Jonathan McCready talks to Stefan Everts about working with Pauls Jonass, the latest on Liam Everts, his thoughts on Jett Lawrence and his battles with Greg Albertyn in the 90s.
Stefan Everts, we’re here at Hawkstone Park where you’re helping Paul’s Jonass, three solid motos today and very good in the super final there. What are your thoughts on first of all today coming back after injury on a new bike?
More or less that he’s been out of racing with this serious injury, but it’s all looking good and for me first impression was good, especially the third motor. I think the first and second motos he still struggled a bit, but I mean it’s seven months ago (since he last raced), so it’s not too easy, you know, to be back racing and it’s a good first impression.
When you’re coaching somebody like Paul, obviously he’s an elite rider and won a world title, what are you looking for when you’re watching him ride and what sort of advice do you give him? Is it mental or trailing or like lines or stuff like that about the men?
I think every rider is different. Every rider you have to work on a different point. Work on the weak points and make them better on stronger.
I think for Pauls, he’s been an elite rider since a young age. He’s been always pushing his limits way too far and that’s something that we are trying to calm him down and how he’s getting a bit on the edge with a lot of experience of GP racing. Also a lot of injuries yet and he’s slowly calming down, but it takes a few years to change some systems and it’s not so easy, but no, he’s very motivated to improve and now it’s like I said, every rider needs different advice and to try to get him at his best every race and that’s not too easy.
And he must listen a lot to you because obviously you’re back again this year with him and you got him to be back to GP winner last year, so is he good to work with? Do you enjoy working with him?
Yeah, Pauls is a very respectful guy and we went back in the days when he was racing for KTM on the MX2 when I helped out the first year. So a long time ago and since a few years now he asked me back and we had a very difficult period with a lot of injuries and we started a lot and we had to go for quite some time to get him back on track.
Last year he was really racing well and going top 5, something that he was aiming for and then finally he had his first GP win in the MXGP which was awesome together with Liam in Portugal, so it was the highlight of the year and then unfortunately he had that big crash.
But it’s all behind us now and he’s got this new opportunity with the team Kawasaki and it’s for him a very good one and I’m happy for him to take him to have this chance and try to live himself before he looks and for the future to his retirement.
And just on Liam, how is the injury? Is it fully healed and do you know when he’ll be back on the bike for intensive testing or even racing?
He’s been on the bike since a few weeks now, but he’s been riding very easy like turn track and no G-force impact, but last Friday he had another check-up with the boater and it’s very positive news that he can now continue the build-up from his riding and now he can have more G-forces and go ride at the bigger tracks.
And that’s good, so now he texts me just now and he said it was a very good first day and we’ll see if he brings Argentina’s luxury to ride. It all depends how the next week will go and how the reaction will be when he’s on his leg, but the fully healing is something that will take at least a year or no, but at the moment the doctor said it’s strong enough and it’s really easy. It made a really big progress from the last check-up they’ve done.
You had bad injuries, I think you had your spleen in 1992, it was pretty serious, but how scary was that for you when Liam’s crash? Because initially it just looked like a crash and the next thing, the next lap he was still down, so it must have been almost a worst nightmare for you.
Yeah, it was a nightmare and in the first moment it didn’t look really bad, but then he couldn’t move and it looked to be very very serious and it’s been a very tough hard month for everybody, especially for him because he’s a very good rider and he doesn’t really take a lot of risk He knows what he’s doing and most of the injuries he has in the past will never be his fault, he also knows he’s not his fault and we know the danger of his fault and things like that, but so it’s been a tough one for him.
Was there any thoughts to not race anymore or did that come into your head or his head or was it always just as long as the neck and he’ll come back?
The thoughts have been there, especially in the first months, you know, you don’t know how and what and how it will turn out and like I said, it’s been a few difficult months knowing where to go and still now we have to wait and see how good you will do finally when it’s racing.
What happened in China was a bit of a trauma for him, you know, he got into that experience, it was rough and easy, but he’s, I think, dealing with it really well. There are some good people around him, who are concerned with those parts mentally, so let’s hope for the best.
Moving to Husqvarna, is he happy with the team and everything, a new number, new gear, so that’s all a fresh thing for his mind as well?
Yeah, I mean, it’s always nice to have a fresh start and now with the injury, it’s a double fresh start, let’s say. He’s happy so far, you know, I mean, they’ve just been working some months together now and now it’s starting to be more intense because he’s starting to ride and stuff. But really, it seems to me, he’s very happy with the attention he’s getting from the team and the new people he’s working with.
And no number 72, did he talk to you about that, just to have his own identity, I guess?
