Multi-time 250SX champion and 2020 450 Class Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross champion Zach Osborne made the announcement yesterday that he would be joining AmPro Yamaha Racing to compete in the XC2 class of the Grand National Cross Country (GNCC) Championship. Osborne, 33, retired from professional racing at the end of 2021 following a year of dealing with a back injury that ultimately pulled him away from full time racing. He took a two-year deal in January in an ambassador role with Husqvarna USA where he spent most of 2022 making appearances at races and events. He also did some reporting on TV for Monster Energy AMA Supercross and has been training privateer Jack Chambers in Florida as well. Now he is jumping back into full time competition and also making a bit of a shock brand switch as well.
Between all of that, his third child Owen was born last weekend and when we called him up yesterday, he was coming back from the hardware store taking care of some housework as well. He’s a busy man again but he took some time to catch up with us to get to the bottom of his decision to get back on the starting line.
Racer X: First off, I just want to say congrats on the birth of Owen. That’s got to be rad that this just happened as well. Does three-time dad have a nicer ring to it than two-time supercross champion, though?
Zach Osborne: Of course it does. Being a dad is my greatest achievement. We’re enjoying the birth of our son. It’s been a blissful experience so far. My wife was a champ. We did a home birth this time. It was just an incredible experience for us and our kids. We’re super stoked with it.
Everyone healthy and happy?
Yup. All healthy and happy. You forget after you have a kid who is eight and four and then a newborn. It’s like starting all over again and you forget what that’s like. We’re grateful for the opportunity. We’re stoked to have him.
Getting into this new deal, I think we all kind of knew you would keep racing in some capacity, riding, racing, whatever. But why the decision GNCC specifically?
Mainly because it’s something I’ve always wanted to do. I did my first GNCC at the end of 2007 at the Yadkin Valley Stomp. I was on a Yamaha at that time. Was hoping to make the transition onto Yamaha of Troy, and I hadn’t gotten that final confirmation yet, but I had bought a bike and was riding and stuff. I actually spoke with Randy [Hawkins] about doing a deal that year in 2007. Things were falling apart in the economy and just weird stuff was happening and he didn’t have the budget. It just never panned out. It never kind of came together. Obviously, the rest of the story is already written, but when this opportunity came to me, actually Ziggy [Rick Zielfelder] from Factory Connection was the one who was like, “I think you and Randy should have a serious conversation about you going racing.” Because I did some testing one time up in Massachusetts and Maine over the spring/summer. That was to go racing. I guess it was a couple months ago now when we sat down and had a serious conversation. I was like, “Okay.” But at that time, it all seemed like a pipedream. I was pretty bedded down at Husky and everything, but it all kind of came together. Things ended graciously with Husky and I’m happy to be on a new path and just a fresh look at things.
I think a lot of people looked at it as a little bit of a shock, because of the brand switch more so than anything. So you’re saying Husky was pretty much okay with your interest level in doing this, and then the switch to Yamaha, they were happy to bring you on board, it sounds like?
Yeah. Husky, those opportunities weren't available to me there to go racing. That was kind of where my heart was at. I enjoyed the ambassador role, but it was a little bit tough for me because the schedule was variable and I just kind of always felt underprepared, which is something that I struggle with. I’m more of an over-prepare and be prepared guy than just fly by the seat of my pants. So, it was a little bit tough on me from that side. But it was just something that I felt like, actually whenever I left GEICO in 2014, not half the reason but some part of the reason was because at that time my career seemed to be moving in an off-road manner. I had done two Six Days [FIM International Six Days Enduro (ISDE)]. I had been on quite a few GNCC podiums the year prior in 2013. My wife and I felt like I was doing myself a favor, doing us a favor, if I went to Husky and kind of started down the path of an off-road career, because we kind of felt like we were doing what we were going to get done in motocross. Get on the podium, get in the top five every now and then. What ensued over the next five or six years or whatever it was, was way outside of my dreams or expectations. So, this whole off-road side of me has been there for a long, long time. This seemed like a really good opportunity for me. I'm in a good spot with my health and I'm in a place where I can train and really grind into it again. So, I feel comfortable with taking a job like this and making the most of what the opportunity I’ve been given for the people that have given it to me.
