I've been fortunate enough to meet Travis Pastrana several times in social settings, and I've always admired him—not just for his incredible talent, but for the way he carries himself. Growing up, I watched Nitro DVDs on repeat, so when the opportunity came to sit down and have a conversation with him, there was no way I was passing it up.
I had a blast putting this interview together, and I hope you enjoy it just as much!
Travis, do you remember your first race?
Honestly it's probably one of my first memories. I don't remember any memories earlier than that. And I crashed. I crashed and I crashed, just trying to get around the track. I had a Honda Z-50. Actually, it was my first time there; we did practise, and then went home. Practised a bit and came back. And then my first actual race that I did, I ended up third. I liked it more after that.
That's not a bad start man! I was re-watching the Terra Firma series recently, and there's an awesome interview clip of you, Bubba and Ricky Carmichael.
Did you race those guys that much through your career?
It's funny because James is only two years younger than I was, and Ricky was four years older. But I was super tall, so I raced Ricky a lot more. A nine, I was the 913 class SuperMinis. It was always Ricky, and then the rest of us.
There was Nick Way, Shae Bentley, that was kinda the main... Robby Gordon, Charley Bogard. But Ricky was definitely the guy that we always gunned after. And granted, four years is a lot when you're nine years old, but he was the same height, so it didn’t feel like it.
Do you speak to those guys much?
Honestly, I never really talked to James that much. He was always really nice. He was actually - as funny as it was - he's kind of a quiet guy. He was really humble, which was the opposite of his kind of persona. But Carmichael absolutely hated me. Wouldn't talk to me.
I wasn't even allowed on the test track when he was on it, and he'd do like 60-70 laps, so I was waiting for a long time. The track was worn out before I got there. I was like ‘this sucks’. I'd go ride with Chad Reed on the Yamaha track, like f**k off.
Then when Carmichael got into cars, we actually became pretty good friends. I get his texts every now and then, just random texts. We joke about high jump (step up) and how horrible of a sport that is. It's a great sport to watch, horrible sport to do.
What are the chances of getting you, James and Ricky together to do another interview with the same questions 25 years later?
I think it'll probably happen eventually. I think - like I said, we're not extremely close - but since the car racing is good, and even guys like Grant Langston, who I absolutely hated as a racer, is now actually a good friend, so it's funny. We always had respect for each other, just didn't like each other.
I was watching the Loretta Lynn's footage and you were racing number 36. When did you change to 199 and where did 199 come from?
Well... Robbie Reynard was my hero growing up, and he turned pro the fifth month in 1993, so he was 593 his first year pro.
At that point I went up to world Mini O’s, and they were like "you need a three-digit number", so I was like "alright 1099", or cut down to three digits, 199. But at Loretta Lynn's, you always had to have a two-digit... you couldn't do three. I was usually 99, but someone had 99 already so I was like "ah whatever".
36 will do?
Yeah I think it was 36, something like that. Completely irrelevant. Random number.
I'm a big Motocross of Nations fan. What was it like riding in 2002?
I'm a huge, Tenacious fan. I'm a huge fan of David Bailey, Rick Johnson, and Johnny O'Mara - and you know just watching. When I was growing up, the U.S. was very dominant in The Nations. Two guys that hated each other were battling each other all year, hands in the air, fists together going across the finish line. Stuff like that's pretty amazing. And whatever country you're from, to represent your country is quite an honour. For me it was France in 2000, we were at Saint Jean d'Angely...
That's a gnarly track...
The French team, with Tortelli and Roncada, were expected to dominate. We had me, I'm a rookie. Carmichael was obviously pretty dominant at the time, but you had a guy with Ryan Hughes that hadn't done much. He had been hurt all year. Before he was hurt, he didn't do a lot overseas. Ryan won the first race and I got to go against Grant Langston for the first time and we were just banging bars and passed Roncada down that hill on the last lap.
That was one of my favourite overtakes of all time. Was it something you planned or just an opportunity you saw?
Almost every lap I got somebody there ‘cause I was on a 125 against 500's, and I just kept standing the downhills.
Everyone's like, "you're gonna die". I'm like, “well, I can't pass them on the uphill, so let's do it”.
What was it like working with Roger De Coster?
It was funny because the media built it up as though we didn't get along. But he was like a father to me. Same like your father would be in a lot of those situations.
He didn't understand the freestyle but this is coming from a guy who showed up with a Ferrari and a fur coat to Carlsbad. But like, as much as he gave me s**t, I'm like, "You motherf***er. You would have been the exact same guy if freestyle was around when you were." So De Coster was a huge motivation. A huge help. Someone that always had my back. You know, it was really cool to have him on the team. He was team manager when I was at The Nations.
