Ashburn has won the first 3 GNCC rounds in the Open A class. | Photo: Donna Ashburn
Hey, Jordan, what’s going on?
Oh, I’ve just been riding and enjoying this warm weather finally. I hate the cold!
You have to be pumped about how your season started?
Yeah I’m pretty happy with it. I’ve just been looking to get top amateur this year. Chris [Bach] got it last year, so that’s my goal.
I remember reading on the internet a month or so before Florida that you got hurt, and we weren’t sure if we’d even see you down in Florida.
Yeah, I got together with another rider while riding motocross down in Florida. He hit me from behind and we went down, I couldn’t really avoid it. It was on my mom’s birthday! I ended up with a bruised liver and I bruised a lung.
That’s pretty gnarly! What kind of rehab did you do?
Well, there really wasn’t much I could do. The doctor down there told me I couldn’t ride for 3 or 4 months which wasn’t good. But we got back home and the doctors up here told me I could ride in a month. So I rode bicycles a lot, and tried to stay in halfway decent shape. For the first couple weeks we didn’t think we were going to be to Florida or Georgia, but we went to the doctor a couple of weeks before Florida and he said I could ride, so we went for it.
After bruising a lung and his liver, Jordan wasn't sure if he'd be able to race Florida or Georgia. | Photo: Donna Ashburn
That had to be a big blow to your confidence going into Florida. What kind of expectations did you have before round one?
I knew I wasn’t in the best shape going down there. I was going down there to just get a top-5 for sure. But to win, I was definitely happy with what I got.
Did you start out the year figuring you’d be the top amateur?
There are a lot of fast guys like Teddy Mullins in the 4-Stroke A Lites class and there’s a couple of other fast guys in my class and anything can happen. But, me and Chris battled it out [for the top amateur] last year and I wanted to get top amateur before I move on up.
What do you think about how well Chris Bach is doing in XC1, does that make you want to move up?
Yeah me and him rode together a lot last year and kind of pushed each other. He trained really hard this winter and he’s doing really good. I feel like I have to do the same thing when I move on up.
When will you go pro? Do you think you’ll race XC2 on a 2-stroke or straight to XC1?
I’ll probably go to XC2. I wouldn’t mind going back to the 2-stroke, it doesn’t really matter to me. I like the 250F too, I had one last year and I liked it. It just depends on if I can get a deal or not.
Ashburn is notorious for his mud-riding skills, and he put them on display at Steele Creek with a season's-best 15th place overall finish. | Photo: Donna Ashburn
Do you feel like there’s any advantage to be on a 2-stroke?
They’re a little faster, no doubt, but the 250F hooks up so much better and you can pick up a lot of ground because they’re not spinning all the time. They’re a lot smoother.
What’s it like starting in the back and having to push through to the front?
It’s really chaotic a lot of times. You better hope you get a good start, because if you don’t it doesn’t make for a lot of fun! You have a lot of guys to pass, but once you pass those people you’re riding by yourself, everyone in front of you is gapped out and your pretty much stuck there.
How do you push when you’re out there by yourself?
I honestly don’t really know! Whenever you get out there by yourself, you’ll find that you push yourself for a ways, then all of a sudden you’ll notice you’re not pushing anymore and you’ve gotta get back on it. It’s pretty hard. The only thing I can go by is the pit boards and that’s how I know.
You ride for Kawasaki, who seems to kind of be inching back its GNCC support in favor for more WORCS guys. How did that deal come about? How much support do you get?
I had a good year last year and they just helped us out this year. There wasn’t a lot of money out there at all, so to get what we got last year was pretty good. We get a lot of help through them but it’s not like a pro deal, it’s an amateur deal.
What kind of training to you do?
I’m just kinda on my own. I ride road bikes a lot during the week and ride as much as I can, weather permitting. Ride pit bikes now and then and just kind of do my own thing. I’ve been working on trying to get my overall finishes up and trying to figure out that last hour.
If you wrap up the Open A championship early, will you move up to a pro class?
I’d definitely like to. Once I get everything wrapped up I’d like to, yeah. That would help my overall out. But we’ll just have to see how things go.
Alright, Jordan, that’s pretty much it. We’ll see you down in South Carolina!
Okay, thanks!
