Last Rites - Jamie Dobb
April 02, 2007
What does life after motocross bring the 2001 125 World Champion Jamie Dobb. After his retirement from the sport last year he’s been far from kicking back and relaxing, hard working once again in the sport but this time it’s the other side, it back to business for JD.
You retired from professional racing last year, have you done any riding since?
I got myself a KTM 250F and try to ride it whenever I can really, I raced the other week at an AMCA event, there’s no pressure and its for pure enjoyment, I still have my speed!
You work for a management company now, tell us more about how you are involved in that?
The company is called WMG Management; it is an American based company who have offices based in Los Angeles, New York, Carlsbad and London. It is the largest company in the world for naming rites who deal with companies such as Home Depot Centre, Staples Centre and Fly Emirates, so there are a lot of different sectors to the business. I am a Director of a company called 411 which is part of the WMG Group, we take care of the Athlete management side of things across Europe for riders like Moto GP John Hopkins, Casey Stoner, Chas Davis, in motocross we have Tommy Searle, Sebastian Tortelli and Marc De Reuver.
How do you work with those racers?
We deal with everything from bike to clothing and outside sponsorship deals for those guys.
How do you compare Tommy Searle to you when you were his age?
You know, I think we are quite similar in the way that he is the first person I have seen since myself that has got that kind of talent. You haven’t seen this kind of talent over here in the UK in a long time; he’s a hard working kid and has a great team to back him up. I will get him a good program set up and give him some of my experience, it was something that I lacked when I was his age, hopefully he take it all in, it took me ten years basically.
So that kind of information wasn’t available back then?
The experience that I can give to Tommy is what I didn’t have available to me when I was his age. Tommy’s never really trained before, he’s only really ridden his bike, now he has started to train, Tommy’s looking to better himself wherever he possibly can, he knows the score, he knows what he has got to do and he’s willing to do it, all the time he has a smile face, I’m sure there will be times when he wont be smiling and he doesn’t enjoy it but he seems like a kid that really knows what he has to do.
Looking back it was different for you?
Looking back I wish I were his age again having someone by my side and riding for a team like that. It was just my mum, my dad and my brother when I was doing it, there was a bit of extra help but it was mainly all the manufacture’s that helped the guys out. It was rare that you would get a factory ride like the kids do in this day and age, obviously Tommy hasn’t got a factory ride but he does have a very good bike, the difference between a privateers bikes and a factory bike isn’t as far apart as it used to be. At the end of the day, I made my mistakes and hopefully I can do my part and he won’t make the same mistakes as I did.
You have had some experience in the road race scene now; can motocross rise to that level of professionalism?
I don’t know that it will ever be like road racing but there is a possibility that motocross can get to where it needs to be. The promoters have got to do a better job than what they are doing to bring in sponsors and TV and in certain countries it is big but if you look at it as an English person they aren’t doing a great job, you don’t see MX2 on TV until one or days after the event. Its hard because you don’t want to bite the hand that feeds you and you have to trust them but the promoters have got to open it up, they make it very hard for us and in this moment in time, we are doing very good things in America with the sponsorship we are bringing into Supercross, it doesn’t allow us to do it here. We are a client to who ever an outside sponsor might be lets say X and Y and they are going to say ‘what have you done for us this year, we have had no TV etc’ we have to try and represent our clients as well.
It’s a totally new concept for you, how do you feel about that?
I love motocross and its close to my heart, it’s my main passion and its great to still be involved in someway. I’m excited to do new things, I’m learning a hell of a lot and I get to see the other side of the business. Going into the meetings with the guys I’m working with what is for me like watching Chad Reed go round a Supercross track, its like how the hell did he do that, I would be in meetings this time last year and think, wow I’ve got a lot to learn, but being there, with them and really wanting to learn was a steep learning curve but like I said I’ve learnt a lot about the business over the years and now its good to learn the other side. Its been a year since I retired and this came along at the perfect time, I took the bull by the horns as one says and I’m trying everything I can to make it as good as I can, I’m grateful of the opportunity that WMG has given me and its working out pretty good.
How do you see the youth side of our sport progressing?
Embo (Roy Emberson) I mean what he is doing is great. He’s picked up Luke Remer now who I have helped out for a couple of years, I was trying to do what Roy does and put something back into the sport, Kawasaki have helped out some what but no one else has really done that and this is our bread and butter, there are kids in America making more money than 95% of the GP guys and these are kids on 80’s. America is a big thing obviously but they know that’s where the future lies. There are a lot of kids out there that can’t afford to do it and this is where you need to put the money. It looks like Honda are trying to put some kind of team together now and that’s what its going to take. The US training camps do help that some of the kids are going to now like Millsap’s place. It’s that mentality that is bringing the kids on.
Would a good supercross series help us out over here like they have in France?
Not really, because we have good quite a few races on now, a few of the promoters are running good races but they are being watered down, it makes the whole thing go a little bit backwards. Its difficult to run three different races with three different promoters, people have to cut corners to make it pay. If it’s going to be done its got to be done rite, that’s the problem these days, doubles aren’t dangerous, it’s the guy that’s building them! Also I don’t think kids should go to fourstrokes so early, they shouldn’t go to them until they go professional, they miss that thing that you learn on a 125 two stroke, it’s a much better progression going through the write stages but that’s just my opinion.
How much time does it take up, especially with the new family?
Its been a tough year for us, we lost the baby in February and we had another one Layla that was 16 weeks premature, she’s doing quite well, she’s fighting for her life and we aren’t out the woods yet. Up until six weeks ago when Layla was born I’d had two weeks off since January. Work have been fantastic about it, luckily.
What do you miss about the sport?
Nothing.
Nothing?
Not really, I did it the wrong way and the rite way. It got to the point with the team that I was on, the best I could of done was finish 4th or 5th in the world championships and when you have already won one your not happy unless you are trying to win a championship and I knew it got to a point where I knew I couldn’t physically and just didn’t want to do the training. To finish 3rd or 4th in a championship you can wing by but to win a championship that takes a lot of desire and a lot of determination, you don’t have a life. It doesn’t happen over one year and I just didn’t have it in me anymore. I’m an honest person and I’ll be honest to my sponsors and I had some great ones, I just couldn’t be rite for them in the end.
Do the boys (Nunn, Mackenzie and Sword) have a world championship in them next year?
Stephens (Sword) problem will be going into the MX1. It’s going to take him a few years to get into it, he was riding on confidence last year but has taken a big step back this year. This year before he broke his hand he was only a few point off the championship lead but it’s all about being consistent, a championship is won on your bad days not on your good days. Carl (Nunn) has all the talent you could want and the best team but I don’t know what it is, there has always been something missing but it happened to me late and it could so easily happen to Carl. I don’t think it’s the lack of effort it just maybe in the wrong direction with him. Billy (Mackenzie) has got it, he has the speed and has had it since he was 15 yrs old, he had a great team and great guys around him, hopefully he can do it but he has a hell of a lot sacrifice to give. You have Carioli and Rattray that work very hard so they can all do it and you need have a bit of luck and work hard. That was the difference between the year I won it and the year I didn’t. The year I won the championship I had the best team the best bike, the best mechanic and I was the best rider, you know like I’ve always said its like a big jigsaw puzzle and everybody needs to be firing on all cylinders to win the championship.
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