The narrative as a fan or viewer in the early days of FMX – around when you were first seeing it in the X Games – was that it was anti-establishment within MX. Did it feel like that? Did it cause you any problems with your race team?
I had problems with everything. And I think, as long as you're winning, it's okay. My first year, I broke my ankle at X Games trying to back flip in 2000 and I didn't tell anybody. The talas - it's not a big bone, but it still hurt. I didn't say s**t until after The Nations were over.
I thought you went on to win outdoors and supercross that year?
Yeah, so it was good. I think that the biggest thing was still that if you look at a magazine like Racer X - I love Racer X and I read it - but they hate freestyle.
They hate me still. That older motocross generation thinks freestyle's the antichrist and is gonna ruin the sport. When really, it just opens it up to so many more people.
I guess to some, anything that’s not traditional is going to look like a rebellion with an attitude…
I wasn't doing it like that. Brian Deegan came in and basically is a big, both middle fingers in the air, f**k you. I just like to have fun on my dirt bike. I came in as going, "I just want to see what my limits are and push myself, and freestyle allows me to do that." I like to jump in racing. I'm trying to see how low I can stay and that's boring. I mean I want to win, but at the end of the day, I want to go back out on the track and hit the big jumps. When I'm practising, I want to hit the big jumps.
So, I was teammates with Carmichael - his first lap to the finish line was his first timed lap. Every lap was timed; every lap was exactly the same line. He could've taken out 99 percent of the track because he only used an inch of it, and only certain take offs and landings.
Whereas someone like (Kevin) Windham never hit the same line twice. So, to have both of these guys as kind of role models... obviously, Carmichael went a lot further, but Windham as an icon. And someone that was that talented. It showed me a lot about what makes a champion and what makes a phenomenal rider. It was really cool.
I guess it’s two different approaches to the race. Speaking to Ricky, he felt the key to his championships was staying detached and not getting into battles you didn’t need to – keeping his eyes on the points. With the other approach being where you see a guy come past you and you’re like “I’m having you!”
That's why my career was so short. I was like, "I'm going to win every race! Every race matters!"
As well as RC, I was a big fan of your rivalry with Brian Deegan back in the day. Was that all real? Is it still ongoing?
Yes and no. Deegan's an interesting cat. He's super smart, which, no offence, but I wouldn't have picked that up from his TV interviews. He runs a company and the Metal Mulisha.
But he always was so polite to my mom. He was always like, "Hello Mrs. Pastrana. How are you doing? Nice to see you." He would always go out of his way to say hello. Just to help me when I needed it.
But also, he needed me as much as I needed him. I didn't realise it, but that whole good versus evil thing: people pick sides. You come to the event and you’ve got people either booing him or booing me. It's wild.
Do you think FMX misses that kind of narrative?
It’s gotten more professional but there’s not the character to it there used to be…
Freestyle is interesting because it really is a battle against yourself. It's not a race where you're just trying to beat your opponents. I've won X Games and been so disappointed with myself and I've lost X Games and been the most proud and happy and content I've ever been. It's hard to then showcase that in a contest. Because it is truly within yourself and pushing yourself.
It’s also very subjective. There’s plenty of sports that are a personal battle with yourself and the course, but they’re often scored and judged in a very objective way – golf for example. But with FMX you’re up against yourself and then have to put your hard work in the hands of a judge…
Yeah, 1000 percent. That's why we started with the Nitro World Games. The idea was, every rider knows that if they do everything perfect, this is your score. But that's not for me what freestyle is about. Freestyle is about the best trick. It's about doing something that's never been done. And I didn't care to do every trick better than everyone else, I just cared to do something that was f***ing huge.
The worst part of the Deegan rivalry for me though, was when I qualified first and he qualified like fifth, so he goes before I do. I was the first one to do a 360 but now every time I do it, I have to call it a f***ing Mulisha twist.
So what's your favourite Crusty movie?
Crusty One. Still watch it all the time. The reason being it was the last era where the top motocross riders partied at all. You had Jeremy McGrath, who was kind of a playboy party guy going against Jeff Emig who was worse. Or maybe better, whatever.
As a kid, dude, to see these guys play ride. I didn't know about the dunes. I didn't know about any of this stuff. The internet was not around where you see this all the time. Them riding the dunes - even in Pismo and stuff 0 was like the coolest thing I'd seen... mind blowing. So when Crusty One came out, it changed my life. And then to be a part of Crusty Three was freaking rad.
How did that come about?
It was pretty wild – kinda how I got into the whole FMX... obviously, I always enjoyed jumping big stuff.
I was testing for Suzuki so the factory Suzuki team was down at the same place that Bubba, Seth Enslow and Anthony Pocorobba were doing a video shoot. I'm doing laps and they built this jump over a gator pond. And it's cool cause there's actually a couple gators in there. I was like, "Aw, this is freaking rad!"
