BEING THERE: RYAN VILLOPOTO INTERVIEW

RV: “I didn’t have the controversy around me that Haiden Deegan typically does. But from a riding standpoint, I can see myself in him, though he’s way more refined than I was. I was more like RC and hanging it out a little more. I refined RC, and then I feel like Haiden has refined that. He’s still that sender guy!”

Ryan Villopoto has a lot going on these days. A four-time 450cc AMA Supercross Champion and two-time AMA 450cc Motocross Champion and three-time AMA 250cc Motocross Champion, the kid who came out of the Pacific Northwest to launch his professional racing career in 2005 is absolutely one of the icons of the sport. And now, well over a decade removed from calling time on his AMA Pro Racing career, Ryan Villopoto is still making things happen in the racing world and all that surrounds it. A few days after knocking out the latest ‘Title 24 Podcast’ with his right-hand man, Ricky Carmichael, Villopoto took time to speak with us about just what he has going on and where he is going next. Read on…

Ryan, how in the world are you?
I’m good. The kids have been racing and riding a lot. On Friday, my son Brax broke his arm, so we’re going to get a little pin put in it tomorrow. Yeah, that’s part of the sport.

Were you the one who got them interested in motocross?
They pretty much wanted to do it. So, it wasn’t me. They wanted to quit baseball and football and wanted to race, and I said okay.

Okay, you’re out and about quite a bit and have a lot going on in both the sport and industry. What’s keeping you moving?
Basically, real busy with the kids and amateur racing and trying to ride. I’m trying to get them to ride as much as they can and improve their skills. The level – as everybody knows – from professional all the way down to the amateur level is high. There are a lot of fast kids out there, so I’m just busy with the boys. We actually moved back out to Murrieta from Newport because they wanted to pursue racing. Living down by the beach is not ideal for riding, so we moved out this way and we’ve been out here since. We’ve got moved in and everything is good. I’m working with Yamaha and Yamaha is keeping me busy. The kids keep me the most busy. That’s when I’m the busiest.

If your kids keep moving forward and excel in the sport, are you going to go with them?
Yeah, we played baseball and we played football and my one kid, Gage, he was saying, ‘Dude, I just want race. I don’t want to play baseball anymore’. And then my son, Brax, kind of followed suit with him and also wanted to go racing. Basically, I guess the way that I look at is that we all know the pitfalls of the industry and the racing. I guess the biggest part of it is the injury side of it, right? That’s the shittiest part of our sport, I think. Everything that I do, if I travel, I travel for some type of motorcycle event, and my kids see that. Everything that’s on, or talked about, or if you pull in my garage, it’s motorcycle helmets and motorcycles. So, it’s pretty hard to keep my kids from it, you know? I didn’t push them into doing it. By no means did I push them into doing it. They chose to do it and that’s kind of the road we’re taking at this point.

We’re only a handful of races into the 2026 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship, but what’s your take on what’s shaken out thus far?
Oh man, it’s been good so far. Anaheim I kicked off a few weeks ago and was a packed house, like usual. A great stadium to go and race in, and also a great stadium to go watch as a fan. I think it was really good. Kind of what I expected. It was a packed house and great racing. San Diego just happened and we’re onto Anaheim II coming this weekend. I guess the biggest surprise for me is Eli Tomac. We were waiting to see what Eli had and how he was going to look. Obviously, he made a big transition from Star Racing Yamaha to Red Bull KTM, and man, he looks pretty damn good on it, I’ll be honest. I didn’t know what to expect, you know? This late in his career to make a switch – and it wasn’t a switch to a Japanese manufacturer – amazes me. He switched to an Austrian brand and a completely different motorcycle. The frame is a chromoly steel frame versus aluminium. Big change at the end of his career, or towards the end of his career. So far, it is panning out. He’s two-for-two right now.

