"I feel like we got into off-road
my last year in Superminis," said
Girroir. "Back then, it was guys
like Jimmy Decotis, AJ Catan-
zaro—and then Justin Barcia
would come down from New
York on a Honda 150—that were
the top dogs. My brother beat all
those guys in his first-ever 85 A
race at Southwick. My brother is
faster than me on a moto track.
My dad graded the Southwick
track, which was cool because
we always had unlimited access
to the track."
Johnny says that he enjoyed
watching Carmichael and Stew
-
art, but that Travis Pastrana was
his idol and still is.
In 2008, Johnny raced his first
GNCC.
"I remember I raced the
Unadilla round in 2008 in the
7-11 class," said Girroir. "I think
I won it by five minutes. Then I
started racing J Days in the New
England area in 2012."
As far as his early motocross
skills spilling over into his off-
road racing, Johnny thinks it's
been a vital part of the skills he's
acquired. "I think it's good to be
able to be a little more aggres-
sive and jump stuff. There are
a lot of people who grew up
racing the local hare scramble
series in New England that Josh
Toth, Ben Kelley and I competed
against who were fast. But you
could take them out in a field,
and they could take a rocky
corner faster than they could a
smooth flat corner, so I feel like
it's good to practice both moto
and off-road. It's good to go in
the woods a little bit for techni
-
cal stuff, and it's good for sprint
speed to ride moto. I think they
translate very well."
Most of the hare scrambles
that Johnny competed in were
rocky, like the Snowshoe and
the Mountaineer GNCCs, which
is why those two races are
among his favorites.
"In the New England area, it's
just more technical, so you've
got experience with an assort
-
ment of different types of terrain
VOLUME ISSUE DECEMBER , P77
