Racer X: You’ve been having some fun riding 125s at these 125 All Star Series races. You’ve gone first at the opening round, second at Fox Raceway. What makes it fun?
Ryan Villopoto: Obviously, for me, being able to line up behind the gate again with no pressure at all. I’ve raced a couple of these now [and] won and got second at Pala. It was probably the best battle all weekend. I didn’t watch any of the main races, but I doubt there was that many passes in the two-lap finish. [We did] a four-lap moto, and in the last two laps I think we passed each other five times. It was a good deal. It’s fun. Mitch [Payton], I wouldn’t say he loves to just work on 125 stuff, but me and developing that Yamaha 125 even more than what it is, it’s a challenge, because KTMs are so good. So him as a racer, as a motor builder, it’s a challenge for him to also try to make more power. For me, I can go there, pit out of my van, and he lets me borrow a guy, which was Schniky [Mike Tomlin], for the two rounds. That adds a mechanic. That makes everything easy. Then I can just drive up, pit out of my van. The whole thing is just fun. It’s kind of like Saturday practice/Sunday race, when nationals were like that. That’s kind of how it is for me when I go. There’s no pressure, so I take it as, I just go racing but to see all my friends in the industry and drink some beers with Mitch and whatever. Just have fun.
I saw you out riding at Milestone—you were on a 450, of course. That’s what everybody rides. Do you see a time when you would pull out a 250 or 125 as your bike you ride most of the time? Or is it still four-strokes for you?
To be honest, it’s whatever’s easy. That means I don’t have to deal with mixing fuel, which isn’t a big deal, but I can go to any pump and just get pump gas and go ride. Not that I wouldn’t, but I think it would have to be kind of a group-of-us type thing—we’re all going to go ride, let’s go do a little deal. Then I’ll make an effort to go do it. But on average, no, I’ll just ride my four-stroke just because it’s easy right now.
It’s so much work to go fast on a 125, isn’t it?
Yeah, I’d say it’s more probably work . . . I haven’t raced a 250, but a 125, you work your ass off on it, but it’s not heavy. It’s not that fast. I’m out of shape. I don’t train, ride, whatever. I can go out there and sprint for four laps. My heart rate was up. I was getting tired. There’s no way I could get on a 250. They’re heavier, they’re really fast—it’s a whole different deal.
What’s the plan for the rest of the summer? What other events do you have coming on?
Washougal will be the next one to my tie-break that I do. Then everything in between now and then . . . Loretta’s is right after Washougal. I’ve got Loretta’s coming up that I’ll be at for a couple days. RV Summer Camp coming up, and then we’ve got Chicagoland Speedway—that’s next month, which is going to be pretty sweet. That’s for the pit bike race that Rob Buydos is putting on at the Chicago speedway. That’s going to be something really interesting. Yamaha is behind it. I think that there’s a lot of hype around it.
You retired, and we all figured you would disappear, but it seems like you’ve been everywhere, racing whatever and having a lot of fun.
Yeah. I took time off. Nobody’s seen me for about two years, basically, other than when you guys came up. It’s cool to be able to just pick and choose what I want to do and not have a lot of pressure behind it. If I want to do the 125 thing, great. If I want to do flat track, great. I guess basically get paid to keep my name out there, but they don’t really have a discipline that I have to fit to, which is cool. But I’m obviously based in supercross and motocross—that realm of what I do. So that’s what you see me doing the majority of, because that’s just what I know. It is great for me to get different eyes on me and publicity no matter what, but you also don’t want to be riding around in 15th place. I’ll be having more fun doing it, and the accessibility to Pro Circuit and Yamaha and the different events being in Southern California now, it’s easy. 
