Month: May 2024

One thing we never seem to forget in Europe, are the heroes of our past. Hundreds and hundreds of champions over the last 70 years, from our first ever World motocross champion Bill Nilsson, to the legends of the 1970s, be it AMA or FIM, De Coster, DiStefano, Hallman, Robert, Hannah, Mikkola, then the 80s with Geboers, Thorpe, Glover, Barnett, Malherbe, Johnson, Bailey, Jobe, or those from the 90s, McGrath, Everts, Bayle, Smets, Chiodi, Carmichael, Kiedrowski and Emig.

Of course, names like Villopoto, Stewart, Reed, Cairoli, Herlings, Prado, Gajser and so forth are not that far from our memories, with their careers not long over, or still racing, but those from the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s are long retired. Many still involved in the sport in some way and their memories should never be forgotten.

The 1990s was a special decade in America and for American motocross. They had held the Motocross of Nations for 13 years straight (from 1981 until 1993), there riders were generally, considered, the best in the World. It was in many ways one of the golden eras of the sport as Jeremy McGrath ruled the AMA supercross. One man though, was a major part in both the MXdN victories and defeats and also a part of that Supermac era, beating the greatest supercross rider of all-time and the only man to do it, when McGrath was in his prime and that man was Jeff Emig, himself a four time AMA champion, three times in Motocross and once in Supercross.

Emig rode for Team USA from 1992 until 1997 and took victory on three occasions. His first time was in Australia in 1992, when America sent a “B-team” and beat the World, of course in 1993 in Austria, he and McGrath again ruled the World and then in 1996, in Spain, McGrath and Emig took out one of the most dominant victories for America in the events long history.

Emig in the 1990s was often close to being the best in the World and that 1997 season, racing with his cool Shift riding gear and with the AMA supercross and AMA motocross title to his name, was generally known as the fastest man on the planet. Taking victories at the Bercy supercross, the World supercross championship (in 1996) and so much more. He was at his best, both AMA indoor and outdoor championships to his name.

The good news for British motocross fans, the American legend is returning to the United Kingdom to race the July 20 and 21 World Vets Motocross event at the legendary Farleigh Castle circuit in the south of England.

After a long chat about Memorial Day in America, the Indy 500, and a bunch of other stuff, I asked Emig about his preparation and goals for this year’s event at Farleigh.

MXLarge: Firstly Jeff, thanks for chatting. Tell me, I know you still race, and you still like to compete, but how would you compare yourself with say Mike Brown, who seems to take the vets racing pretty serious?

Emig: Well, if you gauged it from say one to 10, he is a 10 as he trains guys, has trained top pro riders. He trains at a high level and has never really stopped. Now, I like to drink some whiskey, I like NFL, I go to sporting events, all that. So, about half of my year is that, but then I think to myself, hey, I will race at Loretta Lynns and Farleigh Castle again, because I really love those events. That becomes my main focus, but I take time off and have to get in shape. This year, I started training at the end of March and its now nearly June and I am starting to feel better on the bike. I like to ride when its hot and the summertime is great. Right now, this is the first time in a long time that I have done two years back-to-back, where I have raced Loretta’s, but I hadn’t ridden a bike three times from racing Loretta’s last year until March, but now I am back into it. Its good for my business and I really enjoy riding. I feel fortunate that way, because a lot of other championship level riders lose their desire, and I haven’t lost that.

MXLarge: I assume you also love the travel, so going to these international races must also be nice?

Emig: I love the travel and it’s a shame we can’t craft a good Veterans World championship in some way, which would be so cool. It just isn’t like golf, because there is a lot of risk involved. Going to Farleigh is a circuit that is something like I had never ridden before. I grew up on the mid-west, where you would think there are tracks like that, but Farleigh is tough and the roost hurts like a Moth++++cker. When you put 60 bikes on the track, that place has such an amazing feel about it, really legendary place.

MXlarge: Its funny, because in your prime, you never raced in England, not the MXdN, not anything?

