"Looking Back, I Had a Hell of a F@#%ing Time" | Alex Ray on His Career 2

Privateer Alex Ray has had a couple rough years dealing with injuries and falling short of his expectations but he realizes as a whole his career exceeded his expectations. ARay didn't come into the pros with a list of amateur championships and teams making him offers. Like many privateers, he had a dream to race pro and maybe make a living at it. He's been able to do that and along the way become a fan favorite, make 59 450 Supercross main events, secure a factory fill-in ride at Monster Energy Yamaha, and do some media work for Swap Moto Live. ARay knows his time racing at the highest level is running low and is preparing for the next stages of his life. I wanted to check-in with him and get his thoughts on his career and stepping away in the near future.

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

Jamie Guida – Vital MX: ARay, what's up, dude?

Alex Ray: Not much, actually. I just got home from a little bit of riding with Kris Keefer this morning out in the HiDez. So, yeah, that was fun.

Vital MX: How'd that go? You just got back on the bike yesterday and rode again today, apparently. How are you feeling?

ARay: Yesterday went a little bit better than today. Yesterday it was all right. Today it was a bit sore. The stuff that we rode on was just quite a bit jarring. I did the best I could. I cruised around, but some riding was a little bit better than none. I haven't been on the bike for like six weeks, so everything's still super foreign to me. I had some tip-overs, but that's okay.

Vital MX: You had a pretty gnarly crash in Tampa when you shorted a triple and nose-picked it. You broke your thumb and ended up having surgery with some pins, right?

ARay: Yeah, I took a trip to Endonesia. Looking back at the video of it, I was lucky that my thumb is the only thing that I broke, you know? I ended up getting that thing fixed pretty quickly and then it was actually somewhat healed up like two and a half weeks later. So, you know, I got back on the bike, rode a couple of days, and then flew to Indy. I raced Indy and then Detroit where I cased a jump and broke my ring finger. I didn't even crash. My finger hit the clutch lever whenever I landed, and it literally shattered my ring finger. After Detroit, I went home and had three pins put in it. There were a lot of gaps in the bone because it had broken in so many spots, so, it took a lot longer than I thought to get better. I thought I was going to make a lot more races than I did. It was just unfortunate. I got the pins removed last week right before Nashville actually. 

Vital MX: 2023 has not been a good year for you, man. You also had wrist surgery last year, in ’22. This is a character-building year. Talking to you up in the press box, you were bummed. You're looking at your future, trying to figure out what's next. What have you learned this year personally that will help your character?

ARay: Honestly, even last year, these last two years have been rough. I had both my wrists done at the end of 2021, both of them fixed because they were pretty much like mashed potatoes. I ended up getting it fixed and everything was fine until I crashed at Oakland and re-broke it. I had to get a CT scan to figure it out. We figured out what the issue was after the season, and I ended up having to get my wrist refused last year. Everything with my wrist has been amazing this year. They've been bulletproof, which is great, both of them. So, that's all been good. The main thing I can take away from it is there's more to life outside of racing. If last year hadn't gone the way it did, I mean, last year sucked with my wrist and then being on the team and with Jason (Butschky) not paying me and the whole SGB thing falling apart and all that bullshit that happened there. I spent a lot of time in Kentucky with my fiancée Sam. I feel if things were reversed, maybe we wouldn't be getting married here in a few months. You know what I mean? Maybe I would have had a different path. Who knows? I found that there's just a lot more outside of racing and there's more to life than just showing up on a Saturday and trying to make a main event, you know? 

Vital MX: So, we were talking in the press box in Nashville where you were there for Swap Moto Live. You've been doing a little bit of media this year and you've been doing a podcast for a few years now. Do you see that being something that you'd like to continue doing, or do you think your path may go somewhere else?

