In this installment of Industry Insights we talk to the Senior Manager of Media and Communication for WPS/Fly Racing Jason Thomas about his amateur and pro career, transitioning into his role with WPS/Fly Racing, doing tv, and more.
For the full interview, check out the Vital MX podcast right here. There is a lot more within the audio version below. If you're interested in the condensed written version, scroll down just a bit further.
Jamie Guida – Vital MX: Let's start with your background. Where did you grow up and what is your first memory of dirt bikes?
Jason Thomas: I was born in Gainesville, Florida, and then we moved to the city's outskirts early in my life. I spent the first 33 years of my life in Florida, and I don't remember when I wasn't around racing. My dad raced and was very fast around Florida. He raced some national races where the best he finished was twelfth. My mom didn't know anything about motocross until she met him, and as many moms do, such as Ricky Carmichael's mom, they end up working at the races to help support the sport that their husband or son is involved in. So, she helped with scoring, sign-ups, and those things even before I was born. I remember going to Supercross races just like Saturday morning cartoons. There was no life that didn't involve some sort of racing. I was going and sitting in the sign-up trailer and was out at the scoring tower when I was five. There are pictures of my mom scoring the Atlanta Supercross in 1979 while she was pregnant with me, and my dad was one of the A.M.A. tech guys who inspected the bikes when they went through tech, so I'm about as involved in this as humanly possible. I would run the score sheets from the scoring tower to the show office when I was old enough to be trusted to do it until I turned pro.
Vital MX: What was your amateur career like?
J.T.: So, I was not talented. I remember my first race, I got lapped twice. I only found progress through hard work. Qualifying for Loretta's was a huge success when I was ten or eleven. Forget about doing well, I was just trying to get there. I remember getting 15th in 1993; that was the first time I'd gotten a top 20 in a moto. I started taking big steps and progressing when I got on big bikes. I returned to Loretta's and ran top five in '95 but had some crashes. Then, in '96, I was in the top two. It wasn't until I was 14 or 15 that I made that jump to be competitive at the national level. I turned pro not long after that. It's crazy because I didn't know if I'd even make it as a good intermediate rider, let alone think about turning professional.
Vital MX: Your pro career spanned from '97 to 2012, and you had twenty top 10s in Supercross and six in motocross. You even got a top five at Budds Creek in '06 and two German Supercross championships. Do you feel your racing career was a success? Do you think you left anything on the table?
J.T.: You always reflect on what you could have done better. There is no doubt that some years, I could have worked harder and been more dedicated, but other years, I was all in and don't think I could have done more to prepare. I believe I maximized my opportunity for where I came from and what I was dealt with. If you asked guys like Chad Reed or Tim Ferry, who knew me well then, they would be amazed that I was doing what I was doing because they knew how hard it was for me. It just didn't come easy. On race day, I would find a way for things to work out. Throughout my career, I accumulated a lot of stats. I think I have the most 13th-place finishes in history. My sweet spot was 10-14. Top tens were tough. I had some, but they were difficult to come by. Sometimes, we'll run stats during Supercross, and I'll be up there with all-time starts, and I'm like, "Wow!" That's just because I was relentless in staying with it. I'm up there with names I don't belong with, but I kept doing it. I know where I stood. I'm very realistic about it but also proud of it.
Vital MX: Professional racers aren't always prepared for what comes after their racing careers. I assume your opportunity with WPS/Fly Racing at the end of your racing career wasn't expected.
J.T.: To be honest, I had no idea what I would do post-racing. Thankfully, Terry Baisley said, "Hey, we want you to be on the team. We can teach you the things you don't know, but we can't teach you the things you do know." He envisioned me being a guy who could go around the world and didn't have to be babysat. They brought me in during the fall of 2012 when I stopped racing. I saw the opportunity and knew I had to do it.
Vital MX: What's the state of WPS/Fly Racing? How are things going?
J.T.: It's been a crazy couple of years. We got acquired in December of 2021, and anyone who's been through it knows it's a bumpy road for a while. There's an exciting team and a new team coming in, and they are likely to want to do things differently. Thankfully, we are on the backside of that with a plan and moving forward. Some announcements will come out in the next couple of weeks with some big moves we've made behind the scenes, pushing us forward to where we want to go.
Vital MX: You've done T.V. for years, whether it be the MXGPs with Paul Malin or up to where you are currently as a full-time guy with Supercross, Pro Motocross, and S.M.X. Did you see that coming a few years ago?
J.T.: No. It was really organic. In 2018, YouthStream reached out because they wanted an American voice on their broadcast to make it more relatable in the U.S. Jeff Emig also had a stint doing it. I enjoyed it, and thankfully, my bosses at WPS saw value in it because they allowed me to say Fly Racing a lot during the broadcast. Then, my first time doing Motocross of Nations was in 2019, and the turning point for MXdN was in 2021. In 2020, we didn't have it because of Covid, but in '21, we had the race, and Team U.S.A. didn't go. I was the only American in Mantova, Italy, of whom I was aware. YouthStream, now Infront, realized I had proven I was willing to go above and beyond and said, "As long as you want to do this race, it's yours." That was them showing their appreciation, and my relationship with them has blossomed. The next year, in 2022, at RedBud, you can imagine the names asking to be in the booth.
On the American side, MavTV was the provider in '22, which was a big change with a lot to be decided. Davey Coombs told me I was on the shortlist to do it if I wanted, and I said, "Whatever I have to do." I came in as unprepared as you could have imagined, and they put way more faith in me than I deserved. I didn't know anything and got thrust into it, but in hindsight, it was probably the best thing. It was sink or swim and I knew I couldn't fail in front of my peers. I got better as I went, and then the Feld/MX Sports partnership happened at the press conference at the L.A. Coliseum in October of '22. I didn't have any assurances at that point. I'll never forget Dave Pater (Director of Supercross for Feld Entertainment) called me and said, "We're going to bring you onto the team full-time in 2023. We'll transition you in. Daniel Blair will do some and be in the booth some." I was so excited to get to work on Supercross as well. It's just grown from there. It's the same boat now, I don't have any assurances I'll be there in 2025, but I hope so and want to be on the team doing what I've been doing. I hope I'm there for the long term and it's been the privilege of my lifetime to be a part of that production.
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