5 Minutes with ... Blair Morgan

April 25, 2005

By Danny Brault

Photo by Allison Kennedy.

The silly season is just wrapping up, and it appears that the rosters for the Canadian teams have been finalized for the most part. However, one key rider has been left on the sidelines—Blair Morgan. After a slow start to the national series last year, Morgan didn’t find his comfort zone until Deschambault, finishing third overall behind Jean-Sébastien Roy and Dusty Klatt. Although it wasn’t his best Canadian series campaign, it was good enough to earn him fifth overall and make him the top Canadian finisher behind JSR. Then, in the fall, Morgan led the Canadian trio of JSR, Klatt and himself to eighth place at the Motocross des Nations. Despite these efforts and his long list of previous accomplishments, it’s disheartening to hear that Morgan hasn’t signed a deal as of yet to race the Canadian nationals. The internet forums are flooding with questions regarding Morgan’s situation for 2005, so we decided to give the man a shout to find out what’s going on.

RXC: Hey Blair. How is the leg feeling?

Blair Morgan: Pretty good. I’ve been walking on it for two or three days now without crutches. It feels like I’ve been gaining a lot of ground in the last week or two. I’ve been doing physio and rehab on it for three weeks now. We couldn’t do too much at the beginning but now we’ve been doing more.

You hurt it back in February didn’t you?

Yeah, it kind of took a little longer than expected because it was a bigger break. It was just the tibia, it wasn’t broken sideways, but it went down the leg and [the break] was pretty big and long. Then with the rod in there it took a long time to heal. I never had a cast because of the rod, which was good because it allowed me to move my ankle around and keep some mobility.

The internet forums have been flooded with questions as to who you will be riding for this year. Have you signed a deal yet or are you talking to anyone?

Yeah, we’ve been talking to people. We’ve just been trying to make a decision on some things. Hopefully it will happen this week because I want to get going again. I should be riding in a week or two. My loyalties are to Yamaha—they have been good to us the last two years—but there’s also a Suzuki deal on the table.

A Suzuki deal with Ron Ashley?

Yeah, we’ve been talking.

So if you sign with Yamaha, will that be with the Yamaha Canada team?

No, it would be on my own team, that’s one of the drawbacks with Yamaha. Just the way that team is going to be run. From what I’ve heard, they’re going to be carrying little mini bikes—TTR’s and YZ-zingers to each race in a hauler. I’m just going to go on my own in the beginning; we’ll use my fun hauler and possibly a big motorhome. I’m actually teaming up with Robbie Malinoski to share some expenses. So that’s where we are with the Yamaha deal. The Yamaha thing isn’t as good as the Suzuki deal right now.

When did you start talking with Ron?

Just in the last few weeks. As soon as I broke my leg they (Yamaha) didn’t know what to do. Actually I talked to Ron back in early February a little bit, when he first started with the team. I’ve been doing some research on the new RMZ 450 to see what it is like but not too many people have been riding them and it’s tough to tell. I hear it’s a really good bike, but I don’t know. I am comfortable with the Yamaha and don’t really want to change now. I changed two years ago (Honda to Yamaha) and it takes a while to get used to the bike and I’m already looking at a slow start.

Do you plan to ride a two-stroke or four-stroke?

I’ll ride a four-stroke this year, no matter what team I’m on.

Is it your decision to ride the four-stroke?

Yeah, I raced a lot of AMA races last year and just got killed on the starts. Even here, look at Mitch Cooke. He got some good results based on good starts. At a bunch of races last year, I followed Brad Hagseth and just couldn’t get by him, just because his bike was faster. I was one of the first guys to ride the four-strokes and I did well with a win in the four-stroke class at the U.S. Open and felt comfortable on them. Maybe I should have stuck with them. I know in 2002, when I was with Blackfoot, we were supposed to ride them but for whatever reason we didn’t.

On the smaller, tighter Canadian tracks, I thought maybe two-strokes were preferred because they’re lighter and easier to throw around?

They are, but people say different things. With a concrete start you can’t beat them and a good portion of the tracks have concrete starts. Even on sand tracks, they say two-strokes are better and easier to handle but I’ve been riding my track, which is kind of sandy, and the four-stroke is way better. Because our tracks are tighter and smaller it’s harder to get around guys, so the start is even more important.