ARay: Honestly, I don't know. I don't know yet. Right now, I have a job offer after I'm done racing. So, we'll see how that goes. If it turns out I suck at that and that doesn't really go as planned, then I would love to do media. I think that I could possibly do both at the same time. It would probably be a lot to juggle at first. I would probably pick the other job first and once I get my feet wet into it and really get settled in, I think that maybe I could do some media with the Swap guys. They've really given me a platform and a voice, and I think that it would be really beneficial for me to keep doing that.

Vital MX: I do, too. You're a little bit of a character and you have a great personality. You're outgoing, you're friendly with everybody. You're also easy to make fun of. You're a fun guy. So, I think the way you interact with the riders is different from some other media guys, including myself. 

ARay: I also think, I don't know if Vital has it, I mean, Michael Lindsay used to race a fair bit, so he sort of knows a little bit about it. I feel I bring that racer aspect to it, right? If you talk to Don (Maeda), Chase (Curtis), or Anton (Michael Antonovich), they may be there, but they've never been on the track and they've never really experienced anything race-wise in a Supercross or outdoors. The aspect that I could bring to them is more of like, “Hey, I rode the track Saturday night. I know how it formed and this rut was super gnarly, and I could definitely see how they crashed there” or “The track was doing this.” Something along the lines of being on the floor and racing with the guys. That's one thing that I feel like the past few years I've been able to bring to Don's podcast as well as having a relationship with these guys. I have a different relationship with a lot of the riders versus Anton. They see Anton as a media guy, but they see me sort of as a friend. So, it sort of translates over nicely. 

Vital MX: Again, talking to you in the press box, there is a little bit of apprehension or disappointment knowing that your career is coming to an end at some point soon. That's hard to accept, I would assume. Have you come to terms with that or is it something that you've talked to other people about? How are you dealing with that?

ARay: I've definitely come to terms with it and dude, it sucks too. I already have people who are wanting to help me for next year team-wise and saying, “Hey, are you're racing next year? We'd love to have you a part of the team.” I'm like, “Oh, shit. Here we go again”, but no, I'm content with it. Honestly, growing up being a little kid, my goal was to maybe try to race professionally. I remember being on an 85 and thinking, “Man, if I could get, not a factory ride, but maybe on a good team to where I'm making good money or something and I'm racing the pro races.” That was a dream of mine. My dad always told me, “I just thought you were going to be a weekend warrior. We were going to hang out and do all this. I didn't know we were going to turn pro and do this whole Supercross thing.” So, for me, it's been a bit of a surprise how my career has gone. How many people do you know in Texas who came up with no real amateur career that has gotten a factory fill-in ride or has ridden for some pretty good teams? There's not that many people that can say that. I feel like my career wasn't the best, but I feel I can pat myself on the back and move forward with it.

Vital MX: That was actually going to be my final question. When you look back on your career, do you see the positives and how do you look at it? 

ARay: I had a factory fill-in, and I got a f’ing top 20 in points. I've made a pretty good living. The last two years granted have been my worst years financially but there were five or six years where I was making pretty good money racing a dirt bike. The only regret I have is maybe not figuring out the training aspect or having the knowledge on the training side sooner. Which is good with Troll Training. Now a lot of these kids can have access to it a lot easier than what we did. I was just fucking pissing in the wind. Just taking a shot in the dark until I met and became good friends with Davi (Millsaps) and he took me under his wing. He and Pablo (Toribio) really changed my career. Dude, I mean, looking back, I had a hell of a fucking time.

Vital MX: That's what I want to hear. I like that. I like that your head's in the right space. I think meeting Sam has done a lot for you. You still have a great future, man. You're going to be in the industry for a long time, and I enjoy seeing you around.

ARay: As I said, it's been a tough year, but we still have the outdoors, you know? I may be a little rusty at the beginning of the season, but maybe towards the end, we can do some good. I have some good sponsors this year and a good bike. So yeah, I'm happy with it. 

Vital MX: You mentioned in Nashville possibly racing Salt Lake City. I assume that is not happening.

ARay: Yeah, I'm going to race Salt Lake. I can show up and race.