By Steve Matthes

Jason Thomas has been an under appreciated rider for many years. While a lot of teams are scouring strange lands for new riders, JT goes out, year after year, and beats many of these new guys. He is like a modern day Jim Holley, going where the start money is. JT has literally been all over the world racing and even spent a year in the great white north for the mighty Blackfoot Honda team. This year sees him riding for DNA Energy Drink / BTOSports / Butler Brothers Mx Racing.  He is also one of the good guys in the pits.

RXC: Jason, how’s the new team?
Jason Thomas: It’s good; I am pumped to be here. They work really hard and I am also familiar with the Hondas. I was a little sketched out at the end of last year not knowing where I was going to ride, but it worked out well. It is a better deal than last year for me.

I kind of have this theory that the tension around your old team didn’t help you, and now you will do better being more relaxed.
I don’t know if the problems last year really affected me, I do know for sure that I am having more fun this year. Even a few races in, I can see that these guys want to do well, but at the same time we are laughing at the races.

And of course the FMF exhaust is working incredible…
I am really excited about that; it was one of the things I wanted in a new team. The ability to have more say in how I set up my bike, what the team runs. We have made a lot of changes for the better

You are now riding with Canadian amateur sensation Doug Dehaan, who you know from the many overseas races. What’s that like?
He’s great; we get along well. I was teammates with him at Blackfoot in 2000, that was the first time I hung with him really. And in Europe, we would share hotel rooms, there’s not too much to do at those races but hang out.

What was it like for you doing the Canadian series that year?
I missed Nanaimo which hurt me championship-wise. We were in negotiations around then, but then Blair Morgan got hurt and they had some extra money. They upped my offer a bit and that swayed me. I started after Nanaimo. I got second at the first two races but then at Grunthal, I hurt my wrist crashing on this double and missed a few motos.

That’s my home track, and I know the double you crashed on. Just to let you know, I can clear that easily. What happened?
Yeah, you’ve told me that many times … there were kids on Cobras that were clearing it also! Somehow I made myself look silly there and then did an interview on TV with my shirt off covered in dirt! [Laughs]

What did you think of the Canadian MX scene in general?
I loved it; it was so much more laid back than the U.S. series. There were a few drawbacks; I remember having a lot of amateur races on the day of the pro national, which really hurt the track. They didn’t have enough time to prep it right. Some of the lines weren’t beneficial to the pro guys. But the atmosphere was so much better—at least at the time I was there. Everybody was just hanging out. When it was time to race, people got serious but after that everybody was so cool. Blackfoot treated me awesome also. I have almost gone back up there a few times and we have talked seriously about doing it again. I have nothing but good things to say about them.

At Blackfoot, your riding coach was none other than the legendary Ross Pederson. Tell us about that.
Well it really didn’t last too long, only a couple of weeks. He threatened to beat up the team owner! [Laughs] That was like the third weekend he was on the team, so it ended quickly after that.

But in that short time were you able to get any nuggets of wisdom?
He did have my back one time. I was riding Blair’s bike and wanted to make a jetting change. His mechanic at the time didn’t want to do it because that wasn’t the way Blair liked the bike. Rollerball went to bat for me and got the change done. I remember that he had a lot knowledge, though. We had some issues with him showing up fifteen minutes before practice, looking like he had been on an all night bender! Despite all that, he helped me and he knew a lot about racing.

What was your favorite track?
I liked Calgary a lot but it rained before the second moto. Walton was really good. There were some tracks out in Quebec, like La Toque, that were out in the middle of nowhere. It was something that I had never experienced before, huge waterfalls, really really different. They all rode around on four wheelers—it was like they ran the town, these guys on the quads. Grunthal was probably the worst track I encountered, plus the mosquitoes were so big.

Do you think that all of the globetrotting you do hurts you when it comes to being fresh for the U.S. series?
You know, I think it has its pros and cons. It helps because I have a lot of momentum coming into the season; I have been racing at a high level already. It hurts because I don’t get to rest, that is also important for us. Guys like Red Dog get to pound out 20 lappers after 20 lappers and get better. I am on a plane so much and losing days that I miss out. I have a lot of downtime but I have to do it while I can. It’s a great opportunity for me to make some money. I make 50 percent of my money over in Europe, it’s too good to quit. If I made a good salary, I would still go over there but just one or two like Nick [Wey] does.

How many air miles do you have?
I am not sure, a ton. I won’t have a chance to use them because that’s the last thing I want to do in my spare time—get one a plane! I did twelve races in between Glen Helen and Anaheim. It was a lot this year.

We all know that Europe can be a strange place, what was the weirdest thing you have ever seen or done over there?
I have seen your buddy Thomas Kniep over there many times [Matthes note: this was the wack job that I worked for in Germany for a few months.] I talk to him all the time!

Can you punch him in the gut for me? Anyways, back to the question...
There are so many things that you just go, ‘Wow I can’t believe they do that.’ It is different for sure. The best time I had was probably when you, Nick and myself drove from Germany to Paris and we had that Mercedes bubble car and also had the “wheelman” championships! There was also some stuff that happened this past year that I wrote about for a story in Racer X that involves some American riders that are here. It was the craziest night I have ever been involved in for sure.

Thanks Jason and best of luck with the rest of the Supercross series.
Thanks.