At this point, Ryan Sipes needs no introduction. The Kentuckian is of course the only American to win the International Six Days Enduro (ISDE) and he’s also won three 250SX main events during his supercross and motocross career.
This year, though, has been rough for the now full-time racer in the Amsoil Grand National Cross Country Series. The season started off with Sipes making costly mistakes in the first few races of the series before breaking his pinky finger, which required surgery. It’s been a nagging injury, which halted his plans to race High Point and Budds Creek rounds of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship, and also caused him to miss four GNCCs at mid-season.
Sipes did make his return to racing the nationals at the Ironman National this past Saturday, which will go down in history as the first and only time he’s raced with the #74. As he admitted in the interview, he did pretty well considering he’s just some woods racer now. He went 19-13 for fourteenth overall on the afternoon. We called up Ryan on Tuesday afternoon to get his take on his return to racing and the upcoming GNCC races on his schedule.
Racer X: Mr. Ryan Sipes, what have you been up to?
Ryan Sipes: Oh, you know, just hanging out and living life, man.
I have to admit that it was pretty weird to see you wearing the #74 over the weekend.
It is kind of weird having the #74 on there. I don’t even know if I will get a number next year. I only got ten points so I might be back to the old #264.
How was it racing your lone national of the season?
It was all right. It had been a full year since I did one. I thought I was ready and I was going fast at home. It’s just hard to jump out there and run the pace when you haven’t been racing on tracks like that all year. It was a tough weekend and I struggled all day. I got better as the day went on though because I got used to it. I just need to do more than one a year.
I had planned to do three races this year. I wanted to do High Point, Budds Creek, and Ironman, but I got hurt. It took about three months to get back from injury and I started riding some moto again. It’s been a really busy summer getting ready for ISDE. Racing Ironman, I felt good at home, you just can’t jump in when those guys have been running that pace all year.
C’mon, you’re Ryan Sipes. You can jump in and run that pace!
[Laughs] I always think I can! Practice was really muddy and I qualified decent. When you jump out there on the first lap, you never have that intensity in GNCC racing. It was kind of a shock and I knew they were going to be fast, but you never know until you get out there. I made some big mistakes trying to go faster. That balled me up and I got arm pump, which I never do. If I could race another one this weekend I think I could do better. It was fun.
I would think the track conditions would have suited you because of your experience in GNCCs.
Yeah, you would think that. The difference is that we don’t go that fast. We don’t just ride around, but you can’t go that fast for three hours. My practice track never gets that rough because I’m the only that rides it. It was tough. That’s what you get when you don’t race moto all summer.
Let’s say you had more motos on the day. You would probably have done better in the third and fourth moto if they had that.
That’s the thing, at the end of the first moto I was like, “What’s my deal? I’m tired.” We train hard for GNCCs, but we train lower [intensity] for a longer amount of time. You jump out there and your body jumps to 190 on the first lap your body doesn’t know how to react. By the end of the second moto I felt better. It was like my heart rate figured out how to deal with it. It was a shock. I started to feel better and pass guys back in the second half of the second moto, which was when I had my best times of the day.
You mentioned the ISDE earlier. Give us an update on how your GNCC program is doing and what is next on the schedule for you.
We’ve got two or three GNCCs coming up before the ISDE and I want to do well in those. I haven’t been on the podium this year yet, so I want to make sure I do that. Hopefully I can win a race. We are also very focused on the ISDE. We want to go over there to win as a team because it’s never been done before. I plan on putting a lot a lot of focus into that and running up front. I hope everyone else can to. Everybody was going really fast at the training camp that we did, so I feel like we are going to go over there and do some work.
As far as your GNCC racing goes this season, injuries have held you back and have not allowed you to show your cards.
At the beginning of the year, no they really didn’t. I was fast, but I just couldn’t put it all together. I would be up there and have some crashes. Then I got hurt and I missed four races. I came back for the Snowshoe round, which is the round before the break. I was still in a brace and wasn’t exactly one hundred percent. I was in second or third until the halfway point and had an issue where I had to pull in. I lost three or four minutes. My fitness wasn’t back, so that was tough. I’m 100 percent back to normal and I’m looking to come back strong.
There are things that I know about moto that I forgot that I even knew because it just comes natural. Those are the things I need to learn about the woods. They aren’t second nature to me.
It’s nice that you guys get the summer to heal up and train for the fall races. Could you imagine racing in this heat right now?
Oh, man, that would have been brutal. It would have been dangerous if we raced this summer.
That’s for sure. What is your plan for the future in GNCC racing? Are you here to stay for a long time?
I’m going to keep doing these and continue to learn. I didn’t grow up racing these and it’s not what I did every weekend. I’m getting better. I want to see how good I can get and win some races. Who knows, I might win a championship one day. I want to continue to be competitive and not just out they’re riding around. I’ll do GNCCs, I’ll do a national here and there, and maybe even an enduro. Whatever it is I just enjoy riding dirt bikes. As long as I can be competitive and make money I’m going to keep doing it.