Have you made any other plans for the season? Do you have a mechanic and gear sponsors lined up for 2005?

Cary Daku will be my mechanic again. Not too sure about gear, but our other sponsors will stay the same if I don’t sign with the OTSFF Suzuki team. Bridgestone and Pro Circuit would be the same and I’ll probably stay with Fox or maybe wear Shift.

It seemed you were being overlooked when teams were signing riders this winter. Do you feel, as a rider of your caliber, you were not given the respect you deserve?

Not really because we were working with Yamaha through the winter. In the fall they wanted to do the same thing we did last year and Kyle [Beaton] was already signed up. The only guys not signed were [Ryan] Lockhart and [Doug] DeHaan. They [Yamaha] were really focusing on getting Pascal Picotte, the streetbike guy. He won races and the championship last year. So we were waiting on him, but he was waiting on a U.S. ride and it just dragged on through the whole winter. Lockhart and DeHaan were riding all winter and didn’t know where things were going, so they had to go in different directions with new teams. We had a deal set out, then I broke my leg and it kind of got pulled off the table. Maybe right now I feel a little disappointed with the support I’ve been offered. I got fifth last year and basically my first race was a write-off. I was the top Canadian behind JSR and last year wasn’t a good season. At the beginning of the year, I was running only maybe 60 to 70 per cent and I didn’t feel very comfortable. Then at Deschambault, I felt comfortable, and at the Motocross des Nations I started feeling really strong. The injury this year was basic, I just broke my tibia and there was no tissue damage like in 2003. The only thing this injury has hurt is my training and my ability to keep in shape. Hopefully I can spring back, because when the leg heals—it’s healed. Right now it feels good like I could go riding, but my physiotherapist wouldn’t like that. [laughs]

In the past few years, you’ve been known as a slow starter and then last year you came in off the injury from 2003. How do you plan to come out at Mission this year?

I’ll definitely try my best at every race I go to. But it’s bad enough that I’m coming off a snowcross season with only a month or two of riding, when the other guys have been at it all year round. The snowcross is pretty good for staying in shape and riding a machine, but it’s totally different from a bike. It’s hard to adapt again to the bike and using the different muscles. It looks similar but it isn’t the same as being out there riding a bike in the heat. I think I always start the season slowly because I haven’t been riding the bikes, and I’m just trying to get comfortable being back on them again. I plan to live with my trainer [Todd Schumlick] for a month solid during the first couple of races.

When do you hope to be back on a bike?

I’ve been riding a little bit. Just cruising around, doing some cornering and trying a few starts. My leg is still pretty sore. Probably in a week or two I’ll start riding.

Do you have plans to race any AMA nationals?

For sure. I might try to catch the last few races after Walton. I did six races last year. They’re far to travel to—going to Pennsylvania then heading out west to Glen Helen, then back to Montreal after that. If I’m doing my own thing I can go, but if I’m with a team and they don’t want to do it then I won’t be going.

We didn’t see you at the WSX rounds in Toronto and Vancouver because of your commitments to snowcross. Do you plan on racing WSX if it returns next year?

Totally. It was on my mind, I wanted to try it. But we were already into the snowcross season and were testing sleds and the Vancouver race was the same time as the second round in Winnipeg. I don’t think Ski-Doo would be too pumped to see me racing a motocross race during the snowcross season. [laughs] I won’t be able to do it this year—I’ll be testing sleds again. We start in November and it goes until March. Anything during that time isn’t possible; I’m committed to Ski-Doo.

Do you get upset seeing all the bike events in the winter and you’re unable to attend them?

Yeah you know, I’d like to go over to Europe like DeHaan does racing the German supercross series, that would be fun. But we have a good thing going on with snowcross. When we start with that, I just try to focus on the one thing, but I keep tabs to what’s going on in the motocross world.

So I guess we won’t see you until round one at Mission.

I’ll probably do a couple of local races to get ready, but Mission will be the first time you’ll see me.

Thanks for your time Blair and good luck this season.

Thanks, talk to you later.