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/144092
INTERVIEW P66 ZACH OSBORNE he's an American. The GP bosses are always pushing to bring American talent to the series, since the USA's AMA series is considered by most to feature the fastest racers in the world. If not for this, Osborne's racing career may have dried up, or he may have had to test his merit in the AMA as a privateer. But because of his nationality, he got offers to race the GPs, and he took them, becoming a popular and relatively successful racer in Europe. Despite being a "motocross guy," Osborne looked like a Supercross veteran in 2013. thing worse than someone who is slow and out of shape is someone who actually has the speed, but not the work ethic. "I think I went into Budds Creek this year with a little bit of a personal vendetta against that track," Osborne says. "I really wanted to do well and just two crashes in the first moto kind of took me out of contention. But in the second moto I came through strong and passed some really good guys on the last few laps, so it was kind of some vindication for me, I guess. But looking back, definitely now I look back and laugh at it, because I was so far from where I needed to be at the time [in 2006]. But it's good. It's been an awesome road. It's been tough at times, but definitely I feel like I wouldn't change it for anything and everything that IN " I'M PROBABLY, HONESTLY GUY, BUT REALITY, I'M A BETTER 450 I FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE ON A LITES BIKE. " After many years, he talked to teams in the USA about returning here, but he didn't get any major interest because of Supercross. "There were a lot of teams that I talked to that were pretty interested, but it was tough when they asked how good I was at Supercross," Osborne says. "I had only done a few Supercrosses in my career, so it was hard to really answer that." With the MX2 age rule, Osborne was going to have to move up to MX1 if he stayed in Europe much longer, and although that was an option for him to move up, he preferred racing 250s. The BACK TO THE USA When Osborne was drafted into only real answer was to come the GPs, it was mostly because back to the USA, and the only has happened, happened for a reason. I just need to keep on trucking." And trucking he is. Osborne grabbed a podium finish in Colorado at round two with a solid 6-2 score and currently sits fifth in the points behind defending National Champ Blake Baggett, world champions Marvin Musquin and Ken Roczen, and teammate Eli Tomac. Add to that his podium finish in Seattle this year, and it's obvious that "Snack Attack" is a thing of the past.