Emig: No, not even some of those supercross races they held back in the 90s. No Arenacross, nothing.

MXLarge: How did you find racing in front of the British fans, because they are some of the best in the World right?

Emig: They are, and it is a crowd that really respects and celebrates the history of the races and the racers. They understand it on a historical and deep level. It probably has a lot to do with the decades and decades of motocross or scrambles that was held in that era, from so long ago and over so many years.

MXlarge: I remember Ricky Johnson mentioning that the European fans appreciate you guys more, while in America its different?

Emig: Yes, but the supercross crowd is a much younger crowd, a young sport, and English fans of motocross, they really know about it and see it from a different angle. It isn’t like what we did for you yesterday, they appreciate the events from decades ago.

MXlarge: From what I understand, your age group is a very competitive one. James (Dobb) will race that age group, Mike Brown, and a handful of the other heroes of the sport.

Emig: Well, if Brown is there again, it will be Brown. The interesting thing riding this race, compared to when you are a young kid, back when you were a kid, you had to move up to the more experienced class, with more experienced riders and you were the new kid, now, in the vets racing, I haven’t been in the over-50 class long, so I need to make the most of it, because now I am the young guy, but that’s a good thing in vet racing. Kurt (Nicoll) goes to the 60 class, so he is the young kid in the class and will want to make the most of that.

MXlarge: They will have a beer tent there and James (Dobb) said you might spend some time there, but hearing about your Loretta goals, you will be staying in race mode for the weekend and no beer tent for you?

Emig: I was celebrating last year after we finished Loretta, but this year Farleigh is a week before Loretta, so I am stricter with my training and my lifestyle right now. It has been a few months since I had a beer, let me tell you. The way I think of it, I want to be productive each day and not have a big weekend with my friends and take a few days to feel good on the bike. I am sacrificing a little and trying to stay in shape and keep some weight off.

MXLarge: There will be some fans who don’t remember your career, I mean most of the older people who will attend the World Vets Motocross obviously will, but I wanted to go over a few of your moments in your career, just to jog some memories for people. I remember in 1997, after you won the AMA supercross title from Jeremy (McGrath) and the AMA 250 (now 450) motocross championship and you arrived in Europe, to Bercy, dressed in that cool green Shift gear and it was like you had grown 10 feet, a totally different attitude. Also, the Fastcross was a big one for you guys, or of course the Motocross des Nations events. Can you tell me a little about that time?

Emig: You know, racing Bercy was like nothing we had done before, and I am really grateful I got to race that event at the original location. You cannot explain it, the small stadium and racing down the back tunnel and the crowds were crazy. Some of the des Nations, I attended, were great memories.

MXlarge: Speaking of racing in England, no doubt you don’t just have good memories of Great Britain, that 1994 MXdN for instance?

Emig: No, and those ones are tough. You know, you have the highs of hight and the lows of low and if I reflect on that race in Roggenberg. I look back on why did that happen and why was I so upset with myself afterwards. Now I am older, and I think about how much that race meant to me, and I knew I was the fastest 125cc rider in the World. Now, having raced at Farleigh, that track in 1994 was like Farleigh on steroids, so a guy like Paul (Malin), his instincts to ride that course and the type of terrain it was, it was nothing for him and he excelled in that terrain. I have a lot of pride in my country and our racing and when we were beaten that day, I took it hard, because if I had won my races, we would have won the event. So secondary to my team-mates or any result that they had, I didn’t do the best possible and Paul was better that day and it hit me hard. Being on the first Team USA to lose it after winning for so many years, it wasn’t a good feeling.

MXLarge: In saying that, you were always a great team man for Team USA.

Emig: Yes, I can say, in my class, I was no worse than second, apart from my final moto in Belgium in 1997. Once again, I came in there feeling great and once again, an Englishman, Kurt Nicoll took the first moto from me. I was so pissed and then I realized, after the first and second moto, John Dowd has a terrible moto and going into the final moto, we didn’t have a shot at winning and I told myself, I am going to show these guys who the fastest guy in the World is. So, I get the holeshot, ride my ass off for a few minutes and then I just blew up. The emotion of the event, of not being in contention got to me and I just started thinking too much and the emotions got to me, I ended up finishing 11th. That was the only moto I had finished outside the top two in my class in the Nations.

