It was a unique year of racing for California-native Joshua Varize who made the switch to AEO Powersports KTM in the middle of the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship. With some solid results coming off of a shoulder injury, Varize was continuing to build towards the top 10. Things didn’t end positively at the finale at Fox Raceway two weeks ago, but he still was able to hold his head high about it all.
He also has something rather interesting to look forward to as he will be the MX2 rider for team Guam at the upcoming Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations at RedBud. We caught up with him after the Fox Raceway 2 National to talk about his day, his season, and how the heck he ended up on team Guam.
Racer X: Alright, Joshua Varize, last national of the year, 18th overall. Obviously, not the way you want it to end. But, hot day, how did it feel for you out there?
Joshua Varize: Yeah, it was good. Practice was shaping to be… I was like, “Oh this is going to be a good day!” First moto came around and I think it was like the second lap and I fell over, kind of high-sided. Like rear end over the berm and kind of like a slow high side. It took me a while to get up, but I got up. I don’t know what place I was in, but I charged back up to 17th. I made quite a few passes; I know that. And then second moto, I got a bad start. If you don’t get a good start here, you’re pretty much screwed. There’s really only one line for the first like half of the track. But yeah, a bad start and was just trying to stay on two wheels and try to be smooth. The track was brutal. The heat made it 10 times worse. And even though it was a 25-minute moto, it still felt like 35. With like three laps to go, I ended up getting a little bit off balance in a rut and fell over. I was already drained before that, so it was literally taking every ounce of energy out of me to get through the moto. I had my best qualifying time of the year, and I was really stoked about that. Like I said, I thought it was shaping up to be a good day and it kind of started to go a little bit downhill from there.
You’re obviously familiar with this track and we know how much it changes on race day versus a practice day, but how gnarly did it actually get out there? Were you kind of surprised to see how rough and choppy it got?
Yeah, normally on a practice day, you know there’s not a lot of guys, so bumps don’t develop like they do on race day. But it’s weird, they have like a different type of prep that they do on race day just compared to practice days. It’s just so much deeper and it makes the track a lot more challenging especially with the bumps forming bigger. The environment is still local, but the track is just a way different track than a normal practice day.
Only good thing about it is waking up in your own bed then, huh?
Yeah. [Laughs] Pretty much!
Rating your whole season a little bit. You have the team switch early in the year and were trying to get used to that change. How do you feel like it actually ended up for you? Were you satisfied with the way things went?
Yeah, I’m pretty satisfied. I know I could have been better at a lot of the races. It just kind of sucks because even the supercross season and this outdoor season, I came into both season injured. I had a broken collarbone and messed up my AC joint right before outdoors. I knew, I was like, “I have to race whether I have a broken collarbone or not.” So, I definitely fought my shoulder for the first half of the rounds, like, “Man, my shoulder is definitely not good.” Obviously, it got better but your first race kind of determines how your season is going to be. So, it just kind of started rough and it gradually was getting rougher and then I had that 10-10 at Washougal which was really nice. And then we had a three-week break. So I thought like, “Cool, three-week break, get to work on what we need to.” And it just was hard to get going. Like I said, I know I could have been better. I got a few more points than I did last year, but definitely would have liked to be better.
![Varize at the RedBud National.]()
Varize at the RedBud National. Mitch Kendra ![Varize at the Ironman National.]()
Varize at the Ironman National. Align Media
And then the official Motocross of Nations team list comes out this week and surprise! You’re on team Guam! Where did that come from? How did that come about?
Yeah, Sean Lipanovich, he’s on the team with me. He’s from Guam. His dad hit me up about it and I was like, “I’m down! That sounds fun!” It’s going to be a fun event. I’ll be able to have a Motocross of Nations race under my belt and on my record. So, racing for team Guam is going to be exciting and I’m definitely looking forward to it.
Related: 2022 Motocross of Nations Official Entry Lists & Numbers
Are you taking your own bike out there? Is AEO helping you? What’s the program going to be like?
So the plan is to stay with AEO. Yeah, I’ll have my race bike out there with them. We’ll get out there… I don’t know exactly when we’re getting out there but we’re going to get out there and I’m looking forward to it.
Anything lined up for next year yet?
Yeah, the plan for right now is to stay with AEO. I’m super stoked with the team and how everything is working. We all gel really well together and I’m super happy with it. All the support that they get, it’s not a factory team, but it’s not a privateer team, you know? It’s a satellite team. I really like it and everyone is like family over there for sure.
