issue32

For those of you that have been reading this magazine from its conception you’ll know that we try to do things a little different from the others. Of course I’m not at all suggesting that they don’t either but I think it’s fair to say that because Moto is a motocross only magazine the attitude of the sport comes out on the pages. Looking back over previous issues it’s become apparent to me just how much we’re now fighting a corporate world, a point that I have mentioned a couple of times before. Unfortunately with the money laid on the line when a rider puts pen to paper, and with the constant and ever growing competition in the commercial world, we’ve now been subjected to blatant name-dropping and countless speeches about how a rider’s tyres were ‘hooking up’. It drives me loopy but I don’t blame a rider for doing it, you’d do the same if it meant extra dough in your bank account.

These days it would take a rider with a lot of balls or stupidity not to tow the corporate line. Say what you want and think what you want about cover star Jason Lawrence (believe me he won’t care either way), but from where I’m sat he’s a shot in the arm. Not just for motocross but also my belief in personal expression and attitude. It’s a talent, just like some riders can push beyond their comfort zone when they’re racing. Every generation has its wild child, that person who breaks the mould and for all the right reasons – for themselves, because that’s who they are. There’s been several and they’ve become legends for it, too many to mention but some noticeable ones stand out in my head as I write this. Stateside, Bob ‘Hurricane’ Hannah shone like a beacon in an era when characters were really characters. Our very own Graham Noyce is genius, my motocross George Best. Their generation was littered with free expression and attitude but it was more widely accepted in society then. As the clocks turned forward attitudes seemed to tick backwards. Luckily the likes of Damon Bradshaw came along, he was another who seemingly didn’t care and had the ability to push himself on a bike to places way beyond his means. Since him and a few others around that time it feels like real characters in motocross are dwindling like an endangered species. It’s becoming harder for them to survive.

Garth Milan and Ryan Cooley have literally spent weeks hunting down J-Law for the interview in this magazine. It was all scheduled for the previous issue of Moto but the new bad-boy of world motocross failed to show on numerous occasions. Finally I had the e-mail through from Ryan that the interview was in the bag and the pictures shot after he eventually showed himself at Perris Raceway. Jason hadn’t deliberately given the boys the run-around, he was just playing by his rules and nobody else’s. I admire his ability to not give a shit because quite simply I often try to do the same - but can’t. As a rider I couldn’t push beyond my comfort zone no matter how hard I tried. As much as I’d like to say a few home truths in the pages of this very magazine I know I can’t without forming a well constructed argument. It’s my job and we’d probably be sued in no time at all if I wrote like how I talk down the pub. We’d all like to say that we do what we want, when we want but only a few really have the power of conviction to do so. I like punk, I like rock‘n’roll and that’s why I admire people like Jason Lawrence. I wonder how he’d get on with Mark Eastwood? I’d love to be a fly on the wall if those two ever got together over a bottle of Jack Daniels! Anyway, I hope you enjoy what J-Law has to say on page 78, I know I did. Enjoy the issue.

–Jeff

Subscribe to Moto>