You say a little bit about the opportunity not being there to stay with Husky, but obviously the KTM group is so embedded in a lot of enduro type events. Maybe not necessarily in the U.S., but was that just something that maybe you wanted to stay in the U.S., and they didn’t have the opportunities in the U.S.?
No. I can’t really explain it, to be honest. It just wasn’t really of their interest for me to go racing in that capacity on their side. It just wasn’t there.
You seemed to like to do a lot of stuff besides just the enduro, in the year after your retirement. So, is the plan just to only do GNCC, or are you still kind of wanting to, if the Canadian Motocross racing for example is possible, do that too?
No. My main focus is GNCC and I’m also going to do the Sprint series [US Sprint Enduro]. That’s my main gig. Obviously, this year, the way things are laid out from the schedule that I’ve seen, we have over three months off in the summer. So, if everything is going great and the boys are up for it, maybe we hit a national or something. At the moment, I’m just trying to kind of get things rolling and get myself in condition to take on this challenge.
Like you said, you’re excited to get back into a schedule where you’re keeping up with shape and stuff like that. How do you expect to do? Is it something where you're going in with a mindset like, I’m trying to win this title? Or are you just trying to get your feet wet again? Where are you with that?
That’s hard to say. For me to say I’m going to win this title is highly disrespectful to guys like Lyndon [Snodgrass, 2022 XC2 Champion] and Liam [Draper, new teammate] and the people that contend for it every year and the guys who are there every weekend grinding it out and have been for years. I have a lot to learn. These guys know the tracks, the locations, the ins and outs of race strategy and all that is that. Definitely my goal would be to find some podiums this year and kind of be in the hunt. I'm not saying championship hunt, but definitely just around there. I’ve done quite a few GNCC’s before and been on the podium in XC2 a good couple of times. But I know also that the sport has moved on a lot since then. The level has gone so much higher. I know and I’m realistic that I have a lot to learn. If I want to win races and stuff, it’s going to take some time.
Absolutely. Was the XC2 option kind of the only one that was realistically available? Would you want to go to XC1, or you’re okay with where you’re at?
My deal is one-year XC2, one-year XC1. So, in 2024 I’ll be in XC1. For me, it was super important to have a year not racing the 450. The 450 is a lot in the woods. It’s a lot anywhere, but it’s a lot in the woods. To learn on that level, in my mind that’s like asking Ben Kelley or Stu Baylor to go race 450 supercross, which is not realistic. So, for me, I’m trying to learn and enjoy my time as well. I’ve had some hankering for the 250 ever since I left the 250 class, so it just kind of all made sense. I felt like jumping in at the deep end was not the right decision for any of us, and they agreed.
On the topic of building a little bit, how is everything with the back and your physical side of it?
My back has been pretty solid, I would say from March of last year, March or April. I really have not had any issues. Like I said, I’m in a place now where I can kind of grind into it and get back into some serious hours and stuff. I struggled a little bit. I got COVID at some point in March or April and just really struggled with some weird post symptoms. Finally got all that figured out and I’m in a better place with all that now. So, it’s been a long road back to health now, and with my back, but with that stuff as well. It’s been a weird year. I’ve enjoyed doing that ambassador work and going to different events and experiencing different things. But for me, there’s still just a hankering for racing at the highest level and winning.
Talking about your retirement in that regard, I think a lot of guys always say it’s tough to find that next passion or that next thing once you retire from racing at the highest level. So, has it been nice to find stability back into something that you can work for and can strive for?
Yeah, most definitely. Not only that though, for me, just the way things ended and with the whole scope of things, I just never felt done. I never felt like I got closure. My wife felt the same way. It wasn’t like we said it, but we both kind of knew that there was unfinished business or that we still had more to do in this arena. So, it’s a cool opportunity for me to have a little bit more lax schedule but still go racing at the highest level in off-road racing, which is GNCC, and get to do it on good equipment and with the right people and things in place. It was just a really good fit for us.
