INTERVIEW
JAMES RISPOLI
P78
and then go and beat that to be even
competitive. It was tough."
And even with the talent we have
here, Rispoli's realistic about the fact
that it's not easy for Americans to make
the jump overseas now. He's lived it.
"The talent level, I think we [the
U.S.] have talent over here to go do it, but the
experience, the money behind, it's just not there
to go over. It's hard to just make a fair comparison
which series is better. You take some of those
guys and bring them over to here and put them
on Dunlops and our spec, I guarantee they're not
going to do as well as they're doing over there.
They'll do well because they're good riders, but
it's a big move. The biggest thing is to move to a
different country and try to do it. It's tough. I'd say
the competition is steep on both sides, it's just a
little different how you look at it."
After all, moving to a new place where
you don't know anyone is not that easy,
it's even harder moving to a new country,
even if they speak the same language.
"What's crazy is I probably went to
the easiest country to go to, but it was
still super difficult," Rispoli says. "The
first thing is just not knowing anything,
not knowing anyone. I dropped everything in an
instant just to go over there and move with four
duffel bags and a PS4. I went over there and
tried to make it happen. Luckily I have a team
that provided me the living, and the hospitality
was amazing. I had a vehicle, which was huge.
But the first three months were insanely hard. I
didn't know anybody. Luckily I have a good friend,
[MotoGP racer] Bradley Smith, he helped me
through it. But that was even tough. He's doing
his own thing in Andora. He's not in England.
Now that he's
adjusted to his new
team and home
away from home,
Rispoli's back to
having fun.
