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A Short Clip of Jeremy McGrath's Retirement

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Setting records on his first year of going pro.

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Setting records on his first year of going pro.

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The first 2 championships are referring to his 125 championships which are one class below the top level.

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1995 Honda CR250R Motocross Ad with Jeremy McGrath

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"Then disaster struck. In the next race I collided with Kyle Lewis over a triple jump, crashed hard, and knocked myself unconscious. It was the second serious accident I suffered in three months" (283).

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"Going down the stretch run in April, I had a pretty big point lead and sealed the deal with a win in Joliet, Illinois, at the second to last round. The 2000 Supercross title was my seventh" (249).

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"At the season finale the following week in Denver, I won by a mile. I won the title over Jeff by a record 132 points and became the first rider ever to win four consecutive Supercross championships" (176).

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"I wanted to ride for Honda. Check. I wanted to move up to 250s. Did that. I wanted to win Anaheim. No prob. And I wanted to be 250 champion. Check. When I won the Pasadena Supercross, my ninth win of the year, I clinched my first 250 Supercross title. The Holy Grail of motocross was mine" (114).

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"I threw my fist in the air in a moment of celebration that was almost surreal. I couldn't believe it. I had arrived. This was the greatest moment of my life. While I was taking a parade lap my dad was going nuts in the stands. My mom and my sister could barely see me through their tears. Skip hugged me so hard I nearly fell off my bike. We all worked out whole lives for this moment and now it was here" (104).

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"Did you say Honda? Excuse me while I pick myself up off the floor. 'Of course,' I told him. I had always dreamed about being a factory Red Rider and now my idol, the best Honda guy ever, was asking me to join the team" (72).

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"Mitch did not take the news well. He kindly proceeded to tear me a new one. He questioned everything from my riding to my manhood. 'Who do you think you are, Rick Johnson[One of McGrath's idols]?' he barked at me. I hated him for that remark" (64).

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"But the high I was on after winning Mammoth wouldn't last long. We still didn't have the money to pay for a serious, full-fledged amateur career. So I did the only thing I could think of. At the end of the 1988 season, I turned pro" (55).

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"We became regulars at Perris Raceway, Glen Helen in San Bernardino, and De Anza in Moreno Valley. It got to the point where I was finishing in the podium almost every weekend in 80 novice" (32).

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"One day on his way home from work, my dad saw this pair of minibike handlebars sticking out of the ground on this guy's property. Upon closer inspection, he saw that it was a complete bike, and he asked the guy if he could buy it. It was an old beater that hadn't run in years, but my dad gave him something like fifty bucks to take it off his hands" (11).

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McGrath, Jeremy, and Chris Palmer. Wide Open: A Life in Supercross. New York City, HarperEntertainment, 2004.

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McGrath, Jeremy, and Chris Palmer. Wide Open: A Life in Supercross. New York City, HarperEntertainment, 2004.

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At the end of the 2002 season, McGrath decides to retire. It was out of the blue and not even his own mechanic expected it. He says he wasn't really ready for it either, but it just felt like the right thing to do. He could've gotten a few more decent years of racing in, but it just didn't have the same feeling it used to have. Overall he had an extremely successful career and to this day has the most wins of any supercross rider in history.

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Big crash and overall downfall of his career.

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Big crash and overall downfall of his career.

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In '02 McGrath was ready for another great season of supercross, but something unexpected happened. While he was testing a new KTM, he had a big crash and dislocated his hip. He was out for a while and when he finally started racing again, he had another crash that knocked him out and landed him in the hospital for a few days. He realized that this wouldn't work forever and that something would have to change.

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After many wins, McGrath seals his last championship.

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After many wins, McGrath seals his last championship.

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In 2000, Jeremy won a majority of the races and ended up getting his last championship. It wasn't expected to be his last, but his time was coming to an end.

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To this day, nobody has even come close to doing what McGrath did in the 1996 supercross season. He got 1st place in every single race in the series except for one, which he placed 2nd in due to an injury. We will most likely never see someone dominate the sport as much as Jeremy did in '96.

