Justin Brayton: Back on Blue 5

Justin Brayton is one of the few riders who made it to every round of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross and Monster Energy Supercross championships in 2012. Sure, there were times when it was visible that he was injured, like when he went down hard at San Diego and rode through several rounds with a fractured leg; and other times when it wasn’t as visible, like before Hangtown, when he was riding with a broken hand sustained during testing. But he’s never been one to complain, he just goes out and gives 100 percent of what he’s got.

After a stint with the Team Honda Muscle Milk crew, he’ll be making the rare jump back to his former team, Toyota/JGRMX/Yamaha for 2013.

Vital MX: So it’s back to JGR again?

Justin Brayton: Yeah, man. I’m going back to the Joe Gibbs Racing Team for ’13 and ’14. Just inked a two-year deal with them. I couldn’t be more excited just to be going back to a team that I know. A lot of people don’t realize it but when you go to a new team it actually takes, like, a year of learning each other and what I expect from the team, what the team expects out of me, and things you say to each other to kind of get the best out of each other. So, I’m pumped to not have that learning curve and I really get along with everybody there. I really enjoy Charlotte, living back east. I’m pumped. It’s going to be fun.

You did check off one of the dream items on your list by going to Team Honda...

Yeah, for sure. It had been a dream of mine for a long, long time, since I was really young. I always rode Hondas. To be able to live that dream is something I’m really proud of, to get to that point and to live that dream. I couldn’t thank those guys enough, Team Honda Muscle Milk. Erik Kehoe has been unbelievable to work with; I have so much respect for that guy. Like I said, I’m excited to be going back to Joe Gibbs Racing. It’s crazy how it works out. We’re in a small industry and I’ve always prided myself on not really burning any bridges. Even this past year when I was riding for Honda I would still go into the shop and hang out with them, because I was living back in Charlotte basically all summer. So, I’m excited to get back with them. It would be a pretty cool story to get my first Supercross win with Joe Gibbs Racing and all the guys over there. Hopefully we can get that done this year and kind of do it for those guys and do it for myself. I think it’d be really cool. We’re going to do everything we can to do it. Going to do a few races this off-season. Planning on doing the Monster Cup; that will probably be my first race for them. And then planning on doing a couple overseas races. I’m excited to get it going and can’t wait to get back on blue.

That blue bike has kind of had a bad rap over the last couple years. How much of that is real and how much is imaginary?

I can’t speak for the other guys that have ridden it, but the whole time all that was going on, I know what the bike does. I know how it handles. I was just laughing the whole time because I did well on it. I liked it. There are certain things about every single bike out there that you may not like, and that’s what testing is for. That’s what the whole setup process is. I would just kind of smirk every time I would hear something about the bike. But that’s always the first excuse that we go to as riders, I guess, is blame it on the bike. I wouldn’t have done the deal if I thought that was going to hold me back or anything like that. I’m excited to get there. The previous bike I rode, I’m sure the JGR team has come a long ways since then. So I’m sure it’s even better. I’m excited to get on it and see how much further along it has come, and even if it’s the exact same bike that I rode before it’s still a great bike. I podiumed both in Supercross and in Motocross on the bike, so I think it’s pretty good.

The JGR guys have never been afraid to make some pretty wild changes on bikes.

Yeah, that’s one unique thing about them is they have the whole NASCAR side of things too to actually fall back on. There are so many engineers over there that know so much more beyond motocross and think outside the box, not just the traditional thing that every motocross team has tried. I think it’s cool to try different things. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t but that’s the beauty of testing.