“You just don’t go over to Europe and win a world championship; you’ve got to pay your dues.” This was Brad Lackey speaking to Cycle News a few weeks after becoming the first American to ever win a 500cc World Championship Grand Prix. It was a long time coming for the then 24-year-old. After winning the 1972 AMA 500cc National Championship, Lackey packed up his belongings and took off for Europe, keen to fulfill a dream of making a run at a Federation Internationale de Motocyclisme World Championship. Half a decade later, Lackey won his first GP on July 3, 1977 at Farleigh Castle, Wilts, England, triumphing over GP stalwarts Gerrit Wolsink and Bengt Aberg on his full-on factory Honda RC-400 Elsinore. A year later, Lackey placed second in the championship to Heikki Mikkola. In 1980, he would finish in the runner-up position yet again, this time with Belgian Andre Malherbe getting the better of him. His decade-long odyssey finally came to a close on Sunday, August 8, 1982, when after a frantic and tumultuous day of racing in a sweeping meadow in Luxembourg, Lackey claimed the 500cc World Championship. It was one of the greatest moments in the United States’ ascension to the top of world motocross power.
It’s now the spring of 2015 and Monster Energy Kawasaki pilot Ryan Villopoto is three rounds into a quest to win the premier class in the FIM Motocross World Championship. Who better to talk with about the past, present, and near future of Americans fighting on the international front than Brad Lackey? (Our Steve Matthes also did a Racer X podcast with Lackey prior to this season.) Fully aware of the brawl that Villopoto has gotten himself into, Lackey, from his home in the Bay Area region of northern California, took some time over the recent Easter weekend to provide us with his candid take on it all.
Racer X: Brad, thanks for taking the time to bench race with us about the world championship. With that said, just what have you been up to?
Brad Lackey: Oh, not too much. I have a T-shirt business where I print T-shirts for cycling stuff. We do stuff for different companies and events and things like that. I’m also watching the GPs and the supercross races on TV every weekend. That’s about it. Nothing too exciting.
Are you still tuned in and watching everything under a magnifying glass?
No, we’re not that serious about it because we don’t know any of the riders really personally. And unless you’re involved really tight, you’re not really getting the straight scoop over the television. In general, we’re fans and we’re watching all of it and trying to keep up with what’s going on. And of course we’re interested in [Ryan] Villopoto’s progress in Europe. We’re interested in that so we keep a close eye on it.
Sometimes it’s cool to just be a fan, huh?
Yeah, it’s a lot easier [laughs].
What did you think when you heard the news that Ryan Villopoto was going to contest the 2015 MXGP World Championship?
I kind of thought about it for a minute and went, “Well, you know, he’s won everything here pretty easily for the last few years—he can win indoors and outdoors—and if he’s planning on retiring, it would be a good thing to race the GPs. I’d also try to go get a world championship title before the retirement party.”
Interestingly, you won the world championship in 1982 and retired almost immediately afterward, didn’t you?
Ryan has a completely different plan than I did. His plan is to go one year and try to win and then retire no matter what, according to what I’ve heard. But, yeah, I went over early in my career. I was first over to Europe in 1970, and all the way through 1982 I rode the GPs for ten years. I got second twice and should have won it a couple times but had problems, so there were a lot of years that I didn’t quite make it for whatever reason. After finally getting it done in ’82, I was 28 by then and I was kind of old for the big-time GP stuff. My contract was also up with the company that I was riding for at the time [Team Suzuki]. They said they weren’t going back the following year because they got first and second in the world that year and won the manufacturers’ championship and did everything they wanted. They were happy with that so I didn’t really have a great opportunity for a ride, so I figured the best thing to do at that time was to retire.
In an article I pulled from the August 3, 1977, issue of Cycle News you stated, “You just don’t go over to Europe and win a world championship; you’ve got to pay your dues.”When you said this, you had already put five years into riding the 500cc World Championship and had just won your very first Grand Prix. You really did pay your dues along the way.
Yeah, at the time, especially in the 500 class, that’s where all the top teams and the top riders were. The most famous guys in the sport of motocross were all riding the 500s. Obviously, I was talking about that class. And at that time, in the other classes there was not so much competition and it was a little bit easier to win a 125 or 250 title. To this day the 450 class, or the MX1 class, is the big class and at that time that was 100 percent true. I mean Villopoto has been to Europe a few times for the Motocross des Nations and he’s ridden all kinds of races both indoors and outdoors and tracks all over the place. It’s a little bit different deal now than it was then. There are about ten guys at the top that can win GPs now. You know you’ve got one guy who has won it eight times [Antonio Cairoli], so Villopoto really has one challenger to win the championship and that makes a lot of difference. It’s a different time and a different place now, but it’s still not an easy task by any means.
