Motocross Performance Magazine Canadian Motocross news leader
With the holiday season fast approaching, it’s almost time to sit back, relax, and in this case, ask some of our industry people a few interesting questions. This week we reached out to our readers to see if anyone had a few questions for Ryan Lockhart. As you know, Ryan has been in this industry for over twenty years and during that time he’s been a rider, a mechanic, a riding coach, and most recently the Brand Manager over at Matrix Concepts Canada. Ryan knows a lot about a lot of things and he’s always a great guy to talk to. Here are this week’s 3 Q’s with Ryan Lockhart presented by Matrix Concepts Canada.
MXP: Are you happy with how Ryder McNabb did this summer? Did he finish about where you thought he would?
RL: I will be honest here. I really didn’t know what to expect from Ryder this summer. After all, he’s still only14 years old, and coming into 2020 he had only four months of experience on a big bike. If you look at those factors there were a lot of things that could of went wrong, but they didn’t. He had a very solid year. The number of things that he learned from the team and himself was incredible. His results were great but some of the highlights were even more impressive. Setting fastest lap times in practices, setting fastest lap times in motos, coming through the pack, etc. I was happy and so was the team. The only negative was his starts and that really hurt his chances at some podiums throughout the season. All in all, it was a great experience for him and me. He’s a great kid and that’s not easy to say about a 14-year-old these days.
MXP: You turned pro at a very young age when the sport was a lot different. Do you think it’s harder for young riders to find success in the pro class these days? Or was it more difficult when you were younger?
Like Ryder McNabb, I was also 14 when I turned pro, and looking back I definitely felt young at the time. I believe it was easier back in my day to go pro at a young age, for the single reason that the sport was much simpler. Now when I say simpler, I mean there weren’t these training facilities, there wasn’t social media, we rode mostly stock bikes, we did just about everything on our own with support from our parents and sponsors. It was just a much simpler process. Also, there wasn’t near as much pressure back then as we were just having a blast riding our dirt bikes and trying to make a little money. Now, there are so many things that are different, money, media, training facilities, bikes, the list goes on. I think it takes a more mentally strong kid to make it in the racing world now than it did back in my day. It’s a tough game out right now!
MXP: We know you have ridden a lot of bikes and races a lot of races. Can you tell us the following?
Favourite Bike:
That is a tie between my 2003 KTM 125 and my 2006 RMZ450 when I rode for OTSFF. No real reason why, but I always felt comfortable on them.
Favourite Track:
That would be Deschambault in Quebec. I always seemed to have good results there whether it was a provincial or a national. I also won my only national moto there in 2003 so I might be a little biased.
Best Result:
This is a tough one! My national moto win in 2003, my first national podium in 2002, I had a few Quebec AX wins over the years, my Toronto SX World SX podium in 2004 was cool, my Walton TransCan Vet Master Titles were always special. Also, I have a lot of Chilliwack AX wins over the years against some of the best. I could go on and on but not all of my best results were wins, I like to think of them more as memories.
Favourite Road Trip:
Well, I think a lot of riders would agree with me here. Anytime we were headed to the Riviere Du Loup AX you knew it was going to be a race to remember, or maybe not remember if you know what I mean. I won’t go into too many details but I think every pro rider should go and race the RDL AX at least once during their career. I’ll leave it at that.
