"I Said Screw It and Jumped Everything I Thought I Could" | Checking in with Jordan Jarvis 7

Ten years ago, Women’s Motocross was at the height of its popularity. Ashley Fiolek and Jessica Patterson were household names within the industry and had major support. The WMX series was even raced on Saturdays with the men for a bit. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case today. So, if you are one of the fastest woman riders in the world you just go race with the boys. Jordan Jarvis is doing just that. If you’ve never seen her ride in person, I can tell you she absolutely rips. We gave her a call recently to catch up with her and see how she feels about her season so far.

For the full interview, check out the YouTube video right here. If you're interested in the condensed written version, scroll down just a bit further.

Jamie Guida - Vital MX: How’s it going, Jordan? Let start with how the ride with the ROTE (Riding On the Edge) Race Team came about for 2022.

Jordan Jarvis: I actually got a message on Facebook just before Mini O’s. I'm not going to lie, I kind of thought it was bullshit. He was offering a lot and I'd never heard of the team or anything like that. It just kind of sounded too good to be true, honestly. And we started talking to him and found out he was completely legit. And honestly, it's been great so far. The bike that I have is by far the fastest bike I think I've ever had.

Vital MX: You did the Daytona Supercross with them. That was your first Supercross?

Jordan: That was my first Supercross ever. I've done the Futures class at Monster Cup in the amateur ranks. But that was my first ever pro Supercross. It was a very huge deal. It's been a while since a females tried to race Supercross. I unfortunately didn't have as much time as I had hoped on Supercross. I probably only had two weeks of Supercross going into it. I was unprepared, but I was relying on my past Arenacross and Futures experience to help me out. And it did. But the whole weekend itself was unbelievable. I was lucky enough that I got to do press day. I've been very open about the fact that it scared the ever-living shit out of me. I went out there with Jett Lawrence and Cameron McAdoo and all those guys who were busting out triples and quads and stuff like that on the second lap. And I'm still trying to figure out where the track's going. By far, the best thing that could have happened that weekend was riding press. By the end of the second practice I kind of just said, “Screw it, I'm going to jump everything that I think I can jump and just hope for the best”. So, by the time we got out there on our actual race day on Saturday and I was in my group I was super comfortable. I really think that gave me a good insight of what to expect for 2023.

Vital MX: How have outdoors been? This year at Pala and Lakewood you got in as an alternate in the second motos. You’ve been very close to getting in through the LCQ. What do you need to get to that next step to get in every time?

Jordan: There have been a few times in years past that I've been super close. This year I'm definitely qualifying better, at least the previous two rounds. Colorado really kind of sucked. I was riding really well. I felt super good on the bike and had a little issue in the LCQ. The bolt that holds my clutch lever onto my clutch perch ended up falling out. I didn't have a clutch for the last lap and a half. It's one of those things that happens sometimes. It sucks, but I rode well, and that's what we're taking out of that weekend. 

Vital MX: I'm going to make a statement and I hope this doesn't come off chauvinistic or sexist. I apologize if it does, but when I see you out there I think damn, this girl is fast….for a girl. That's probably offensive and I apologize for that. There aren't that many women at your level and it’s somewhat surprising when I see you huck the up-hill triple at Thunder Valley. I know you are a fast rider, period. It shouldn’t matter that you are a female.

Jordan: No, it's not offensive at all. I mean, yeah, I'm a girl, but I’m also a rider, like you said. You'd be surprised at how many people say, “Oh, you're good for a girl” or something like that. And unfortunately, it kind of goes the same way with certain sponsors as well. I looked into certain sponsorship inquiries and they'll say, “Well, you're doing fantastic for a girl. You're doing phenomenal. But unfortunately, you're not doing well for the men's standards”. They're not looking at the fact that I'm a woman in a men's pro class. They're looking at numbers.

Vital MX: It's such a weird topic because on one hand you want to be treated equally. But there's also probably a market for a sponsor to say, “she is one of the fastest woman riders in the world”. Sponsors should be jumping all over that and marketing that towards women. 

Jordan: I agree with you. I do think it's very odd. And if you look a couple of years before me, probably five or ten, you know, when Jessica Patterson and Ashley Fiolek had commercials and all that kind of stuff. You just kind of don't see that anymore.

Vital MX: Getting back to the Nationals, what were your expectations this season?

Jordan: We had our expectations, but we kind of thought I was going to fall a little short of it this year.  I've actually done better than we'd hoped. Hopefully I can keep it going. I hope I have a good weekend this weekend. I normally struggle at Redbud, but like I said, my bike's way better than I've had in past years. I'm excited for these next few rounds to see if I can keep it going

Vital MX: Talk about teaming up with Dave Drake and The Collective Experience.

Jordan: He is awesome. I met him through Jason Butschky with SGB Honda a couple years ago. Dave helped me out with some film guys last year. He's planning to help me out some more this year. It makes a huge difference, the program is awesome. You sign up for it and you legitimately get to see the behind-the-scenes stuff that most people don't see.

Vital MX: Yeah, you can sign up at TheCollectiveXP.com and you can pick privateer riders and work with them hands on. And it's really, really cool to kind of see what it's like for a day in the life of a professional motocross/supercross rider.

Vital MX: Before I let you go; I know you have merch. Do you have a website?

Jordan: I'm still working on a website. I do have some merch up and I want to get some more stuff thrown up there if I can pull together some more cash to do it. Honestly, the shirts have been doing fairly well. I have shirts, hats and beanies and stuff like that. I have some cool ideas that I think would look pretty cool. You can find my merch through my Instagram, @JJJordan30 and I normally bring a good bit of stuff with me to each national as well.