With an opportunity to race another U.S. Grand Prix more than a

With an opportunity to race another U.S.
Grand Prix more than a decade after the last
one held on American soil, Ryan Hughes
came out of retirement for one last race
BY ERIC JOHNSON / PHOTOS BY SIMON CUDBY
R
yan Hughes was never one to pass up a good
opportunity. That’s how he found himself sitting
on the bumper of an FMF box van in the rather
empty pits of Glen Helen Raceway on the last
Saturday of May. A full five years after he last made a
serious effort at racing professional motocross in America,
and a full decade after his last Grand Prix effort, Hughes
had signed up as a wild card to race in the new U.S. Grand
Prix, which was making its return to the States after eleven
years. When I ran into the veteran there in the pits, I threw
out the question that had to be asked: How in the hell did
he find his way into the 2010 U.S. Grand Prix?
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Hughes would return to the U.S. in 2001 to help Honda develop its new CRF450R four-banger. He then moved over to KTM
and then narrowly lost the 2003 125cc National Championship
to teammate Grant Langston. Finally, in 2007, after racing everything from WORCS, EnduroCross, and GNCC to one-off motocross races, Hughes retired from the sport and began a new
career coaching and training young riders.
Just when it seemed like the end of his racing story, though,
Hughes read a press release from Youthstream, commercial rightsholder of the FIM Grand Prix Motocross tour, that the U.S. round
would be returning—only this time to Glen Helen, which had reached
an impasse with MX Sports, organizers of the Lucas Oil AMA Motocross Championship (and a sister company of Filter Publications). Glen Helen was a Grand Prix stop in the early nineties, but
slim crowds and a general lack of interest from U.S.-based riders led
the track management to start hosting an AMA Motocross national.
When that went south, they went back to the Grand Prix event, which
Youthstream has been desperate to bring to America since the company lost its bid to take over the AMA Motocross Championship.
Caught off guard by the news—Glen Helen had canceled its
national and announced a Grand Prix in a matter of days in late
March—American motocrossers didn’t really jump at the chance
to spend Memorial Day weekend racing against Europe’s best
riders. After all, it was in between the first two rounds of the AMA
Motocross tour, it wasn’t being televised in America, and there
was no prize money to speak of. Other than KTM rider Mike Alessi and Troy Lee Designs Honda pilot Ben Townley (both of whom
sat out the 2010 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series with
COX
efore we get to Ryno’s answer, let’s roll the
lap counters back a few years to September
12, 1999. That’s when the remnants of a paltry crowd of maybe 2,000 cheered as Hughes
took his place on the podium of the last USGP.
The only American competing on the Grand
Prix circuit at the time, Ryno had just placed third in the 1999
FIM United States Grand Prix of Motocross at Budds Creek MX
Park. It was the final round of the ’99 FIM 250cc World Championship, and the globetrotting Californian had put a nice touch
on his rookie Grand Prix season, in which he had claimed a solid
fourth in the final points.
Hughes was pleased. Having been let go after a nine-year
run with Team Kawasaki at the conclusion of the ‘98 AMA Motocross Championship, he was a man without a ride; none of the
factory semis had room for the perennial top-five finisher in both
supercross and motocross (including the heartbreaking loss of
the 1995 125cc National Championship to Steve Lamson in the
final moto of the season). So Hughes hooked up with Swiss businessman Paul Kasper, owner of the upstart Pamo Honda team,
and signed a deal to try to become the first American to win the
250cc Grand Prix tour since the late Donny Schmit in 1992.
Ryno had a respectable first year in Europe, but injuries, broken promises, and a meltdown within the team sabotaged his
2000 season. The lone highlight that year came at the Motocross
des Nations at St. Jean d’Angely, France, where Hughes passed
England’s James Dobb in the last corner of the opening moto and
helped lead Team USA to victory.
(Main) Ryan Hughes jumps down
into Glen Helen as a competitor in
the 2010 U.S. Grand Prix, his first
major motocross race in several
years. (Insets) Hughes teamed
with current GP racer Jimmy
Albertson under the Honda tent,
but Albertson was scratched due
to an injury the week before his
homecoming race; that’s Stefan
Everts chatting with Mike Alessi
under the KTM tent before Alessi
took on current MX1 series leader
Tony Cairoli (222).
