldn't get enough points on him. There were m any different winners this year, too. If I'm not mistake n, the Enduro series had more winners than any off-road ser ies. Ty Davis won a race, I won a race, David won a race , Michael won a race, Barry Hawk won a race, Hatch, and that guy on a Gas Gas wo n the last race. To me, that's very impressive, not to have one series and have two guys win all the races . It shows that you have quite a bit talent at the enduros; the turnout was rea llygood and strong . In e ff-r oad, you m ight say t hat this was t he year of the veterans. The veterans did good : myself, Rodney Smith, Destry [Abbott]. My main competitor was Michael, and he went down with an injury; Rodney came out strong and then his two main competitors, Jason [Raines] and Barry [Hawk] - Barry crashed and Jason ended up break ing his shoulder twice. The veterans gauge what you've got to do to win the championship, and that's why you see guys like Rodney win championsh ips. You learn to do what you have to do per race . You might have won it [a title] because a guy got hurt, but, naw, you do n't loo k at that way. You know what, that's racing, and I know I've lost championships due to injuries. I'm sure Chad Reed prob ably gets the same thing, but with Ricky [Carmichael] there o r not, it's still a stinkin' championship. 15 it good for the sport to hav e old guys winning ch ampionships? I think it is, because it shows two things: It shows that our sport has longevity, and it shows a young guy that there are career possibilities. "I could have a IS-year career [in off-road] versus a five-year career in motocross," so it shows that you have more value in that . It makes a younger person see that, "You know what? I can have a future in off-road racing." What kind of crop of young up-and-corners do you see in off-road! Fro m wha t I've seen, I think the '03 and '04 crop has gotten bett er. The late '90s, early 2000, I didn't see a good crop of good young guys coming up. Actually I was , a little concerned, but I think now it's the strongest ever. I'm seeing guys in the 2S0cc A class that have potential. They're getting hungry seeing what we're doing. Do you think racing off-road is a good way of making a living? For sure . I'd say there's probab lyeight to 10guys in the States that are makinga very comfortable living racing offroad. We don't have the Carmichael and Reed contracts, but we're comfortable . I'd say we're better than the satellite motocross teams , but I'd say we're on the bottom, CYCLE NEWS • JANUARY 5,2005 59