Here’s a line I pulled out of an interview you did with Cycle News back in 1980: “Brad’s antics on a CZ earned him a 1971 invitation to visit the factory in Czechoslovakia. There he spent three months living in a shack with no electricity, using a nearby stream as combination kitchen sink and bathhouse.” The stories about you back then make it sound like you were on some sort of Jack London adventure.
Well, I mean those stories are all true. I worked at the factory in Czechoslovakia as a factory worker. I was behind the Iron Curtain at the time in Communist Czechoslovakia where the whole country was on lockdown. There were gates and barbed wire fences and machine guns everywhere. I’d work all day in the factory and ride my motocross bike to a little shack where I stayed. I was only 16 or 17 years old. I chose that. It’s not like today. Those guys are in first-class hotels and have first-class airplane tickets. They have semi-trucks. I bought a little car—a Ford station wagon—to go the GPs with. I borrowed a trailer from one of the CZ mechanics and I had my bike on the back of that trailer. That’s how you did it. I wanted to go get better and my goal was to be world champion and I couldn’t really do that staying at home in America. By 1974 or 1975, I was knocking down a moto win or two. To get that first overall took until 1977.
People out there who are reading this are going to think, “Five years to win your first GP?” How rewarding was it to win that first GP in 1977?
It wasn’t that big a deal; it didn’t seem like a giant deal. Like I said, I should have won a bunch of them and had problems with some things. I kind of already knew that I could win, but you have to have some luck on your side sometimes. That’s just how that works.
Speaking of close finishes, in 1976 you placed a fighting second to Roger DeCoster at the Belgian Grand Prix at the fabled Namur circuit. I’ve been there before and I’ve never witnessed anything like it. Would you consider Namur to be one of the most unique places you ever raced at?
Oh, yeah. Namur, for sure. It was crazy and wild. The setting and where it was… Man, it was amazing. To have been there when there are 50,000 people standing around the track is incredible. You jump down on the street and go by the beer stand and through the woods—and it was really dangerous through the trees. Then there was the Citadel. All the people sat up in there and looked down on the big circle where the start was. It was just crazy. The place had the history of European Grand Prix racing. It’s a really neat thing, but that’s not out there any longer.
What do you think of Grand Prix motocross now? The organizers are trying to cater to television and trying to cater to VIPs and trying to raise the game in hospitality and improving creature comforts. The tracks are often on flatter parcels of land. The series is going to places where perhaps the government is helping out financially. I’m not passing judgment on what they are doing because all sports and entertainment are in a different world now. Thoughts?
I have a bad opinion because I like the old school and the way it was. And I think I’m like a lot of people. Here’s a good example of that: The last time I was at Namur, like in 2000 or some time like that, we went up there and sat in the Citadel up there above Namur to watch the start, and these two-story VIP tents were blocking the whole start. As a spectator you couldn’t even see the start at Namur. I said, “What! I can’t believe this. What are those tents for?” and somebody said, “Oh, you get champagne and you pay $500 for a ticket and you get to stand around and watch the start and you block the view of every normal person sitting in the stands.” I said, “There you go. That really makes sense.” That’s the way it is. That’s what they’re trying to do. They’re trying to get it on a Formula 1 level, which it’s not. It’s dirt bike riding. It’s never going to be Formula 1. And the base fans that they have are the regular people. They’re not some guy in a Ferrari with a Rolex, you know? He’s just a Joe Blow who has his favorite guy and goes out there and camps out and eats a hot dog and drinks a beer and watches his guy. They’re trying to change that, and I think that’s a mistake because that could kill it. And I saw the first two GPs this year and the tracks were so ridiculously poor and it looked like there were absolutely no people at those two events. At the third race the track looked very nice and there were a lot more spectators. I really can’t say until I get back from the Grand Prix in Lommel this year. I’m going to go to that Grand Prix in Belgium and I’m going to get a firsthand look at everything. I’m going to check out the spectators and I’m going to check out how much more restricted things are. Can the average joe go here and see something he wants to see? I’m going to test all areas of that and I’ll come back with a real opinion. Right now, I’m just guessing, really, because I haven’t been there enough to understand what’s going on.
When you finally won the world championship in 1982, was it fulfilling as you hoped it would be?
Oh, yeah. There was nothing negative about it whatsoever other than it took too long. We spent a lot of years and a lot of effort and a lot of time and had a lot of help and that’s how long it took me. I’m happy I did it. I have a national championship and a world championship. If I had to give up one, you know which one it would be.
You left America in 1972. This was shortly before the sport really started to take off here. As a type of converse to that, Ryan Villopoto raced his entire career here in America—the true global base of the sport right now—and won nine championships and made millions of dollars. Over the winter Ryan then had the luxury of entertaining an offer to make a one-off run at the 2015 world championship. What’s your take on all this?
