Washington State’s Ross Johnson is one of those great riders flying under the radar. With a family and job, he’s not able to make it to every Monster Energy Supercross or Lucas Oil Pro Motocross, but he pokes his head in here and there and pulls out some good results. Go ahead and look him up in the Vault; he’s right under a guy named Rick Johnson. (Whatever happened to that dude?) Johnson, riding for the Cycle North team, raced the Future West Canadian Arenacross series and came away with the Pro Open title this past weekend after the last round. I caught up to him after the race to get his thoughts on everything.
Racer X: Hey, Ross, this was a good series for you. You won the 450 title and you got second in the 250 title.
Ross Johnson: Definitely. It was a good series all the way through. I was a podium guy most of the time. Got a lot of wins in the 450 class and got it done in the class. Got second in the 250. I’m happy with it for sure.
I thought it seemed that you and Teddy Maier were pretty evenly matched and went at it for really all eight rounds.
Definitely. Coming in I kind of figured that’s who was going to be my biggest competition. We kind of went back and forth through points the entire season. He had some bad races, I had some bad races, and it came down to the last weekend. It made for some good racing. It was fun and exciting.
I’ve been following this series a while, and maybe this year, more than ever, you had some great riders here. Teddy, Adam Enticknap, Ricky Dietrich before he got hurt, Shawn Maffenbier, all the Canadian guys. There’s some really good depth.
Definitely. The Canadian series is picking up compared to last year, even the year before, and it seems to be gaining speed. It’s cool having guys like you come up, and some of the media guys come up here, and it gets a little exposure. I think it surprises some people when they come up here and see the guys that are here and the speed that we are going. It surprises them a bit. I think it’s starting to put Canada up there with one of the better series around. It pays good, has good crowds, good competition. I think it’s good for everyone all the way around.
I’m impressed with the purse money. If you ride both classes and place top-three all weekend long you can make some dough.
Let’s just say that compared to 250 supercross, it’s bar none. The money up here is awesome.
Any plans for you to do any US stuff? I know we see you at Seattle. I think we saw you at Salt Lake City Supercross. Any plans to do any more?
Yeah, I head to Germany next weekend. I’ll do three rounds there and then the last three supercrosses. I’m going to do a few but I just had a little boy, so I’m going to hang out at home most of the rest of the winter and just kind of do that. Like I said, 250 supercross just doesn’t pay the bills.
So you have to head down and pick and choose a little bit where you want to go?
Definitely. At this point my career, it’s a job for me; it’s about money. That’s where I go and that’s what I do.
I was talking to Teddy earlier, and he didn’t so much say about you, but he said he had to battle a lot of the other Washington State guys besides you. He wasn’t too pumped on it. Do you feel like anything out of the ordinary happened or is it just kind of arenacross?
I feel like if you don’t win you’re never pumped on someone, and it’s usually someone else’s fault. That’s my take on it.
The obstacles weren’t hard for guys like yourself, but it was really the intensity. This is a fifty-second track, kind of like a supercross length. It’s hard to be intense for that whole time.
That’s the thing; these barns, it’s different racing. I was talking to Adam [Enticknap] before the season. Even practice in supercross is different compared to this; it’s just a different deal. It’s tight; it’s quick. The gate drops. When it happens, it happens, and before you know it the race is over. It’s a different kind of racing for sure.
Sort of reminds me of those German races, right?
Yeah, a lot like Germany. The tracks are a lot more intense in Germany, but they’re also a lot slower pace. It’s a lot different. It’s different but it’s the same.
