"Ricochet Rick" has been an internal tag line for RJ Hampshire, who is not afraid to send it, hang it out and give you everything he’s got. But quietly last year he really improved on the consistency front, as he finished first or second in every supercross race except two, as he crashed at Anaheim 2 and threw a result away in New Jersey with an all-out pass attempt on Jett Lawrence in the last turn in the mud. Otherwise, he put podiums on the board every single week.
Now that last year’s 250SX West Champion, Jett Lawrence, has moved up, it could be RJ’s time. He certainly served notice with a strong performance at Anaheim 1. Here’s what he had to say, post race.
RJ Hampshire, another big trophy for your daughter. I know she likes the big ones. 58 starts and your third win. How sweet is it to bring this win to your team?
RJ Hampshire: So awesome. A lot of ups and downs in my career. Just being able to show up to a race and being confident and taking what the night gave me. Yeah, of course, I felt like I could win, but wasn't gonna pressure it. Had my spots tonight that were really good. Yeah, I’m just super stoked to have a red plate under the Husky rig. That's huge, for myself and the team. Goes to show, massive props to the whole Austrian group because we had an awesome bike this year.
You're a veteran of the sport, just talk about how your career has gone and kind of how you got to this point and, you know, there's been injuries and mid-season injuries, you had the COVID year. Just talking about everything you had to go through to get to this point to have the red plate for next weekend.
We'd be here all night if I had to explain it all! Just ride the waves really. Smitty [Jordon Smith] knows exactly how it is also, like we've been through it. So, it's cool to cool to be up here, even with him [Smith]. This sport’s tough. There's a lot of people that, you know, probably wouldn't be in this situation if they'd gone through what we've gone through. A lot of obstacles, a lot of ups and downs. And one thing I've always done is believed in myself and that's kind of why I'm in this position I'm in right now. I always knew I was capable of it. Just stay levelheaded, really. And, like I said, ride the waves and, and enjoy the highs and try to get out lows as fast as possible.
RJ in the preseason media sessions I think we talked a little bit about how the 250 class is just a hard reset this season and now you've got the early moment. Do you feel that? Do you feel like it was really important to establish yourself, and get this one?
Not at all because I know how fast it can change and how up and down it is. So yeah, just go to the same plan this week, you know, the same plan we had all season long or all off season. Stay level headed and take next weekend the same as we took this weekend. Stay in the fight, give myself a chance to win there, awesome. If it's not take what the night gives me. Yeah, I'm getting up there in age so I kind of learned that, and in times I learned it the hard way. So yeah, and just try to enjoy this, especially enjoy an Anaheim 1 victory, which was massive. Actually, I just found out this weekend that our team manager [Nate Ramsey] has two Anaheim 1 wins. I feel bad because I thought Nate's only had one win his whole career and then I find out he's had about 14! [Laughs].
Jordan and then RJ, if you guys can both answer this, Jordan first, you guys have been racing each other forever. I can think of going back to Milestone when Mike LaRocco was your [GEICO Honda] team manager. You guys were doing scrimmages. How is it to battle with a guy that you know really well? You've raced against for 7, 8, maybe 10 years at this point. How is it in that mindset? You know, he's probably not gonna do something sketchy, but he's gonna go for it just as bad as you want
Jordon: If you think we’re sketchy now, you should have seen us on the scrimmage days in 2015! [Laughs]
RJ: I don’t know how we survived! I don’t know how we’re still here right now!
Jordon: It's good. You know what you're gonna get with him. He's gonna be fast every night. He's gonna do the big lines. He’s gonna get good starts. He's gonna put himself in good position. So you just have to try and be better. We actually got tangled up in the second turn and all of us both got stuck and had to untangle our bikes. But he made some really good passes in the beginning and just kinda checked out. So, yeah, maybe you have to work on a little bit on the intensity to match his first few laps.
RJ: We have the same respect for each other and then it shows up on the race track. You know you're gonna get the best from both of us. I told him like, “Man, I hate racing you!” We're both gonna try to kill ourselves just to try to win. Like it doesn't matter. And yeah we had to battle there in the heat race. I knew I had to make it happen quick there in that main event to try to get away. It's cool that we're battling for wins at Anaheim 1. Eight years ago we were on the same team, came in as rookies and both had our struggles.
Jordon: Battling to not be the slowest guy at the track those days. [Laughs]
RJ: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We made it through the whoops on the gnarly days, which was a surprise! [Laughs]
RJ, how cool did it feel jumping across the finish line, looking over and seeing Beaumer still in second place and you pulling a big gap pretty early?
Yeah, it was awesome. I had my strong points tonight. I was really fast in the whoops, which I haven't said in years. I was stoked on that. I just focused on that. Get to the whoops, pull a gap and then manage the rest of the race. Once I saw my pit board at like plus nine, I was like, “Dang, man, this is getting real. Like you’re about to win A1.” I don't know if you saw my last lap in the whoops, but I'm pretty sure I rolled every single one of them! It was awesome just to have that speed and the confidence in my motorcycle to go out there and do it.
RJ you get the win for Husky. You've been carrying the weight for that team, 250 wise, really. I'm sure that means a lot to you and now you're in a position where you feel like you can probably get multiple wins.
Yeah, it's awesome. Truthfully we have the best group of guys that I've worked with since I came here in 2020. You guys don't see behind the windows, but everybody that was pretty much here whenever I first signed with the team is gone. Except Murph, he’s the one that’s kept us held together. But man, the staff that we have and the personnel and the belief that we all have in each other is special and man, that goes a long way and it shows, you know, whenever we show up on the weekends. You come over to the Husqvarna pit and you see a bunch of smiles on our faces. We enjoy what we do. We love our group and man, just excited for this.
Do you seem to ride with a lot more maturity? I don't know if that's something specifically you've been working on in the off season or just the fact that old Rick might be actually be getting old?
I'm definitely getting old, but I had that maturity last year. I was just racing. A dude that was really, really good and crushed me every weekend. Yeah, I don't maybe take the risks I would have taken whenever I was, you know, 20 and fresh. Injuries hurt a little bit more these days. But hey, listen, I'm gonna do whatever I can to give myself the position on the weekends and in the main events. Big thing for me is just giving myself a chance so I have the opportunity to put in a good result on the weekends.