Catching Up With Sean Hamblin

Catching Up With Sean Hamblin
By BrownDogWilson

What’s up Sean! First off, what happened at Yamaha? Was it a “wait around and let’s see what happens with Grant Langston” or did they tell you straight up that it wasn’t going to happen in 09?
First off I would really like to thank not only Yamaha for the opportunity but the others that helped. Grant Langston, Andy Stacy, John Franco and Brian Berry at Active 8 because without those guys mentioned I would never have been able to ride for Yamaha at all. With my deal at Yamaha I knew that they wanted to sign a 3rd guy again but didn't know which direction they were going to go. I felt I rode strong with their help but just had my unfortunate deal with my shoulder at Red Bud, it set me back but I still put my head down and rode through some pain and in the end I am glad with the decision I made. I showed a lot of people that I am a different person and am willing to do anything to go out and finish, it just was a bit of a let down now with me not having anything lined up but that's how it goes and everything happens for a reason.

There have been rumors of course of different teams you may sign with, but they are just rumors though, right?
At the moment that is all that they are. I am trying to get things moving with some opportunities that I have but feel that staying here in the U.S is what is best for me.

Anaheim is about 5 weeks away, what do you have planned for yourself?
I am just going to be in the best shape possible in case something comes up and if not I have an offer to go and do a few European races that can keep me busy and sharp, once that is over my head will be down and gearing up for Outdoors. We have a few guys doing SX only so I feel it’s right to have an Outdoor only guy out there racing.

I know you can get sponsored from head to toe with product and whatnot, but can a rider really make enough money to survive out there if they aren’t earning a salary and having everything taken from race to race for them?
Well it depends, with the support I had this year I would not have been able really to do it without Andy at TUF, although I did make quite a bit with the whole Privateer awards when I was on my own and also some of the contingencies out there it helped out a lot. Then of course I did have help from Jason Lawrence and Scott Sepkovic at Crown AMG. I know that those are bigger than just doing it on your own but some people probably had more than that.

It seems that teams are cutting back everywhere leaving so many riders without rides as in the past. Where do you see the sport as a whole right now?
Yeah some teams are cutting back but as a whole our sport is still growing no matter what, now with finances that is a different story. Budgets are smaller I think this year and things have been tightened up but you will still see quite a few Semi's come A1.

Where do see it ten years from now?
Hopefully more mainstream and on live every day that we are racing. I feel it does have a bit more interest than NASCAR but it lacks the drama within the racing because we get so spread out. I think we still need to start going more outside of our industry for things and take the heavy load off of the factories like NASCAR. The JGR Team has done just that and I feel that this is the direction it needs to go to grow and become bigger.

When it is finally time to hang up your boots, what do you see yourself doing?
I would like to stay in the industry helping kids who are coming up and maybe even doing a team manager job. Then again you never know and I could move to Canada and get a farm and learn the ropes off of my Father and Brother in-law.

Something that I applaud you for is that you are not afraid to post on a few of the moto-boards and mix it up with the “fans.” What made you decide to do that?
I started doing that I think in ‘04 maybe ‘05 and just kind of felt that the fans needed to have someone in my position give their opinion on some situations. Also I think that we are too inaccessible away from the track and that is the one thing that I can do to interact with them all of the time. I think I am a member on like 4 forums and feel that it is a good thing at times and can be bad but its all in the way that you deal with things.

Well I know every team manager out there is going to read this and your phone should be ringing off the hook with deals. Give us a call next week and let us know who you choose to go with!
Hahaha now wouldn't that be great!! Hopefully we will have some more to talk about soon and I will keep you guys updated with anything new that is happening.

That would be awesome! Thanks for taking the time to speak with us and good luck!

Cheers!