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Hughes (105) and Alessi
were the best-known
American riders in
the race, which had a
strange mix of international moto flavor and local SoCal vibe. The event
did not have much of a
spectator turnout, but
those who came seemed
to enjoy the U.S.-versusThem vibe that permeated both the track and
the infield.
injuries), no elite AMA-based riders were set to compete.
That’s when 37-year-old Ryan Hughes received a phone call
offering him a place on the starting gate for the USGP.
“Warren Johnson from Fox [one of the event’s sponsors]
called and said, ‘Hey, Ryno, would you be interested in doing the
GP at Glen Helen?’” Hughes explained. “I thought about it and
was like, ‘You know what? What the hell? Yeah, let’s do it! It’s in
Glen Helen. It’s in my backyard. Let’s do it!’
“I grew up watching the old U.S. Grand Prix on Wide World
of Sports from Carlsbad, which was close to my house,” Hughes
recalled. “I went to go see one back in 1988 at Unadilla and was
like, ‘Man, this would be so cool to be able to race.’ I raced a
couple of support class ones here at Glen Helen [in 1990] and at
Unadilla, then I got on the podium of the real GP at Budds Creek
back in ’99. So it’s been eleven years, and I think I’m the only one
that raced that race who’s racing this race.
“I want to support it,” continued Hughes, who last raced the
nationals as a privateer in 2005. “With the way America is right
now, people aren’t supporting it and have just kind of lost the flavor for the GPs and the heritage. I’m just supporting motocross. I
mean, I have my own track, and I’m helping Pala Raceway design
their new AMA Motocross National track, and I’m trying to support this thing too, because our sport needs it.”
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When it was first announced that
Hughes was coming out of retirement for the USGP, he made sure
everyone knew it was “just for fun.” I
asked Hughes—always the consummate racer—if that was really true.
“Of course you always want
to do good and see what you can
do, but yes, this is just for fun,” he
replied. “I’m in retirement. Whether
this race happened or not, I’d still
do the same thing I normally do; Monday morning, I’ll be back
doing what I normally do. And leading up to this race, I did nothing different than what I normally do, and that’s to train a bunch
of motocross riders, train [rally car racer] Ken Block, and do my
work I do with my companies [including Ryno Organics]. I had a
lot of obligations I had to uphold before this thing happened, so it
wasn’t like I shut the door and completely focused on this. So this
is for fun, and that’s what’s in my mind, but I believe I still have the
speed and the fitness to be able to do something.
“I believe I can put a good result in,” he added. “I think that if
I ride like I know how to ride, I’m going to surprise some people.
If I ride like an idiot, then I won’t surprise anybody!”
W
hile Hughes and I spoke, his longtime friend and mechanic
Jonathan Lower wrenched away at Ryno’s Honda. A former Grand Prix mechanic, the ever-friendly Lower was thrilled to
have the band back together.
“I’m still real good friends with Ryno, and I got a telephone
call and he mentioned he was racing this, so I kind of pricked my
ears up,” Lower explained. “Then he said, ‘Guess what number
I’m running.” So he told me he was running #105—my favorite
number, because we almost won the title with that in 2003—and
said, ‘Can you do it?’ I said, ‘Of course. I’ll be there.’
(Inset) Marvin Musquin gave
American fans a preview of
what’s to come in 2011, as
the AMA-bound MX2 world
champ swept both motos
with ease. In the MX1 class,
Ben Townley might have
swept both motos if not for
this tangle with Mike Alessi
in the first moto that led to a
DNF. (Main) Glen Helen was
faster than ever, though not
its usual rough, nasty self.
“As just a little insight, as a little good luck charm, inside the
grip we put a little one-cent penny, and I had to hunt last night
to find a one-cent piece from 2003,” added the mechanic, also
known in the pits as “Hoodie.” “We’re just trying to get as much
love as possible there.”