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McGrath became the first rookie to ever win a 250 SX championship.

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McGrath became the first rookie to ever win a 250 SX championship.

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After watching him in the first few races of the season, everyone knew it was coming. He dominated almost every race and became the 1993 250 supercross champion by a long shot.

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First 250 supercross win, marking the beginning of the McGrath era.

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First 250 supercross win, marking the beginning of the McGrath era.

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Everyone was shocked by McGraths first win since he came out of nowhere. Nobody paid much attention to him before he became pro. After this point, his racing was unparalleled across the whole world. He began to dominate every race.

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Honda was the top team. It was the team that every aspiring supercross rider wanted to be on, and Jeremy made it there within a year of becoming pro.

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In the 1991 season, Jeremy won his first ever championship. Even though he technically wasn't at the top level yet, he was showing some serious potential to become the next 250 champion.

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In 1990, shortly after turning pro, Jeremy got his first professional supercross win.

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Career changing encounter with Mitch Payton.

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Career changing encounter with Mitch Payton.

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Now that he was pro, he needed someone to set up his bike. He went with Pro Circuit for the suspension since they were the most popular and most reputable. After a few races with Pro Circuit, he knew it wasn't going to work out with them. The suspension felt horrible and he wasn't confident. He went to Mitch Payton (the guy that handled all the deals with the riders) and told him that he was going to someone else. Mitch was infuriated and insulted McGraths authority and skill. Later in the car Jeremy realized that he shouldn't be bothered by Mitch and that he was going to make him regret what he said.

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After a while of racing all the amateur nationals and not getting enough factory support, he decides to go pro. He new he had the skill, but he was one of the only big amateur riders that was yet to receive factory support. He knew there was nowhere to go but up, so he decided to go pro as a privateer.

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Amateur nationals are the highest level that young people can compete at in the USA. After many hours of practicing, Jeremy got his first national win, proving his potential.

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In 1987, he finally made the switch to full sized bikes.

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In 1987, he finally made the switch to full sized bikes.

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There is something that comes with the switch to full sized bikes, and that is the fact that you don't have any excuses to not compete at higher levels. Jeremy wasn't intimidated, and made sure to put in a lot of seat time on his new bike.

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After a while, Jeremy became a regular at all the local tracks.

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After a while, Jeremy became a regular at all the local tracks.

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He was showing up to all the practices and races so consistently at all the tracks in his area that nearly everyone knew him. He still wasn't crazy fast, but certainly not bad for a beginner.

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After a while of play-riding and practicing, McGrath decided to put his experience and skill to the test by attending a local motocross race. His experience riding BMX helped him get his first ever podium at his first race.

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After he started riding motocross more, he knew it was time for a step up in terms of his bike. His parents managed to scrape up enough money to buy him a brand new 1986 Yamaha YZ80. This bike was way more advanced than his RM and he knew his skill had to match the extra performance of the YZ.

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After racing up to 13 times a week, Jeremy got tired of BMX.

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After racing up to 13 times a week, Jeremy got tired of BMX.

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After a while of doing nothing but BMX, he got tired of it. He still loved racing, but he couldn't work with the schedule he was on.

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He eventually started racing BMX often, and he was pretty dang good at it. He won his first race and almost every one after that. He raced so much each week that he barely had time for anything outside of school and BMX.

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After he got older and more serious about riding, McGrath's parents got him a used 1979 Suzuki RM80. This bike was a lot more powerful than his other motorcycle so it formed a lot of new opportunities for riding.

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Jeremy got his first motorcycle around the age of 9. His family wasn't very wealthy so it wasn't the latest and the greatest, but it got the job done. Although he eventually grew to love motorcycles, he didn't ride it much since he spent most of his time doing BMX.

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McGrath realizes he was born a show-off.

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McGrath realizes he was born a show-off.

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At the age of 3 Jeremy McGrath got a big wheel. He lived on a big hill so you know what that means. He was always going down the hill doing tricks while all the older kids watched.