Ricky Talks MXoN

 

Ricky Carmichael interview – MXoN

America’s leading motocross journalist, Eric Johnson sat down with the GOAT, Ricky Carmichael and asked him a bunch of question for RacerXonline (here) Eric was kind enough to let us have these three questions right here, talking about the MXoN and the current crop of GP riders.

Okay RC, everybody wants to hear what the GOAT has been up to. How have things been going with the one and only Ricky Carmichael?

I have a really busy fall coming up and some really fun, exciting events starting with the Motocross of Nations here in a few weeks. I’m really excited to go back. I haven’t been to the Motocross of Nations since 2007—my last race! That was the last Motocross of Nations I’ve been to. I’m really excited about going there and especially to be going to the UK. I love going to that country. It’s always a great time. I’m really excited to see all the fans and to spend face time with them and maybe do some hot laps with [Stefan] Everts for all the fans. That should be pretty fun. I’m ecstatic about that.

The Motocross of Nations and trying to get our guys to line up for that deal. You always went. Even when things weren’t totally going your way, you always went. What do you think?

I was telling somebody this the other day: I remember in 1997, my rookie year, I had a really healthy points lead. I was the dominant guy when it was time to for the Motocross of Nations team to be picked. They ended up not picking me. They took Steve Lamson over myself. In light of everything, that probably was the right decision, but I was pretty butt-hurt about it. It was an honor to go to the Motocross of Nations and to be invited to that race. In my day, if you could win any title and be selected to represent the USA at the Motocross of Nations, I mean that was one of the greatest honors. So, that was always one of my goals. Times have definitely changed. It’s not like that anymore. I’m not exactly sure why. They’re racing the same amount of races that everyone else did when everyone was going. It’s sad to see. It really is. I’m still trying to figure out why it is the way it is. If they have an injury, then they have an injury. I raced the Motocross of Nations in Zolder, Belgium, and we did pretty good. We didn’t win as a team, but it was one of the best races of my life and I had a blown out ACL. You can’t always blame injuries on everything. It doesn’t mean that I don’t respect our racers. I have a tremendous amount of respect for our guys. They’re allowed to make their decisions, you know what I mean? It’s just different times. I’m still looking into why no one wants to do it, other than they just want time off. And why isn’t it an honor to them to be picked?

Last topic. There has been a lot of talk over the past month or so about how Jeffrey Herlings and Antonio Cairoli and a host of other MXGP guys are taking over global motocross and that the American-based guys aren’t as fast as them and are losing speed and … what do you make of all that?

Well, I think the GP guys are really good. I mean, I love watching them. They definitely have a lot of speed right now. They really, really do and it’s cool to see. As far as the debate centering on if the GP riders are better than the US riders? I think they’re all good. I think they’re both good at what they do. I think it totally depends on the situation, you know? Honestly, I just think it depends on the day. I don’t look into it as much as everyone else does. I do know and feel that there are faster guys coming from the GPs now than there was in my day. There were just a few back in my day when I was coming up. However, those few were some of the greats. I mean, Stefan Everts, the guy is a complete legend in his own right. I think there is more of them now and there are faster guys, for sure. It just depends on the day, in my opinion.