Asked if his guy was in shape and ready to go, Lower laughed,
“It’s Ryan Hughes—he’s always in shape! That’s why I enjoyed
working for him for so long. As a mechanic—and this goes for any
mechanic—when you put in hard hours or late nights and your guys
comes off the track and goes, ‘Oh, I’m tired!’ and you’re like, ‘Really,
dude?’ At least with Ryno, that’s something you can be guaranteed
that he’s not going to do, and that’s why I enjoyed working for him.”
And of Hughes’ speed and prowess on the bike in 2010? “He
looks very happy on the bike,” Lower said. “The key thing with
Ryno is to keep him happy. If he’s happy, wonderful things can
happen. On the flip side, realistically, these Euros aren’t slow and
Ryan hasn’t really competitively raced for quite some years. Hopefully, the crowd will get behind him. He’s old compared to Tony Cairoli and those boys, but fingers crossed. Hey, magic can happen.”
O
n Saturday afternoon, as I wandered the pits, I truly did feel
like I was in Europe. While most teams worked out of semis
they’d either rented or borrowed from AMA teams, the Grand Prix
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ond American to race winner Mike Alessi. Hughes was surprisingly
competitive not only with Townley but Tony Cairoli as well.
“I was a little nervous because I haven’t raced at that intensity
in a long, long time,” Hughes admitted. “I started feeling better
towards the end of the race—I started getting a little stronger.
I think I have a little more confidence going into the first moto
tomorrow with seventh gate pick instead of twentieth. I’m happy,
but I think there’s more in me and I can do better. Maybe the top
three guys are a little tough, but I think I have the speed and fitness for a top-five. As the day goes, I think I’ll get better.”
these guys going for championships, you’re like, ‘Whoa! Hold on!’
“I had an okay start,” he continued. “I’m just not used to that
intensity in that first bit, and I started to ride a little tight. Then I
crashed. I probably would have done better, but that dropped me
back a while. I just tried to get into a groove, and I couldn’t. The
bike wasn’t really handling the way I wanted it to, but what do you
expect?” When asked if a better start would help in the second
moto, Hughes shook his head. Reality had set it. “I don’t think I
have the speed for those top guys—at least not anymore. So I’m
not going to fool myself or fool anybody else.”
O
T
n Sunday afternoon at 1:00, Hughes quietly sat on his bike
in the parc ferme at Glen Helen. The place wasn’t exactly
crowded, as a lack of top AMA talent and high ticket prices ($70
for the weekend, plus $30 for a pit pass) made for a light turnout.
With the first MX1 moto less than five minutes away, I asked
Hughes if he was nervous. “Yeah, I haven’t raced at this level in
five years, so there are some nerves,” he admitted. “But I think
anybody out here has some nerves. That’s part of competition.”
Three minutes later, it was on. Hughes got a decent jump out of
the gate, roaring around the big “Talladega” first turn, and set out to
complete his mission. He ran in the top twenty for the entire race, with
Lower signaling him to “breathe” each time he flew by the mechanics’ area. Hughes kept chipping away at it, flashing across the finish
line in seventeenth, on the same lap as the moto winner Cairoli.
“Motocross is never easy,” Hughes sighed as he sat back in the
pits. “When you go ride all by yourself for years and then race with all
mechanics, riders, and industry members all spoke in different
languages. I had a tough time recognizing anyone. One face I did
know, though, was Stefan Everts’. Everts now holds the position
of KTM’s “Race Director MX Factory Team” (that’s what his business card reads, anyway).
I asked the greatest GP rider of all time what he thought about
Hughes’ one-off comeback. “Shouldn’t Ryan ride with the Vets
here?” laughed Everts. “I don’t know.... It’s funny in a way. It’s
good to see him back. Ryan kind of disappeared for some time,
but here he is now. I don’t think he’s coming here to expect to win
or go for podium. For him, it’s a fun thing to do, and it’s a good
opportunity to do a fun race.”
As Everts and I spoke, James Dobb, another former world champ
on hand for the race, wandered over. His thoughts on the Hughes’
out of retirement party? “I think it’s cool, you know what I mean?”
said the Englishman Hughes defeated at the MXoN in France a de-
cade ago. “I had a harder life than him. He’s had an easy life, so
nowadays he just cruises around, while some of us have to work
for a living. We don’t get these opportunities!” Dobb was obviously
having fun now that one of his peers was back out there racing.