Now, when Ryan’s doing this, he’s banked tons of dough and he has plenty of money to sit back and retire on and doesn’t have to race until he can’t race. He can pick and choose, and I think after winning the championships here, what he did for 2015 is what I would have done. I would have said, “Hey, man, if I’m still in good shape and I can still win races and I’m planning on retiring within a year or so. I’m going to go and try and add a world championship to that resume.”I think what he’s doing is a great move. No matter what happens he’s still got all the championships. If he doesn’t end up winning, it’s nothing bad on his side. It’s more like, “Hey, it takes more than a year to get it together.” That makes sense. And if he does win it, then he’s going to be the bad dude.
What he’s doing is good for motocross too, isn’t it? People all over the world are now tuned in.
Oh, it’s great because nobody watched those GPs before this year. I didn’t even watch them. It’s making a hell of an impact for the GP guys, so it’s good for everybody and hopefully everybody is making money and hopefully Ryan is getting paid good money. Every week you want to watch it because you want to see how he’s doing. That was kind of how it was when I was gone because I was the only guy—just like he’s the only guy. Americans need an American in the mix doing good to root for.
What did you think of what went down at the first Grand Prix at Qatar?
I thought that was the worst track I ever saw for a Grand Prix. It was a sh** box track and he’s not used to riding on sh** box tracks. Maybe those guys in Europe are more used to it than him. He’s used to everything prepped and everything being the same. He’s used to tracks being perfect in traction for supercross and outdoors. I could see him being a little bit out of the mix there. He could have had tire problems or gear problems. The second one, the track didn’t look too much better, but at least it was in the daytime. It was a little bit bigger and a little bit wider and he did a great job. And the third race, that track, with the ground and the trees and how wide it was, I was like, “It’s Washougal. He should kill them here.” It was surprising that he didn’t do better there.
He wasn’t really making up any ground on the front-runners in both motos, was he?
I think he’s in better shape than those guys, but as far as speed, he doesn’t have anything on anybody yet. That’s the way I’m seeing it.
I spoke with Ryan before the Argentinian Grand Prix, and he mentioned that he was struggling a bit with the two-day format and that he needed to get smarter about pacing himself over the two days. Do you think the GP guys are using their experience in being able to pace themselves to their advantage?
That’s how they do it every week, so yeah, that’s normal for them. And for him that’s a whole different set-up. I mean it takes more than a minute to get adjusted to all that, so yeah, that makes sense. I can see that. His supercross thing is to go out and ride one practice and ride one heat and one main event, and the total whole time on the bike is twenty-two minutes [laughs]. It’s a whole different deal. So that’s going to take more than a minute to adjust to, but he’s smart. He’ll figure it out. It’s a long series. I feel a little nervous for him that all the other top guys are kind of going, “Sh**, man. We’re not as nervous as we thought about him.” So that might give them a lot more confidence, which is bad for him but good for them.
Did you notice how much of the track Villopoto was using at Argentina? He looked to be using any sort of line he could find and perhaps even some lines that weren’t even there.
Yeah, yeah, he was saying, “I’m not catching you, but I better choose something different.” That’s what he was trying to do. He was trying to find a few seconds here and there. I mean the track was so wide and so available for that—that’s how you do it, you know? When you have a track that big you can make some time up by doing something completely different and he was smart enough to look for that. Obviously those other guys were just going in the right spot and realizing the shortest distance was the best lines for time and it’s hard to fix that.
It’s a seventeen-race series and Ryan is three races into it. Do you think he still has a lot of learning to do?
Once he gets his body used to that extra day of being on the bike on a race weekend that will help a lot. I don’t know how long that will take. As far as the tracks, I think they’re going to get better. Hopefully the tracks are a little bit nicer than the first two, and they’ll be something that he’s a little bit more used to. Yeah, it’s going to take some time, but luckily he picked a time where he’s got seventeen races and not twelve to get it done. That’s a plus to him, I think.
What advice would you give him, Brad?
Um, send me a ticket and about a half-million and I’ll come over and give him all the advice he needs [laughs]. As many times as I raced down to the end of a championship with the GPs, it’s going to come down to last race or two and that’s what he has to look to. Don’t try to win it in the beginning, which obviously he doesn’t seem like he’s going out of control and doing that. He needs to keep it cool to get that rhythm going to where he’s got that plan of having more time on the bike and that extra day and all that. He needs to get his body used to that. When he gets to the choice racetracks, the good racetracks, he has to kill on those or else he won’t have a chance on the others. He has to pull some points on the ones that suit him perfectly; those are the ones he needs to win. And the bad ones, or the tracks that he doesn’t like, he has to pull in and get as close to the front as he can and just get the points, and in the end it’s going to be down a few points. I really think he’s got a pretty good shot at it.
Can he win it?
Oh, he has the talent to win it. He just needs to have the tools to win it and the information to win it. It’s all tough, but that’s part of the deal. I mean, Europe is part of the deal, the new tracks are part of the deal, the new team is part of the deal, the change on riding on Saturday is all part of the deal—that’s the challenge. He has to figure that out and that’s the hard part. He already knows how to ride the bike.