Tale as old as time, er, as old as racing has been around. Racer enjoys success at the amateur level from 50cc bikes all the way up to the Open Pro Sport class, only to suffer from injury after injury after turning professional. Michigan native Joey Crown admits he is not the only racer this has happened to. His latest injury left him with double vision in his left eye, which makes riding difficult. Undeterred, Joey has resorted to riding for fun with the left side of his goggles covered (on a private track, where he won’t run into other riders) all while doing therapy to improve his vision. His goal is to come back and stay healthy for an entire season. In the meantime, he has picked up some useful skills working for his father’s suspension company.
Racer X: So, the last we heard about you was last November when you had a really gnarly get off, can you tell us about that?
Joey Crown: Yeah, back in November I was training for Paris Supercross at Club MX. It was two days before I was supposed to fly out for that race, I swapped out in a whoop section and jumped off into a straightaway. I landed fine, I didn’t crash, but then Enzo [Lopes] was right there, third gear wide open and T-boned me. Luckily, he was okay, he got up fine. But from the impact broke my radius, ulna, shattered my elbow, broke my humorous, shattered my eye socket, broke my nose as well. So, I was in the hospital for about ten days, and had, I think, five surgeries in the hospital between my arm and my eye. It's been a long road since, I had another surgery on my eye socket to put a plate in. Right now, I am just trying to recover from my double vision from my eye. My arm is doing well, I think I will probably get my hardware out, but I have been able to ride my dirt bike, it's not 100 percent but it's fine enough to ride safely, and to work.
That’s good. How bad is your eye? You said you have double vision, is that something that they can treat, or will it improve with time?
Yeah, they said if it doesn’t heal there is a surgery that could fix it. The surgery would be to adjust the muscles of my eye to get it to point properly. But I am pretty confident in the improvements that it's made with the eye exercises and therapy to stretch and strengthen the muscles, and it has been improving a lot. So, I am pretty confident I should be good. And talking to a couple of other people who have had similar injuries with their eye socket, they said up to a year they had to deal with it but then after that they’ve been good.
That’s promising then that you are well within that year of making progress.
My last surgery was in February, so if I get to February and I am still having problems I might get a little bit worried. But as long as I am making progress, like I said, lately it has been improving a lot, I have been able to at least do certain things without covering my eye and I can see single. So that is encouraging.
But you have been back on the bike, how does that effect you when you are riding? Do you have to cover your eye when you ride?
Yeah, I have decals that I put on the left side of my goggles, so it covers my left eye. So, I am just riding with one eye. It is a little tricky because I don’t have much depth perception that way, and then I don’t have, obviously, any peripheral on my left side. So, I have just been taking it easy. I feel comfortable enough, I don’t feel sketchy at all, and I am not pushing at any sort of limit to where I am getting squirrely or anything. It's just purely for fun at the moment, you know throttle therapy.
Yeah, I understand that. So any sort of comeback is dependent on your eye then? Obviously, I cannot imagine the AMA letting you race with a sticker covering half of your goggles? Or do you even want to make a comeback? Are you just going to ride for fun from here on out?
No, I do want to come back, I don’t know when that will be it kind of depends on my eye, and how my arm handles full training and full motos. I feel like my arm won’t be a problem it is just my eye. See how that goes and kind of go from there. I do have goals to get back, I am hoping maybe some outdoors next year, but I don’t have any sort of date on it, like I said it depends on my eye. I hope to get some more racing in to end it on my terms and not an injury.
So, in the meantime you have been helping your dad? [Matt Crown who owns MCR Suspension in Michigan].
Yeah, my dad has a suspension company, MCR Suspension, so I have been working for him and doing some riding schools as well. And staying plenty busy, being around dirt bikes every day can sometimes be a little challenging when I would rather be riding them. But there could be worse things, last summer I was building decks. So, this is much better than that for sure.
So are you just naturally engineer minded? Has your dad always taught you this stuff or have you had to learn the ropes of suspension building?
