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/128644
THE ATTITUDE "Basically, last fall, las t Septem ber , I decided that all of my nighttime acti vity and all that was just not fo r m e anymore . Not to say tha t t hings we re out of control, but 1 just wanted to make some cha nges in m y life, and I wanted to ga in cla rity. A nd J t hink t hat I did that. I just decided tha t I wanted to stop drinkin g and st uff, an d th at's what I did . I took the necessar y m eas ur es. So th at' s wher e I'm at. " When we fo rmed Strategic 3 with Tim Dixon and T ony St ran gi o , D ixon's a pr etty straig ht -up guy . an d he said, ' Yo u' re a p ussy th ro ug h the whoops. That's all t he re is to it.' Once I go t on t he Yam ah a last year. with m y attitude change. and the bike seemed to work really well fo r me , I started gett ing throug h t he whoops better tha n eve r. Last fall , I m ade a lot o f gains in my Su percross ri d ing. That's why I was really looking forward to th e 2000 season, just for all of th e new challe nges that I ga ve m ys elf. But just m y attitude tow ards my riding an d wha t I hav e and wha t I've achiev ed . It' s a classic deal: You get something ta ke n aw ay fro m you , and yo u realize how much yo u miss it. So 1 g uess t he reconciliation between Kawasaki Motor Co rp . and m y self in th e last co uple months actuall y makes me fee l reall y good abo ut the ch anges that I made and to k no w th at I' m going in a good dir ect ion in li fe . " Not nec essarily do you need to have justific at ion fo r what you do. I'm on e of t hose guys - I don't th in k I' d change th e p ast. I wouldn 't do t h ings d ifferently. There' s thi ng s I could have don e better t hrougho ut m y racing c a reer, undoubte d ly . Build a wh oop section in m y backyard, and go th ro ug h it a hundred ti mes a day might have been - I joke about it , but that co uld have been a good idea. I just look forward to th e future now. and J reali ze th at I c an't c hange an yth in g in th e past. U k e I sa id , not that I'd want to , because I think I've learned a lot of valuable lessons, if you will, j ust va lua ble things about life t hat hopefu ll y will stick with me and make me a better person in the future. "Physically, m ayb e I got m ore sleep or something like th at. I' m not different than anyone else . I'm human. And li ke I said, it's not that things we re out of co ntrol. It 's j ust for me: I needed to ga in clarity in my life, an d t hat's where I found it. I m ean, I rocke d it - wh ile 1 wa s racing . I w ork ed ha rd , and I played hard. The things that 1 have ex perienced, they m ak e m e who I am , good and bad . Man , it's bee n a great life - the people I've m et , the places I've bee n and stuff. I wou ld n' t cha nge th at for the world . It's j ust that at 29, I started to feel a change. Sometimes it j ust wasn't as m uch fun as it was whe n I was 19 o r wha te ve r . So 1j ust change it up, and that's fin e - have fun in different ways. Your wants and needs become different." difficu lt t o p r edi ct with a ny certainty, t o t he extent th at Em ig h imself h e si tate s to h a zard a g uess ( "J ust th ink b ac k three years ago a nd h ow m u ch di fferen t y our li f e i s f r om ho w yo u e nv is ioned it ," h e says) . T h ere i s h is team whi c h , afte r j ust o ne ye ar i n existence , is curre ntly emba rki ng - in tru e Emig fashion - o n a new , redi re cted thre e -year plan . And i f t hat doesn 't p an out, Emig 's duties wi th Shift app arel ( w he r e he serves as com pan y presid ent ) ar e sure t o evolve into someth ing m ore consuming ( e ve n now , h e s ay s , " I th ink by summer of '0 1 you ' re really going to see a big b oost in the com pa n y and the produ cts " ). Emig 's f u t u r e sel f is not a c o m p l e te m yst e ry , be cause while h e shed s a n d adopts alter egos like a runway m od el swapp ing th e s u b t l e e le g a nce of Arman i f or th e er ot ic flamb oyan c e of Versa c e ( ex cept that Emig 's c h a n g e s are made n ot backstage , but in th e public eye ) , th ere a r e se ve ra l less o b vio u s chara ct eristi cs t hat have remained constant. F or example , Emig 's family has always b e e n i m p o r t a n t t o h i m a nd , desp ite t he fact t hat t h e y live h al f a co u n try away , father Gary, b r oth er Bryan and s ister Paige ( a ll of w hom wo rk at Emig R a ci n g i n M i s s our i ) continue to b e major p resence in his Tt,e Crast, During an open practice on Thursday. May 4 . 