MXlarge: I know when you go to this event, a lot of these legends are your friends and I assume the bench racing is one of the highlights for you?

Emig: Well, that is the great thing going to the World Vets. We are not these serious professionals, and we do some signing and can’t talk outside of that. We like people coming up now and talking and its much more relaxed. I want to perform well, ride my best and be safe, but win or lose we are all winners at this point. The great thing about having had a great career, the fans don’t remember any of my bad races. They remember the good stuff and want to talk about good stuff and why would you not want to talk about that. Some of the younger guys now complain about having to do the autograph sessions, but these people are waiting in line for an hour to get an autograph and a selfie and they just have positive vibes and imagine Geoff, if every Friday night, you go to a place and there is a line of people wanting to compliment you on your business? Think about what that would do you as a regular person and not a professional racer.

Richard Wood might be a name not known to many outside of his former racing friends and business associates, but he should be well enough known in the coming years as he tries to help the sport of veteran motocross grow in the United Kingdom.

Having already been involved in last years World Vets Motocross event, run at the famous Farleigh Castle circuit, Wood is working together with Darren Hudson to run the event once again in 2024, on the dates of 20 and 21 July.

With a mouth-watering line-up of famous racers, present and past, this years World Vets Motocross event should be a nice addition to the vintage rage, which is currently running around the World.

Of course, the most famous of vintage races over the last 20 years, is the World Vet Motocross championship at the infamous Glen Helen circuit and taking a leaf out of their book, this Farleigh Castle event should attract a large number of spectators and it has without question attracted a large field of riders.

MXLarge: How did you get into motocross?

Wood: I started when I was 15. A school friend of mine had a bike and I always wanted one, so I managed to get one eventually. I borrowed some money off my brother and bought a field bike and went on from there really.

MXLarge: Did you follow motocross as a kid, or you just wanted a motorcycle to ride?

Wood: I used to go and watch a friend race, when I was like seven years old, but it took me all those years to convince my dad that I could have one really. I didn’t really know any of those guys, the racers, it was probably only when I got into my 20s that I started to know who the riders were, more the English guys, because there wasn’t much coverage in the UK. We used to have a little bit on grandstand (a famous sporting show in England), so then there was Dave Thorpe and Graham Noyce, who was coming to the end of his career. I used to ride against Thorpe later in my career, which was really nice.

MXlarge: You raced, what level did you get to?

Wood: I started off in the schoolboys and then progressed to the AMCA and I got into those championships and rode for England in the IMBA and I was sponsored by Kawasaki for about five years. Free bikes every year and that was from around 1986 and I had had sponsorship from Suzuki. When I was riding the AMCA I was winning a lot and did some races in the British championship on a 125, finished in the top ten, but not near the top five. I would win AMCA races and championship races, but I never got there in the ACU. I was a big fish in a small pond in the AMCA, but a small fish in a big pond in the ACU events.

MXLarge: That era was stacked with British riders, on Grand Prix level, but also the British championships has so many really good riders. All classes were stacked.

Wood: Yes, a lot of good guys and a lot of them are still racing and some of the guys I raced back then I still race now.

MXLarge: It seems the veteran events are more attractive than the normal championship events now in the UK, and I have always thought the sport is really only surviving on people above 40 years of age, be that in motocross or even speedway in the UK. Doesn’t seem to be a lot of young riders coming through at a good level.

Wood: I think they are, and I think the sport is also much more expensive and you need a lot to get there. I think now you need a decent team and maybe even pay to get on them. I think the vets’ races, guys can go and race and have a fun time. I think there are too many series, and you don’t need to do a series, just the one-off weekends seem to work better.

MXLarge: One off events like the Foxhills event, or that Arenacross Festival, or anything like that seems to attract a good group of people. I know speaking to promoters in England the focus on a one-day event or not a series is really the way forward for motocross. There seems to be bigger entries for the vets’ races than the major championship events.