Yeah, he talked to me about it and I told him straight away, I said, if you want to change your number one day, you have to do it now. There’s a new team and after injury, maybe it’s a complete fresh start for him. I can understand that he wants to be out of my shadow and make his own career and that’s why also, I’m taking a look at it and let him do his thing with the team around him.
And yeah, it’s like this normal way of life, so one day you have to let your children go and I’m in this situation, I was in the same situation many years ago.
Is it weird for you, being on the other side now, do you see what you’re doing?
Yeah, I was doing it the same way and I pushed my dad away at one point. But I think Liam has been doing it in a much more proper way, like I’ve been doing it in the past and he’s very gentle on that side.
And yeah, I’ve been through a lot less now, I’ll be on his side as a dad, as good as possible, which is of course a big thanks for me.
Moving on to Supercross and Jet Lawrence, one dab of the foot has changed the season and hopefully not his career, hopefully he can come back from this. But Eli, also one dab of the foot with his Achilles, Jeffrey at the end of last season, you’ve had knee injuries yourself. So can you relate to what Jet’s going to go through, both mentally and physically, trying to recover from this?
I mean knee injury is also something really serious and will take a lot of months, you know, it’s over four to six months eventually as well. So long process of recovery, you know, it will be fine eventually, you know. But you could see with all the trouble they have with the management around them, you could see that the focus was not 100% like it should be.
And it’s not ideal, you know, as a racer, you cannot have anything on your mind. When you’re out there behind the start gate, the focus needs to be so high. I also went to a sub-situation and my focus was up there and the injuries had come really quick, but they are not really fast at all.
But I’m confident that Jett can come back strong and he will come back in the future. It’s something that every motocross rider goes through injuries as part of racing.
Your knee injury in 1999 was really bad, you were probably in your prime form of your career. At the end of the year you came back and won almost the USGP, but you won the first moto, won the Nations against Windham and Tortelli. So it was a different injury, but you came back on top of the world again, but how hard was it to get back to that level?
In a way it’s hard because you’re out for a while and you need to get back your confidence and back your feeling. It’s a hard part, but it comes, you have to give it time and be patient.
And if you’re not a racer then you have to get another injury, but I reckon it will be fine. What are your thoughts on the Supercross season so far?
For the first three rounds it looked unbelievable, then Jorge got hurt, Jett got hurt, Tomac got injured, Hunter now hurt, Kenny had that big crash last night. I mean Supercross is always exciting to watch, but now it’s been a lot of guys who got injured in just one or two rounds.
Which is of course not the best for the championship, but yeah it looks like it’s going to be a sexton and web fighting championship. I hope that Kenny can come back and recover from the loss, but I mean it’s not a dramatic situation for Kenny at the moment. It’s still possible, we still have a long season, but like I said it’s always fun to watch Supercross.
I was talking to Jason Weigandt over at Anaheim and we were saying the way you ride, you were probably the most likely guy to succeed from GPs in the early 90s in Supercross. Tortelli and Albertyn were kind of wide open. Do you ever regret you didn’t go? I know you raced the five rounds there and you were top 10 speed with some of the legends at that time. When you watch it now do you ever wish you had done what Prado had done and made them before now?
No, I made my decision you know and I don’t regret it. I don’t regret it at all. I was happy, I’m still happy I’ve done those six rounds in the US and went through the experience of real Supercross and the big stadiums with the big crowds.
Which was amazing and I’m happy I had the chance back then to be able to go through that experience. At the end my career didn’t went how I wanted it to go and then I finally decided to stay in Europe and focus on the championships here. I think destiny decided that I had to go that way but I don’t regret it at all.
There was a semi-final, I don’t know which round it was, I think it was a semi-final or eight. I think it was you, Jeremy McGrath, Jeff Emig, potentially Bale or Stanton or maybe both. Stanton, Bradshaw, Mike Larocco, all these legends all with the crazy amount of titles. So you really were in a really nice era as well that you got to experience it over there. It must have been really worthwhile down for you because that memory is probably still there.
Sure it was. I raced a lot of legends, even Jeff Ward I was racing with. No, even Ricky Johnson. But that was more in the European Championship but when it was in the US it was more Bradshaw, Stanton and Baule were the main guys. Yeah, like I said, it was cool memories and nice to see it back then.
You went right back to James Stewart so you split so many great Americans you got to ride as well. It must have been pretty good for you.
I went through a lot of generations of racers. Which is cool, yeah.
I was watching the Greg Albertyn Gypsy Tales podcast and he said he had you beat mentally. Did he have you beat mentally or was it you with a bad start with the Suzuki? What’s your version of that era?
