INTERVIEW
P64
RYAN VILLOPOTO
BY ERIC JOHNSON
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KIT PALMER
S
ince the christening of the
Federation Internationale
Motocyclisme (FIM) Mo-
tocross World Championship in
1957, no rider in the 57-year histo-
ry of the sport has ever won both
the premiere MXGP World Cham-
pionship and the AMA Supercross
Championship (first launched in
1974). Furthermore, since the rise
to power of American motocross
in the early 1980s, no Supercross
Champion has ever left the AMA
series to join the FIM circuit to
seek out a World title. Until now,
that is. As everyone even remotely
in the sport now knows—due to
the announcement he made last
week—Ryan Villopoto, the reign-
ing Monster Energy Supercross
Champion, will forgo a chance to
fight for his fifth consecutive Su-
percross Championship in 2015,
instead making the choice to
leave almost everything he knows
in American motocross to try and
win the FIM MXGP World Cham-
pionship. Villopoto's historic de-
cision has, no doubt, caused a
seismic shift in the sport and
rocked it to its very core.
And as can certainly
be expected, RV's
RYAN VILLOPOTO TALKS ABOUT HIS
DECISION TO GO GRAND PRIX RACING
BRAVE
NEW WORLD
