Talk with Joshua Guffey, young motocross talent, a real local of the GOAT farm

October 2019, This was a special Thursday morning. We were in Florida since the day before, and our long adventure in the US was just at the beginning. After some self-made waffles at the hotel in Tallahassee we got in our rental car and set the GPS. Destination? The Farm.

Clear your mind from cows or fresh cheese, I mean the only farm that a motocross riders could dream of, the Ricky Carmichael’s GOAT Farm. The place where the best motocross videos I’ve ever watched have been filmed.

I’ll go in the deep of tracks, jumps, bumps and corners of that compound in another post; today I’m sharing the nice talk I had there with Joshua Guffey, a young local amateur rider who’ve been training at the farm for 3 years. He’s fast and committed to begin in the best way his Pro career the next season.

 

Hey Joshua, I’ve been watching you and your fellas training this morning, you guys seem to enjoy this place. How is to ride here at RC farm?

It’s really awesome, it’s awesome to be around here with Jeannie, Big Rick and Ricky, they know everything you need to know to make yourself better. Ricky is really good at teaching you what you need to be doing with the corners, starts and everything else he knows. Hector does a great job, he gets the track prepared for us so we always have awesome tracks, so there’s really no excuse not to get better when you training at Carmichael farm.

Did you noticed your improvements since you started training here?

Oh yeah, this January I’ll be training here for 3 years and it seems like every week we’re just making an improvement somewhere. You know, with the level right now, it’s only small improvements but every single thing counts. It’s just nice to know that being here you’re gonna make improvements.

 

What is the biggest thing you learned here?

I struggled with my opening lap sprint speed when I came here but now that‘s definitely one of my strong suit so they helped me out a lot. I came here with good fitness already since I used to do training with Robb Beams  but having my sprint speed down for the first couple of laps was bad. Now I’m getting really good at this kind of stuff and I’m really excited about that.

 

What is your favorite track here at the Farm (note: RC’s Farm has 2 SX tracks and a motocross track)

You know, everybody loves supercross track, and it’s really cool go to the rhythm and stuff like that, I just grow up racing motocross outdoor, I just love the outdoor track. There seems like everything flows, I like it when it comes really gnarly. So I’d say the outdoor track.

My first impression when I came here is that the quiet in this area is unreal, looks like this spot is perfect for those who wants to focus 100% on riding. Is it like this?

For sure, we are surrounded by the country, I grow up like 30 minutes far from here so I am able to go have my dinner at home every night which is really nice. I used to grow up with no worries of people tryng to steal anything around here, It’s nice to come here it’s quiet all the time you can do your training, do what you need to do and I feel very lucky for growing up here for sure.

 

The following question may sound dumb to you, but I’m an European guy and I still have to understand how the sport works here. Is it a problem for a up-and-coming rider to be far from California, where most of the factories and motocross companies are based?

Yes and no. I think it is nice to be in California for the factories to see you. But also with the Amateur racing, that has so many Nationals during the year, I think you have like 5 Nationals, and they are a week long events, you have all of these chances for the factories to see you. I just like to come here to a facility where you have five or six guys training with you and you’re not on a public track with hundreds people every time. What I’m just saying is that I won’t wanna go to California, I’m not gonna saying it’s mandatory to be there.

 

So you are saying that if you are fast you have the chance to be noticed even if you are on the opposite side of the US…

Yes, for sure. In the Amateur racing cause you have so many nationals, so many races that those guys are looking at which is huge so it’s not a must have to be in California for those guys to see you. Cause if they are waching at you, they’re able to watch you even if you are not in California.

Ok, you’ve convinced me. Let’s turn back to The Goat Farm. What do you think is the most fun bike to ride here at the farm?

If you asked me a few years ago I would say a 450 but I’m a 250 guy now I love 250s. I would say a 2 strokes 250 probably would be pretty awesome over here. Ricky rides a 250 2 strokes sometimes and sounds so amazing that you just want to stop and listen for a while. But for me personally I would say a 250 4 strokes, I love this thing is so fast and Yamaha has done a great job, so definitely a 250 4 strokes.

 

What’s your goal for the next year?

I will see to stay healthy, I fought with some injuries last year and I got in the top 5 of every National. Everything is on the National, I plan to win, I plan to be 100% prepared and I guess to go there and at least take podium, I’m definitely at the right place to be able to do that so I have no excuse, should be an exciting year.

Thank you Joshua, wish you all the best, we will keep an eye on you next year!

Rider Joshua Guffey

Photo & article @matao_papao