He has always taught me little things here and there, like bike work. I did most of my own bike work, I started doing motor swaps and stuff when I was on 85’s. Now working on suspension has been a little bit of learning curve, it's hard because there are so many different sets of suspension, so many years to try and learn and decipher all of them. I am still learning how to do a lot of the stuff, but I have learned quite a bit this summer and it has become a little more natural to me. My dad thinks at some point I am just going to inherit the gene of knowing this stuff. [Laughs]
![Crown at the 2020 Arlington Supercross.]()
Crown at the 2020 Arlington Supercross. Align Media ![Crown at the 2020 Arlington Supercross.]()
Crown at the 2020 Arlington Supercross. Align Media ![Crown finished 7-5-10 in the three races in the 2020 Arlington Supercross Triple Crown format for seventh overall. His seventh overall is his best AMA Supercross finish to date.]()
Crown finished 7-5-10 in the three races in the 2020 Arlington Supercross Triple Crown format for seventh overall. His seventh overall is his best AMA Supercross finish to date. Align Media
Oh, it's just going to click? Did it come naturally for him?
I don’t know, it seems like it must have the way he thinks. He started off testing for a suspension company, doing a bunch of rider development stuff for them and then he ended up taking over that company and growing it to what it is now. So, he has been doing it for 35 years or so now. So, it is pretty second nature to him.
That’s pretty cool, in Michigan moto your dad is just like a staple at the track. For some reason in my memory, he had all of these Loretta Lynn’s titles, but I just went in the Vault to look up both of your stats and he actually has no wins, and you have three.
Yeah, he has a lot of district titles, but unfortunately at Loretta’s… I think he might have gotten second once or twice, but never got a title. I thankfully have three, shoulda, coulda, woulda had more with some bike issues but it is what it is.
You actually had quite the amateur career. Yes, you had those three titles, but then the years you didn’t win you were top three a lot except for those couple of times with obvious bike issues. How difficult or frustrating is it for you to have such a great amateur career, and then you turn pro and while you did have some success with a seventh and eighth place finish in supercross [250SX East Region in 2020], you have also struggled a lot with injuries. How frustrating is that or have you been able to take it all in stride?
Yeah it is really tough, I grew up battling with and beating half the time, guys like Chase Sexton, [Austin] Forkner, Justin Cooper towards the end. And to see those guys’ careers, I mean Chase is the premier 450 guy now, which is awesome to see. But towards the end of my amateur career the injuries already started piling up and the gap was just getting further apart. And then I turned pro and more injuries. I was pro for two years and in 2020 I was finally kind of back to where I was, I got a couple of top tens in supercross, was running up front in top three at the two races I did before I got hurt. I felt like I was finally back and on the right path again, getting to where I should be, and then injury again struck. It's kind of how it's been. So, it's been pretty frustrating. Looking back, I have had some great successes, Red Bull Straight Rhythm was pretty cool. I did some overseas races that went really well, Geneva and Germany. But as a racer it’s never good enough unless you are winning. It's definitely been frustrating because whenever I felt I would get the ball rolling I would have an injury, which I am not the first person in the sport to have that problem. So, at this point I would love to just get back and race a year healthy and just experience it, I have never been able to go more than a few races without a dumb injury or something that keeps me from going a full season or building some sort of momentum. Mainly like I said just experiencing a full year in the sport.
Okay what about anything positive? We have talked plenty about the downside of racing, any positive note you want to end on?
[Laughs] Positive things? Yeah, I figured if I don’t get back into full time racing, I do enjoy training kids, and doing suspensions stuff. I can see myself doing that. So, I guess I have found, if racing does not work out like I would hope it too, I still can do that. And just the fact that I am back riding again after the last injury is huge. The progress I have made, the doctors are really surprised that I have been able to recover as well as I have. Which to me it feels like it's been forever but… So, there have been lots of good signs if I am able to race again—I should be able to race again if I choose to—so I am very thankful for that.
That’s great, so how can people get ahold of you for training?
Through Instagram @joeycrown355 and my Facebook is JC Rider Development.
Note: Two weeks ago, the Michigan moto community lost a great friend Ron Meredith, whom Joey and his family were especially close to. Joey would like to pay tribute by saying “I would like to dedicate this interview in memory of Rocket Ron Meredith #47. God Speed! You are missed!”