Outside of racing this past year or riding, you did a lot of different things. You trained Jack Chambers and a couple of other people. You also did the TV thing. How much of those things are you still going to try to keep doing in this new role for you?
So, Jack, we’ve been together for a year now. We kind of have a good understanding of how things go, how things work for me and for him. So, that’s a pretty simple thing. I’m going to keep that going. I think he’s in a good spot and can really maybe turn some heads this year. I’m going to stick around to see that through. The TV thing was just those four races that I did, because Leigh [Diffey] had to go to the Olympics. So, that kind of freed up that space. It was really hard. I won’t say that I didn’t enjoy it, because I enjoy learning and it was something completely new. Also not that I didn’t have respect before, but now I have so much. They make it look amazing, but the guys on the back end, there’s so much that people on the outside, me included before I did it, don’t realize about just how many things go into making a production. Also, the thing I was most blown away by is what it looks like when they send you the line-item sheet and it’s like 400-line items long, for every second of the show. It looks like this will never make TV, but they just do some magic. It’s crazy to see how well it comes out on the other side and how chaotic it is for the people on the back side. It was a really cool experience. But I think long-term I wouldn’t want to do that because it’s just a really high pressure, really high stress job. If you have the time, I guess if I had the time and it was my legit job to be able to put in the reps and put in the hours and get the coaching and the voice lessons and all that stuff that you need to do it properly, I guess I could do it. But definitely one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life.
The October 2020 Issue of Racer X Illustrated
Summer Break
Zach Osborne won a supercross, then tried a GNCC for fun. Win or lose, he always has a good time just trying.
As an extension to that, this past year being able to take a step back from everything to a degree and see different facets of the sport that maybe you didn’t see before, is that something that was eye-opening to you beyond just the TV side of the different intricacies of the sport that maybe you just didn’t see before when you were racing professionally?
Yeah. Like I said, it’s not that I didn’t respect those facets of things before, but the experience is always the pinnacle. Getting in there and seeing it and having that experience that every single piece is planned out. They have backup plans if something goes awry if there’s a red flag. There’s so much more than meets the eye in all situations in life. I’m not much of a critic, but I find it hard sometimes to read critics of especially the TV guys because in my mind, they kill it. Without knowing the whole picture, it’s hard for me to understand how you can really dig into critique like that. For sure, that made a big difference in my mind of not only how much goes into one production or all of that, but just how many jobs that our little sport creates and how much work it creates, as well. Just the whole picture gave me a little bit of a broader spectrum of it. That’s only one piece that I’ve seen, other than actually riding. So there’s managers, there’s trainers, there’s everything you can think of. I got a huge eye-opening experience just from one of those jobs, which was pretty cool.
Alright, so Eli Tomac switches to Blu Cru this year and has maybe the best season of his career. So, give me a percent pie of the chances of you joining Blu Cru and it results in just complete domination.
No matter what, it’s going to be the best results of my career [laughs]. It’s something totally new [Osborne has never raced a full GNCC season]. I really enjoy the Yamaha. I’ve been on it for a few days now. I am enjoying it. I think as far as the team goes, it’s super low-key or low-pressure and more of a family style of racing, which is what I experienced in Europe which is some of the best times in my career and my life in racing. I think that I'm in a good spot to be able to put in results and also have a blast with my family and the boys, as well.
This is the first time you’ve been basically back on the Yamaha truly since you were racing it in Europe and doing a couple races over here. Have you been able to feel the same vibes, feel the chassis a little bit the same way, or is it completely different?
It’s very different. I rode the reverse engine 450 a couple of times just as it was coming out in ‘11 and ’12, but not very much. So for me, it’s a totally different bike. I’m really enjoying it. I was super impressed with it right away. We have things working pretty good. I haven’t really started that much with the 250 yet, but we have a big test coming up in a couple of weeks in South Carolina, where I’ll get things dialed in with suspension, chassis and get started with the 250 bike.
