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/1542268
Jason Thomas: World Traveler A rider who has been making waves dur- in8 the off season is lason Thomas. While others were taking time off from the gru- eling 2005 season. the Subway/Honda rider has been traveling and racinS as much as possible, and working hard on his training proSram. Thomas has narrowly missed making the top l0 in the premier class for the past few years- This year he's confident he can get it done. Thomas spoke about his off season and his plans for lhe season during the recent Toronto Supercross, cn: You'v€ b€€n working pr€ttu hard during thE off-s€asonP iasonthomas: Yeah, I've been doang a lot of traveling and doing a lot of races in Europe, Australia and Canada. lt hasn't really been much of an off season, but I feel that I have a lot of momentum goin8 into this season. cn: You'v€ b€en doing pr€ttg good in thos€. as w€ll. iasonthomasa Yes. I won the Montreal Sup€rcross in October and one in Germany, and I won some motos in Australia. cn: Did gou takE ang tim€ off at all? iasonthomas: Once Glen Helen was over. I took a month ofl but I was at home ever day ridint and traininS, trying to tet my base program in place for the season. After that, I started racing again, and then it was a little tough, with all the racing and travelinS, to stay on the same protrarn, but I feel good and we still have a month before Anaheim and I think I will be read),. cn: Vuhat al- gou doing diffEF g|tlg ,rom last g€arP i.sonthoms: I think I have,ust ridden a lot more. I think it's iust .onfidence and being on the same bike ,or a few years now and lEving the same sponsors. cn: 50 €v€rgthing is pr.€ttg much thc sam€ as last g€ar? i.ronthomai Well, I have a new mechanic for this year. His name is Mark Farabaugh and he is working out really well. Plus, we are switchint to Tok),o Mods motors and Leo Vnce pip€s. But we are running the same suspension, so things havent changed too much. That makes me really confident going into the yeai with what I hrve. cn: fu gou feel gou have an advantagE sinc€ gou'v€ b€€n on th€ four-strok€ for a whil€P iasonthomasr EveD/body is switchint over to them now but this is my fourth year with (he team, and we've used the same bikes, so I have a lot of time on them. lt's definitely 8ot to be an advantage- cn: What arc gour r€alistic goals for this gEarP iasonthomas: Realistically. I would like to tet a top l0 overall. I've been close and I got closer last year I lust can't have any bad races - that's the big thing. There were some races last year where I dropped the ball and I missed out on points, and that put me way behind. Then, once I started doing better in the series, it left me a lot of Sround to make up. So I need to be consistent every week and just finish riSht around that top l0 mark. cn: Ar€ Uou looking at th€ Canadian nounds as a testing s€ssionP iasonthomas: Yeah, I've been racing so much that I kind of already have my racing legs under me, but it will be Sood testinS for the new stufl we are running on the bike. lt will also kind of let me know whe.e I am at, compared to the guys who are bet- ter than me. Then l'll have a few weeks afler lhese rounds before that actual sea- son starts to get rcady, Shon ,/vloore [=HHT RtstsN4: ,E\ R '\ ,- ,s) PLUS up to $suzurcr IN FREE ACCESSORIES on select models." I t t {t i rl \ / E tue.ym _5F.1 +..ii \ h ,.... ^.4'r. Y ' / _ ,\ rti--.--qr+,/ , iE. .:., .z'.\ .-.{4 \\ - ),, y,- E- € 'B\ \rt, T I