Tuesday Toolbox with .... Josh Strang

Words by Weigandt, photos by Hooper

We rung up FMF Suzuki's latest threat, Josh Strang, after he nailed down his first podium at Unadilla. Here we go!

Josh what are you doing?

I’m mowing the grass right now.

Mowing gass! Don’t you have someone to do that for you?

I like doing it.

Where the heck do you live?

With Fritz from Smith goggles. Jimmy and Barb (Jarrett), we’ll all probably start moving in tomorrow. The just bought a new house.

What made you move from North Carolina to Ohio?

Well, I went up here after Loretta’s and to do two qualifiers for Loretta’s motocross. The two GNCCs I did around that time, I did well. So something is happening up here that’s making me run better, so I figured I better stay up here.

As far as the racing goes, was it just Ohio that turned it around, or have you been learning all year?

Well, since the first round, I’ve learned. I learned even again at the last round, in Somerset, when I thought I had a good pace going on the last lap and Garrett (Edmisten) came right by me pretty easy. So I learned from that. And this Ohio thing, obviously, has worked out pretty good. We have some good tracks up here, and riding with Jimmy is awesome.

And the thing is that Jimmy has been going strong lately, too.

Yeah, every time I’ve been up here he’s had a good race, too.

So what’s life in the U.S. like outside of racing?

It’s been good, I’m used to it now. When I went back home for the Australian Four-Day, it was good to see mom and dad and my sisters, but after that it was kind of boring. I live in a small town, and everyone had to work to make a living. They don’t get to race motorcycles, so I had no one to ride with and no one to train with. At the moment, this is where I want to be and this is where I’m having fun.

Great now a whole bunch of your friends are going to read this and get mad.

I don’t know, they should be alright I think. They know how small the town is.

This Racer X Holeshot powered Strang to a career day.

 

Where you a full time rider back home?

No, my dad owned a motorcycle shop, and I was working there. I did two years full time as a mechanic, and last year, we were still paying for most things with racing, and I worked less and we traveled to the races more. But this is my first time full time.

Where you a motocross racer?

At first I was a junior motocrosser on a small bike, I went to junior enduro for two years. Then I went back into motocross and was into that until I was 17, and then I did a few off-road races. At the motocross I always enjoyed it, but I was never at the front of the national stuff. Then I started doing well at off-road, and it lifted my profile. There hasn’t been a lot of highlights, but I had some good races.

So it’s not like you were winning every single race over there before you got the ride.

Yeah, I wanted to come over and try it out and see if there’s any opportunity for me. I had never met Glenn. We just talked with phone and email and that. So I went to his house last year over the summer break and I rode and trained with him. I had two I guess decent results but nothing special. Glenn had a fair bit of input to getting me on the team, so he talked to Mike (Webb) and Shane (Nalley) and they gave it a go.

Did you have some pressure, then, to perform?

Not really, at the start of the year Mike and Rodney just wanted me to learn. I don’t think they expected top five. They expected top 10 and I expected top 5s. It was a little bit of pressure, but when I worked out what they wanted, it wasn’t hard to do, and now that my results are getting better, it’s easy for me to race.

Josh and his roomate made it to the podium.

 

Why do you think this has gone so well?

I don’t know! I guess I can learn off people. I don’t consider myself a fast learner, but when I do work stuff out, I guess I work them out pretty good.

Did you struggle to learn the three-hour race.

Yeah back home we just did sprints and that, compared to that the three hours is pretty hard. This past weekend is probably the fastest one I’ve done, which surprised me. To adjust from a sprint format to a cross-country format was hard. It’s hard for everyone, I think, even riders from Europe.

You told me in Ohio that you would go crazy if you made the podium. So what kind of celebration did we get here?

I didn’t really do much., sorry. I don’t know, it’s sort of sunk in a little bit. It was exciting, but I didn’t celebrate anyway. There’s no one to celebrate with, Jimmy is up at the (Moose ride) in the UP (Michigan Upper Penninsula). I phoned my mom and dad and they were happy, it was a bit emotional I guess, because they have put so much time and money into my racing. To call him and tell him I got a podium, I think he was pretty happy.

Well this probably means you won’t be returning home any time soon.

Well in the first place, mom and dad were kind of worried because I had never been out of the house, let alone in a different country! If things weren’t going right, like that first ride in Florida which didn’t go well, I thought maybe the team would just send me straight home. But I started doing better after that, so now it does look like I will be staying.

What’s the goal now?

For the rest of the three rounds I just want to get in the top five again just to prove this wasn’t a fluke. Some guys get a sporadic podium and that’s it, so I want to prove this is no fluke. As for next year, I’m pretty sure I’ll be back here with Jimmy and Barb. We’ll move here after Loretta’s because it’s too cold to ride here before that. In January I think I’ll go to Rodney’s house in California to test and train.

So you went from never living out of your parents’ house to living in three different states in the US, and you’re handling it all okay.

Yeah. It’s surprising. I think everyone is so helpful, and that’s the biggest difference. Glenn is the biggest help out of everyone. I basically started the year before trying to get my Visa and I spent all of my money, so when I came over here I had nothing. He helped me get going. Now I got a good bit saved up, next year I can buy a van so I can have my own transportation.

You don’t even have your own wheels?

No I don’t! That’s a good thing, the people I’ve been living with, they do the same things I do and they help me out quite a bit.

Well you better mow that grass and earn your keep.

Yeah man thanks.