Josh Grant Interview

Josh Grant had a terrible year in 2011 due to injury, but he is getting a real chance to put things back together in 2012 with Jeff Ward Racing.

Josh Grant

Josh Grant is preparing for 2012 with a freshly healing left knee and on a brand-new motorcycle. (Photo: CoxMX.com)

Josh Grant got a chance of a lifetime in 2011 after signing a deal with Team Honda to be Trey Canard’s teammate. Grant spent a lot of his amateur career racing Hondas, and raced the first chunk of years as a pro racing for the GEICO Honda team, and it was always his dream to race for Team Honda. However, injuries didn’t let him do much. He was hurt at the second SX round in Phoenix and, although he attempted to come back during the Nationals, was hurt the rest of the year and did almost no racing. However, he’s one of very few proven winners in the 450 class, having won Anaheim 1 for JGR in his rookie 450cc season. He has also won outdoors on a 450, winning a moto in Colorado in 2010, and has quite a number of 250 wins indoors and out as well. Knowing this, Jeff Ward Racing – the team formed this year with a union between Jeff Ward and Mike Kranyak, formerly of L&M Racing – signed up Grant to race Kawasakis in 2012. We caught up with Grant out at Milestone in his fourth-ever ride on his new mount.

Josh Grant

Josh Grant raced a few Nationals this summer, but eventually figured out he needed to really get his knee fixed and dropped out of the series. (Photo: CoxMX.com)

Motocross.com: I know it’s tough; you get a shot with Team Honda and then you’re basically hurt all season. How was that on you mentally and emotionally to have to go through all that stuff with the shot at Team Honda like that?
Josh Grant: Yeah, but it got overshadowed by a lot of other problems that I had to deal with off the track. So, it really wasn’t too big of a deal for me. I know that sounds bad, but I just had to deal with the situation and kind of do what I had to do. Unfortunately, it sucks to be hurt and not be able to race for a team that you’ve grown up and wanted to race on your whole life. But what can I say? That’s really all there is to it.

With a racer’s schedule nowadays, it seems like the only time you get off is when you’re hurt…
It seems like it! They keep adding more and more races. But it’s fun. I don’t really know what to say to that. It’s a long season and then you go straight into Outdoors. Once Outdoors is done, you get a couple months before you’re back at Supercross again, and you spend most of that testing. You don’t ever feel like you get that recovery that an athlete needs. Everyone needs some off time. I don’t think in this sport there is any off time. You’re always trying to build and be stronger and get better. It’s hard when you’ve got to race every single weekend and keep going and going and going…

Talk about how this deal with Jeff Ward Racing came together for you…
Well, Mike Kranyak actually is the owner that was at L&M, and he was really considering folding the team and not going racing. I talked to him because my dad has been really good friends with him for a long time. His passion for the sport has just made this thing come together. He ended up getting together with Jeff Ward and they started talking. They said, “Hey, let’s figure something out and get a team going.” Mike has helped me out a lot through my career, even as an amateur, and he said that he wanted me to come race for him. I was stoked to say yeah. That was a good deal for me.

Josh Grant

Josh Grant is already comfortable on his Kawasaki. (Photo: CoxMX.com)

What did you think of the Kawasaki when you first got on it? I mean, you hadn’t ridden any kind of bike in quite a while when you first got on the Kawi, but what did you think?
It was a little bit different when I first got on it, but it’s a stock bike, and it still is right now just because we haven’t figured out the sponsors and what we’re going to do to make it better; but the stock bike shocked me. I was really surprised with how it handled and where the power was. I was like, “Wow, this bike is legit.” Last time I had ridden a Kawasaki I was on an 85, so I had no idea what it was going to be like. But I was excited. It’s a really good bike and I’m feeling pretty comfortable on it already. It’s good.

Are you guys going to wait to sort all the stuff out for sponsors and whatever before you start hitting Supercross hard?
Yeah. We’ll get there. For me, right now it has only been really my fourth time riding the bike. I’m still kind of early on my knee injury. I’m just kind of slowly getting into it. I’ll probably start riding Supercross a couple weeks before Anaheim. It may seem late, but…

Josh Grant

Josh Grant really is a natural supercross racer. He's a jumper, and has great style. (Photo: CoxMX.com)

You’re kind of a natural at supercross anyway…
Well, hopefully! We’ll see. Yeah, I always feel like I forget how I’m going to ride or whatever but you get back out there and it starts clicking off and it makes it easier.

That happens to you, too?! Because that happens to me…
I think it happens to everybody…

I’m like, “I hope I remember how to ride,” and then a lap in I’m like, “Yeah, I’m fine…”
That’s all it takes. You sit on the couch for five months…

But it never goes away, though. You don’t feel better about it. Every time I haven’t ridden in a while, I always wonder if I’ve forgotten how, and I never have had any trouble…
You’re sitting on the couch like, “Do I know how to ride? Am I going to go out there and be a goon?” You just don’t know. Then, you go out and do the first lap and then you’re like, “Okay, I think I know how to do this.”

I feel better that it happens to you, though, because obviously I’m no Josh Grant. I always just thought it was because I’m old and don’t ride that much anymore.
That probably has something to do with it, though…

Josh Grant

Josh Grant is a great outdoor rider, too, though. He has won quite a bit outdoors. (Photo: CoxMX.com)

Do you feel like, with how the last season went, in some ways you have anything to prove or how do you look at it?
I think you’re always going to have to prove yourself in this sport. It is what it is but I’m going to focus on what I need to, and that’s just getting back out there racing and having fun. Shoot, I missed 2010 Supercross due to a shoulder injury. I’ve just battled all these injuries so I’m just ready to kind of back it down and get the flow of things again, get back in the groove and then build from there. I’m not going to go out there and try to kill myself to win A1 or anything like that. I’ve always felt like I needed to do that and I have a different approach this year. It’s more just go out and have fun, ride, try to get some good results and some top tens, and once I get going through the season then start working on clicking up from there.

You already won A1, so it’s probably not that big of a deal to you…
No, it’s still a big deal…

Josh Grant

Josh Grant throwing a fat whip on his new bike. Yes, he still remembers how to ride... (Photo: CoxMX.com)

Related Posts:

Add a Comment

By submitting a comment you grant Motocross.com a perpetual license to reproduce your words, name and web site in attribution.
Comments may be removed at an administrators discretion. Your email is used for verification purposes only and will never be shared.

Fantasy Corner