You’re a four-time Monster Energy AMA Supercross Champion and have been retired for a fair amount of time now. How do you see Eli and all the elite racers going after this title?
Obviously, we’re missing Jett Lawrence, right? That’s a big thing that is a total bummer for the sport and the entire supercross season that Jett is gone. All these other racers, Hunter Lawrence, Chase Sexton, and a lot of these guys are title contenders, have to be kind of wondering, ‘Damn, big switch for Tomac. Switching teams and a new bike, and coming out and having the success that he’s had…’ That has to put them back on their heels a little bit and gets them thinking, ‘Holy shit!’ And obviously for Eli, things are gelling well right now. It’s a long season. Seventeen rounds! Everybody knows we’re on the West Coast swing currently and then we get to the East Coast tracks, where the dirt and everything is going to be different. From Eli’s standpoint, I don’t think he could be in a better position. He’s the veteran of the sport and he’s probably one of the smartest racers out there and everything is gelling. It’s all got to be pretty encouraging from his standpoint.

How about the 250SX West guys? Anyone standing out or surprising you early on here?
Yeah, obviously Haiden [Deegan]. He’s doing well. I think he’s going to be the one that a betting man will put his money on for the championship. Levi Kitchen is another one. He’s had two not-so-great races. However, his ride coming through the pack at San Diego was a good ride. I’m a big Levi fan. He’s from up in the Pacific Northwest area. I hope for the best for Levi, but he’s kind of had some issues in the past, and I hope he gets those worked out. I think it’s more in his head than anything. The skill is there, the speed is there, and I think the fitness is there. You have to shut that brain off and pull it out of your head and put yourself in good racing positions on the track. Obviously at AI and San Diego, he hasn’t been able to do that.

Any of the guys out there racing right now remind you of yourself at all?
I mean, I think from a riding standpoint, and the way he charges and the way he hits things, I would say Haiden Deegan. Obviously, I didn’t have the controversy around me that Haiden typically does. But from a riding standpoint, I can see myself in him. However, he’s way more refined than I was. I was more like RC [Ricky Carmichael] and hanging it out a little more. Not that Haiden doesn’t hang it out, but it is done in more of a calculated way. I guess he’s not as reckless. If you go look at RC back in the day, he was a little bit out of control in some circumstances. I refined RC, and then I feel like Haiden has refined that. He’s still that sender guy!

Do you have a favourite championship and favourite race from your racing career? Any of them totally stand out?
I would say for a championship, I think knocking down your very first 450 championship is a huge feat, you know? And then to go four in-a-row was excellent. So, I think all four 450 supercross championships were huge. As for a particular race win, I’m probably always going to hang my hat on that 2007 Motocross of Nations race. That one was pretty iconic. That’ll never change. I think that was probably my best outing.

Your performance at that race was the greatest performance I have ever seen. I’ve never seen a racer go as fast and be as dominant as you were that day.
Yeah, it was a pretty special race. It was on American soil. It was RC’s last race. Tim Ferry was also on the team. Yeah, it went picture-perfect, really.

Do you ever think back to your one-off season in the MXGP World Championship?
You know, I think what made me a strong racer throughout my career was that I didn’t dwell on a lot of the things that went wrong, or maybe with stuff I could have done better. I look at MXGP like it definitely could have gone better. No matter how you slice it, I bit off a lot to chew. I think we saw it with Jorge Prado, right? He was a two-time MXGP World Champion in the 450 class. He expected to come over and race in supercross. We saw the results in Outdoors. It’s a big feat to come over. It’s a big feat to go any direction. I think it’s better to come this way, if you can ride supercross just because of the American lifestyle. Everything’s open 24/7. Grocery stores, food – I mean, whatever you want you can get pretty much get at any time, right? It was a big learning curve for us at that point. It was harder going to Europe. But no, I don’t look at it as a negative experience. Obviously, I wish it would have gone differently. I was mentally cooked. I wanted to retire, and I had a year left. I thought it could have been a good idea. I don’t think it was executed very well on my part. But I don’t look back and say, ‘Man, I shouldn’t have done that’. I just wish it would have gone differently.

Where do you see the sport heading?
I think that’s a mixed bag of answers, you know? From the consumer side, I know things are not as strong as everybody would want them to be. But from the professional racing side, I don’t know if I’ve been to a stadium that hasn’t been sold-out, or at least at 95-percent capacity. From a professional standpoint, I think the sport is growing. We changed up our TV package this year to where we start on the West Coast at 4 o’clock and we are on the East Coast at 7 o’clock. We’re getting those viewers now. As for the next step, we have SuperMotocross, which I think is a cool idea.