As you finish out your third season of GNCC racing what would you go back and tell yourself in your first season?
It’s been a hundred little things. At first I could go pretty fast, but then at the two-hour mark I was shot. I had to get in better shape. Once I got in better shape the mental side of the three hours came into play. You’re going to get tired racing three hours. You just have to overcome it and keep pushing. Then it was my lines. If I take ten bad lines in one lap then that is like thirty seconds I lost. I was going fast, but I was just in the wrong lines. It’s everything: nutrition, hydration, just all sorts of things. I’m still learning everyday. I want to be really good at it.
It is rare that we see a pro motocross racer jump into the GNCC series. You’re pretty much the only one.
That’s the thing, like if Kailub [Russell] were to jump in and race a pro motocross race he would do pretty well, but it would be hard for him to jump in and win. The racing is different, the training, the intensity, the way you practice is different. The only difference is that he was brought up in the woods and I was brought up at the track. If he were brought up on the track he would be a lot better and if I were brought up in the woods I would do a lot better. There are things that I know about moto that I forgot that I even knew because it just comes natural. Those are the things I need to learn about the woods. They aren’t second nature to me. They are two different sports even though they are both on a dirt bike.
With you being away from motocross for a while were those big hill jumps sketchy for you, or were they fun?
Those jumps aren’t that bad. They are big, but they aren’t hard. I still have big jumps on my motocross track at home. I still love to jump. If there is something that I can jump I usually try to do it. I’m not that old yet! [Laughs] The thing that I have forgotten how to do is scrub because I haven’t had to do that in a while. I’ll go over a jump and think that I stayed pretty low over it and then I look at the picture and it’s like, man I’m barely leaning over. [Laughs] I used to be comfortable just laying the bike over on the face and letting the wheel slide off the face. That’ll scare me now. It’s fun to get some air every now and then.
What did you think of the supercross and motocross seasons this year?
I’m still a huge fan; like I’ll drop everything to go watch the race. If I don’t have the channel I’ll go somewhere that does and watch it. I just love racing and I love dirt bikes. I think the pace is pretty silly in both classes. [Ken] Roczen is on another level. He looks like he’s not even trying and of course I know he is. Cooper [Webb], you better believe in the last five laps that he’s going to be somewhere near the front no matter where he started. I used to really like a gnarly track and maybe I’m getting too old, but it seems like they are letting the track get too rough. We have a lot of people going down and getting hurt. That part I don’t like. You can’t make it smooth. We had that one year where they made the track really smooth and it was terrible. Everyone was going the same pace and there was nowhere to pass. You can find a happy medium. This year they let the track get really gnarly and I don’t think that is a good thing for the sport. From the outside looking in it looks like they could do a little more track work, but what do I know? I’m just a woods guy!
How’s the family? Is Pooh [Justin Sipes, Ryan's brother] finished with racing?
He’s looking into some other stuff and hopefully we will know by next year. If this new stuff works out for him then it will be cool, exciting, and fun. Hopefully it’s safer for him too. Every time he got on a dirt bike he was getting hurt. I know he’d rather ride, but at a certain point you need to figure out something else to do and still have fun. Other than that my family is good. My little boy is getting huge. He’s going to be two here in about a month and my daughter will be nine in a month. Everybody is growing up and it’s a lot of work having a family. I’m traveling all the time. My wife works too and she hangs out with the kids while I’m gone. You’ve got to work together. My mom and dad pitch in and watch the kids. It’s all good and we are chugging along over here.
Are any dirt bikes in the future for the little ones?
When my daughter was five she didn’t know how to ride a bike without training wheels. We went out in the yard and learned it one day and she picked it up super quick. I told her that if she gets good enough she could ride a motorcycle. Within five times of riding she had that thing down. Now we have a little track in the backyard. It’s like three little bumps with corners. She rides all the time. My boy if he could ride a motorcycle all day and while he sleeps he would be happy. It’s all he wants to do. We have a little 50 that him and I ride around on and a strider that he rides. He’s getting the hang of it. We’ll see. I know his momma doesn’t want him to ride. If he had it his way he’s going to ride all the time
It’s a vicious cycle.
It’s getting to be about that time. We’ll try him out on it pretty soon.
Ryan would like to thank Coastal Racing, Rockstar Energy, Husqvarna Motorcycles, MSR, Leatt Protectives, Dragon Goggles, TM Designworks, Dunlop Tires, FMF, Factory Connection, Steve Hatch Racing, Bel-Ray, Airgroup Radient Logistics, Acerbis, Pro Taper, Hinson, Stuk MX, Seat Concepts, Asterisk, Super B Batteries, Twin Air, IMS Tanks, FPS Racing Radiators, ARC Levers, Hammer Nutrition, and Chefs Cut Jerky for the support this season.