So I go over to watch and they are doing like a thousand test runs. Test run, test run, test run. And they were like, "Ah, we don't know." Cause it was real technical. You came out and you had to hop over a couple logs, and then jump across the road and then you hit this soft and rutted jump.
I asked my dad, I said, "Can I do it?" He goes, "I don't know, can you?" I was like, "Yeah." So I came out of the woods and they didn't even know I was coming. I didn't tell anyone. I just wanted to hit the jump. Then Seth tried it and landed short. Hurts his throat so he can't breathe. He has to go to the hospital. Anthony Pocorobba jumps it. He goes long. Breaks his ankle - or at least couldn't walk.
And Crusty guys are there and they're like who the f**k is this 12-year-old and our guys are hurt so we have no one to film. So that was it.
That must have been pretty amazing.
And they invited me to California. My mom didn't know.
And the rest is history.
I was looking back at footage from the Race of Champions and you managed to beat Vettel straight up in 2010 and then you did it in 2017 as well. What was that like?
Pretty rad. I've gone against Vettel four times and beaten him three. And the only one that he beat me in was a WRC car, which was so disappointing. Cause I was like, "S**t!" Got him in a Porsche touring car and the last was a lights car so that was kinda cheating on my part. It was freaking rad.
The most interesting part about that: my wife didn’t - she does now - but she didn't know anything about cars. Vettel wins the F1 championship, youngest to ever win the F1 championship. We go to Germany for Race of Champions. It's the first round. U.S. gets paired against Germany. So I go up against Schumacher and Vettel. And I'm like... in Germany. This is the coolest thing that's ever happened. We just flew in that morning and my wife went to sleep on the couch.
So on live TV, I beat Sebastian Vettel. Everyone's just booing. Like I'm about to get thrown out. Vettel's out in the first round, first everything. I come back, I'm all excited and they showed it on live TV but my wife was asleep on the couch. She's like, "Well I thought I'd just watch the finals." I'm like, "U.S. never makes it to the finals!"
Was Vettel sore with you afterwards?
Oh no, Vettel's awesome. What's cool about some of the younger guys coming up is - I say younger guys, pretty much everyone that's on top of their sports now - they grew up watching X Games and action sports and stuff.
Vettel was... I'm not saying a fan, but at least knew who I was and had respect for what I did before then. He actually... the only reason I beat him the first time, was because he took me for a ride in that same car earlier and I knew exactly how fast he went in that car. So I was like, "Thanks for the help."
Are you much of an F1 fan?
I'm a big fan of racing of any kind. But honestly, this past year I haven't been following as much as I should for sure. Räikkönen’s one of my favourites so it’s been good to see him back.
What's it like being a dad? Have you found the transition into rad dad?
It's been fun. It's been interesting because we definitely can't post or show three quarters of the things we do with my daughters. But the only injuries they've had have been in a shopping cart grocery shopping with mom. One other with them falling off of something stupid. Not like actually doing the cool stuff.
I can't imagine sleepless nights before doing back flips or performing at Nitro Circus Live. How do you handle that?
When I go to one off events like today, you’re fly in yesterday, flying out tomorrow, it's interesting because you actually get more sleep. I feel like having kids is like being an alcoholic except the nights aren’t as enjoyable.
The sleep deprivation, isn’t always fun...
But no, it's been awesome. For that first six months I was there, I was around, but I wasn't that dad that just was instantly watching their kids sleep. But as soon as they started walking dude, we've been amazing.
Everyone's like aw, you're gonna miss the diaper days. I haven't missed one yet. I'm sure maybe eventually but I'm excited. They're both out of diapers now, we're set.
Last question man. You've achieved so much, what have you got left in the locker?
Wow, well, I'll tell you at the end of next month. Hopefully stay healthy through that. That might be... I'm not saying it's gonna be the end of my riding... I'll still ride every day, but there's one trick that has plagued me my whole life...
TP 720?
Basically, I'm gonna add another flip to it ‘cause I think it's gonna be easier. It'll be an Aussie roll, which sucks because I was the first one to do that in the foam pit and then an Aussie landed it first and they call it that. I think every trick that I really enjoy, someone landed in a contest before I did, but they landed it on a scooter so I feel like on a motorcycle, it'll be way cooler.
Yeah, scooter doesn't count.
Double back flip full.
And then that's kinda boots up and focus on business?
Not hang up the boots but focus on Nitro. Trying to give other kids the opportunity to do this as safely as possibly. I mean, Lindsay still loves skating. I want to be home more. We might do some TV stuff in the future, this and that. I'll still be on tour. I'm not ... by no means is this me stopping. But this is probably my last year where I'm gonna do stuff that's never been done before on a dirt bike.