Wveryone has his version of course. I’m not going to deny that Greg was getting me upset and getting me fired up for some races.
But I had also my problems back then and looking back to it, I went through a very difficult period especially at the time when I wanted to leave Suzuki. Then I went to Kawasaki and I had my portion of that luck also. But yeah, Greg was a fantastic contender and he played his game and he played it well at the right moment.
Would you ever have had conversations with him at that time or were you both very separate and it was a real rivalry at that point?
No, it was very big rivalry. On the first day he came to Europe and he was coming into the supercrosses. Greg had some kind of attitude also with him and our car drivers didn’t have to do very well.
But it was of course fun for the fans and for the spectators to see that kind of racing. That’s what the people like to talk about things. I had also my moments with Ron Smith and with a lot of others like that.
Everyone wants to win. If you’re a winner, you go all in and that’s the fun part of racing.
So he said that to beat you he had to ride the edge but he felt you weren’t willing to ride the edge probably because your technique was so good. He didn’t have to. Did you feel that he was doing that and you were like I’m not prepared to go to that level? Ricky kind of said he’d done the same to McGrath?
But if we look back at 93, I struggled really with the starts and back then we had three moto’s, three 25 moto’s.
So the start was so super important and Greg was a super starter. He was on the Honda 250, tuned by Jan de Groot. When I moved to Kawasaki, I also took Jan de Groot.
He went to Sylvain then?
He went to Sylvain and then my start improved a lot. Like I said, I had my problems, everyone had his problems. He was just on top of his game and he had two great years.
If you see each other now, are you able to talk and reminisce about that time or is it still alright?
That’s the past. We can laugh about certain things and it’s better. We don’t go deep in the discussion and deep in the situation, but it’s what it is.
I’m happy how my career went eventually. Sometimes you need bad days or bad years to come out better and stronger.
Did you feel that helped you mentally eventually to get to a stronger point?
Yeah, definitely. Not only those years, but also losing from Tortelli. Ninety-four was for me one of the hardest ones. To lose from Greg in Germany was a really hard one for me.
And also to be back motivated for 95 was really, really tough. I remember you said it seemed to take you a few rounds to really get the jersey out. Yeah, a few rounds.
Regarding Jett, he has your technique, but it feels like a Ricky Carmichael mentality. He doesn’t struggle with confidence, he seems to adjust whatever the situation. Is that what you’re most impressed with what he does?
I wouldn’t say he has my technique. I think he has his own technique. He has his own technique and of course he has learned from other riders to improve his technique. He’s just a natural, high-level talent like Jorge Prado. Certain kids, they are extremely talented.
And Jett is one of those kids. They are very rare. But yeah, he has some things that I’ve been doing. Did he get it from me? Yes and no. That’s also not the most important thing. I’m really happy to see Jett doing so good and being such a great champion.
And also having him in the past with the Suzuki team together with Liam was still a nice time. Actually, the whole Lawrence family around was a really cool year. It was not long, but still some mechanics talk about it today about that period we had with the Suzuki team.
But I’m happy for them that they finally made it. I mean the family offered a lot and they deserve it more than anyone else.
On the way that, Jett and Jorge ride, obviously that’s the based on technique that you have. But Chase Sexton, I think sent you a message about it. He still watches the MXoN 2006 and he’s taking technique from what you do there. Is that nice to hear the modern rider and see the success they’re having? And they’re still giving you a nod to how you’re doing?
Sure, I’m happy to hear that I can be some kind of influence for young riders like Sexton and others. They can learn something from it and bring it in their own style and even improve their own technique and talents. That’s how I grew up watching so many different riders and I just took from everybody something and that made me know who I became.
Did you find it easy to learn stuff? Like a technique if you watch somebody or Johnny O’Mara or somebody? Were you just able to do it or did you have to work a long time to perfect it?
Most of the time it goes easy. I’ve been working with a lot of guys and even with poles when I tell them do this and that, they can do it easy. It’s the thing to do it during in the race. To do it on practice day, it’s easy to do it.
While racing, you’ve got to figure out new things on the track, new techniques. Because the track is changing a lot every lap, especially when it’s more sandy or more rutted or something. When you have to be smart during racing under the pressure and then bring the magic stuff. That’s a difficult one.
Is that what champions do best? I was asking Ricky Carmichael about this. You don’t really think the elite or did you think or did you just react to stuff on the track?
If you start to think then it doesn’t work.
So you just worked on a reaction?
It’s just instinct, just reading the track and just have a new formula of I approach this section like this. I do something different, something else, maybe it’s better, maybe it’s faster, maybe it’s slower. While riding then you have to be intelligent and read new things.
Thank you very much.