2000 . just over a week before the season -opening Nation al at Glen Helen Racew ay in S an Berna rd ino. California. Jeff Emig incurred serious inj urie s in a horrifying crash at tha t same facility. Ultim ately . it p roved to be the crash that ended his ca ree r. "I j ust got there, and we were go ing to do some eng ine testing with T erry Varne r at FMF . 1 came o ut of the fin ish - li ne tu rn, over th e lit tle rolle r, and th en th e fin ish -line j um p . I came up to it , and the th rottl e st uck - t he t hrottle st uc k, and it j ust k ep t goi ng . The bike looped o ut o n me , and th e next thing I know . I'm rea ll y , rea lly high , wit ho ut t he bik e. beca use the bike looped o ut, and I tosse d it aw ay; I wasn't going to land with it . It a ll happen s rea lly q uick. bu t in yo ur mind, yo u're thinking , 'T his o ne's go ing t o hurt - this is a good one.' T hat was n' t my exact thought , b ut th en again, th is is a PG m agazine. " I hi t the ground , and o nce I stopped, I felt a lot of tightness in my midsection and my back and stuff - no pain, reall y . And I didn't feel m y legs at fi rst , so J ha d a li tt le five-se cond scare. It see m ed like an eterni ty . It seemed like five minutes, bu t it was probably about five sec onds or someth ing . 1 was totally conscious, and I was j ust t hinking to myself, 'T his is how it' s going to end ?' A lot of thoughts go through your mind. You 're like, 'Come on , move legs . m ove!' You talk to yourself. I started feeling some pain fro m th e co m po un d fr acture of t he r ight ti b/fib [tibia and fibula], and it hurt , but when you ' re laying th ere, it's n ice to have' that pa in and to feel it. "[Sinc e] I'd alread y been throu gh a ser io us inj ury four mont hs before tha t , I ki nd of knew the procedure. It ' s really st ra nge , but onc e I hit the ground. I'm saying. (adopting a harsh . emotionles s ton e] 'O k ay. get [Team Crew Chief T im] Dixon over here. Where' s Di xon at ? No bo dy talk to me. Wh er e's Dixon? Don 't move me. Wh ere's Dixon?' O k ay , D ixon comes up. 'O k ay, Di xon. 1 broke m y ba ck . I b rok e my leg . Ca ll Dr. Matiko . - 890-26 20 . T ell him that we 're going to go to Arrowhead Regional Medica l Center, which is th e best hospital aro und , where I had m y wri st don e. Tell him t hat we'lI meet him at Arrowhead. Call my dad. Get him on a fli g ht o ut her e. Use my bu sin ess Vi sa.' I'm j ust telling him th e exa ct t hing. • 'O k ay , everybody else , leave m e alone: J m ean yo u' re on the ground. and you have to talk yourself through th e pain. Every bod y 's like, 'What can we do. what ca n we do?' and th er e's j us t nothing . "T h is time I really handled all of th at part well , bu t th en it starts to set in . Th e emotiona l part. W ith my wrist, it was ins tan ta neous. I w as like. 'Oh , man, I don 't believ e tha t this just happened. ' But wi th m y back. it was o nc e I knew th at the ambulance was on its way , and that m y dad was going to get on a flight , and tha t Dr. Matiko wa s going to ge t co nta cte d . Then I kind of le t m y guard down . and it w as ki nd of li ke, 'Oh, man, all of these dreams .' I go t hurt before, and now I was go ing to m ak e a c om eback. and now the co meback was stopped. It 's wei rd. Yo u have to talk yourself through all kinds of t hings when you're a pro rac er. I think be in g a rac er , you ta lk to yourself more than anybody else. At le ast 1 did . Maybe that's wh y I was so m enta l at times - I probably st arted talking back o r som ething. "Believe it or not , wi th th e back, it wasn 't a lot of pain - j ust a lot of tightness, like, ' O kay , some thing 's defi nitely wro ng: J ust a ti ghtness all t hrough m y midsection, my back , eve ry t hing . like when your body go es into a protect m od e - 'Okay, something 's broke; we ca n 't m ove : But it wasn 't a lot of pain . Li k e wh en I broke my wr ist , it really hurt. And it's weird ; it took a whil e for the ambulance to ge t th er e, but onc e the y got t here, the EM Ts were g reat. Th ey all k new wh o I was . O ne of th e guys was all , 'Oh , I don 't believe it. I was co m ing her e to w atch yo u two weeks from now . I was ho ping to see y ou rac e.' And you know th e wh ole ro ut ine . to get morphine . and all that so rt of st uff for the pain . And it 's weird, because I've been t hrough it fo ur or five ti mes in th e last c oup le years. It's lik e once I get in th e am bulanc e, and th ey get the I.V. in , I j us t let it go, and trust that I' m going to pass out or whatever. and when I wake up , I'm going to be fine ." m in d and li fe . (Em ig a nd hi s fathe r cue. e n e _ S • J A N UARY 3 , 2001 47