Wood: What we try to do is make it more interesting and not just a race weekend. A typical motocross event is bad food, bad toilets and we want to try and run an event that is also for the family, with good entertainment and a lot of things to do for the family. It is more a fun weekend and at night we have bands and numerous bars open and good food outlets, and it is a big change. You couldn’t do that for a series, but you can with these one-off events. When you are older you want more comfort, and our events also cater for the older riders and their families.

MXlarge: What is the background of your event? You ran it last year and how did that go?

Wood: Last year was the first year helping out as a promoter, but I have always helped Darren out with the Acerbis, we also sponsored the Twin Shock series. Darren has always asked me to get involved going forward. I wasn’t sure and then I went to one of the larger events, I just didn’t feel it was run what it could be, so I threw my hat in the ring and see if we could do something more of the riders. Develop something not for making money but make a good event that was more relaxed and fun weekend. I think we go that at the first one we did.

MXLarge: And you have Jack Burnicles doing the commentary. He is obviously a legend in the sport and having him involved adds something. He has some stories to tell about Farleigh and Grand Prix motocross. Also, what was the most difficult thing about setting it all up?

Wood: Yes, it is nice to have Jack involved and he does know a lot about the sport and the era of Thorpe and Noyce and those type of riders. Setting it up, I think a lot of people didn’t know what it was and trying to drive traffic to the website and to the event. Hopefully this year we will be able to do that, and we are more conscious of what might be needed to get people involved.

MXLarge: I know you mentioned some of the names on the riders list and its impressive. Can you let our readers know that list?

Wood: We have a great rider line-up this year with names like Kurt Nicoll, Jeff Emig, Mike Brown, Rob Herring, Tommy Searle, Ryan Morias, Jake Nicolls, Brad Anderson, Graeme Irwin, Jamie Dobb, Billy Mackenzie, Marc Velkeneers and two riders, we cannot mention yet and on machines that will be very interesting to the public and media. We are really excited when these two riders are announced. These two haven’t ridden in the UK since they retired, but are very special riders, who have a lot of Motocross des Nations experience and Worldwide legends. We are excited for our field of riders and we also have a long list of former racers outside this group I mentioned.

MXLarge: The classes I have heard are sold out for 2024?

Wood: This year, when he launched the classes, we sold out for every class within hours. Last year it was really difficult getting riders. We had around 350 riders last year and this year we have close to 600.

MXLarge: The current era is like everyone wants everything done quickly, people don’t have a long attention span and I think older people like us want to be able to enjoy things a little slowly and get the full experience. The old school events seem to suit the older public more, maybe even gives us the chance to remember how it used to be?

Wood: You know, the class that sold out the quickest was the over 50 group. We have 120 over 50 riders and I think we could have filled that to another 120. The reserve list for that class is pretty long. One of the things I found, because I have raced evo races and twin shock races and it’s so hard to keep the bike running. I was spending tones and tones of money on it and now I have a modern bike now and its much cheaper.

MXLarge: Can you explain the classes and machinery they will use?

Wood: We have the over 60s, we have a 40 gate and a 20 gate. So, timed practice, if you are in the first 40, you go on the first gate and the other 20, go on the other gate in their own race and everybody is riding their own level. You don’t want to be doing the same race as Kurt Nicoll for instance if you level isn’t close to his level. A lot of the veteran races I have done in the past, it is more about age and not level. The over 50 race has 120 riders, so they have four different levels, so your Mike Brown, he will be in the top field of 40 and then we have three other races for the other level of over 50 riders.

MXLarge: Do you see many older veterans who have sons racing the event?

Wood: Oh, yes, that is something we are seeing a lot. That is what makes this event so much fun, and also a family thing and the reason we want to make it a comfortable experience for families and not a big wild party. So, this year we also have a futures race, which has been supported really well and generally this is the lads of some of the older riders. We had a twin shock class last year, but we just didn’t get support for it.