J
ust short of 3 p.m., the MX1 class took to the wind-whipped
Glen Helen circuit for pre-qualifying practice after several delays. Hughes rode relatively well and was slotted in at twentieth
on the scoring and timing monitors with a lap time of 2:16.
“I feel good,” he reported in the mechanics’ area afterward.
“My arms are just a little tight because I’m trying too hard because it’s just one lap. For me, I’m kind of like a diesel—I have to
get myself going.”
Just before 5:00, the thirty-seven-man MX1 class exploded
out of the gate to begin the ten-lap qualifying race. Firmly holding
station in the top ten, Hughes crossed the finish line seventh, sec-
THE RACE OF THE CENTURY?
P
Cairoli by the end of the first lap, and then he just set sail.
ress releases claimed that the 2010 Glen Helen Grand Prix
Within a couple of laps, he had a full straightaway on secwould be the “Race of the Century,” and in all honesty,
ond place, and he just continued to pull away, taking the
that wasn’t far off—although maybe not in the spirit that the
victory over second-place finisher Clement Desalle.
PR intended. In front of maybe 3,000 fans (later somehow
Townley could have been looking at a 1-1 performance,
multiplied to 16,000 fans), the first USGP since Budds Creek in
if Alessi hadn’t taken him down early in moto one after
1999 (also mostly devoid of spectators) was practically a KTM
Townley passed the Californian. The crash
commercial, as AMA-bound Marvin
damaged Townley’s front brake, which led
Musquin absolutely destroyed the MX2
to further crashes and Townley’s eventual
class. The first MX1 moto was a battle
withdrawal from the moto.
between KTM’s Mike Alessi and Antonio
It seems the racers enjoyed themCairoli, both riding the new 350 SX-F.
selves at Glen Helen, as did the media,
Cairoli won despite losing his shifter
even if the fans didn’t turn out in force.
near the halfway point—luckily, he lost it
Perhaps Townley said it best: “I’m a big
while in third gear.
Despite Alessi’s second-moto holefan of GPs, and I’m disappointed with the
shot and runaway the previous weekend
crowd turnout, but I don’t know if that’s
at the Hangtown MX opener, Mike never
going to be any better wherever you go in
managed a holeshot at Glen Helen.
America. This is the ultimate motocross
Cairoli beat him to the first turn in moto
location. It’s hard when you don’t have
one; Cairoli, KTM teammate Max Nagl,
those [big-name riders]—the people don’t
and TLD/Lucas Oil Honda’s Ben Townley
really know the GP riders here. So it’s
beat him there in the second.
hard. In some ways, I’d like to see it hap In perhaps the feel-good story of
pen, but at the same time, if it’s not going
Ben Townley had a strong showthe weekend, the second moto was
to be a bigger show than this, it’s hard to
ing at the USGP, despite tangling
all Townley. He got around Nagl and
justify seeing it happen, really.”
with Alessi in moto 1.
COX
Though he rode well in
his Saturday qualifier for
seventh, Hughes found
the going a little tougher
once the GP started—
crashes like this one
(inset) on a downhill left
him watching the end of
the second moto from
the VIP suites. Ryno rode
with heart and pride at
Glen Helen, probably for
the last time.
he second moto of the 2010 U.S. Grand Prix lasted only three
laps for Ryan Hughes. When his number dropped down the
scoring monitors ten minutes into the race, everyone around me
wondered aloud what had happened. Minutes later, we had our answer: Hughes came walking into the Youthstream VIP Suite with a
huge hole torn out of the front of his jersey. “The air conditioning
feels good,” he laughed, pointing to the gnarly scrape on his chest.
“In a timing section, I jumped into a kicker and my hand came
off,” Hughes explained. “The back brake broke. I went over the
bars and just started tumbling. The thing is, I felt better in the
second moto. I felt good and my lines were nice and clean. It is
what it is. That’s why we’re retired.”
With that, Ryno walked to the railing and watched while Ben
Townley pulled away with the lead. Hughes was scratched up a
little, but he was also smiling, thankful for this rare opportunity to
relive his glory days one last time. X
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