The 1994 125cc champ is working hard to make sure the program for the FIM World MX1. MX2 and MX3 riders is just as stable as the one they have formed in America for AMA riders. We caught up with Bobby Moore at the Grand Prix of France and asked him about the future for the foundation both in America and Europe.

Q: Bobby how did the foundation start?

Moore: The foundation was started 11 years ago when a good friend of mine Jimmy Button was injured in the San Diego Supercross, it was a very small crash, he hit the first whoop and went over the bars and hit his head and it bruised his spinal cord and he was a quadriplegic instantly. The terrible thing is Jimmy was two weeks away from signing a Lords of London insurance policy and would have paid him a million dollars, but he didn’t sign it and didn’t have it, didn’t have any medical coverage. I mean in America you just get a minimal coverage. So he had to use a majority of the money he earned racing for his rehab.

Q: That must have been tough for him and people around him?

Moore: I felt bad and I said this is crazy that nobody is willing to help out, not the promoters, not the AMA, nobody. We have to start something. So I got together with a friend of mine Bob Walker and we started a nonprofit foundation, which was called Road 2 Recovery. We raised about $60,000us that year. We did a big golf tournament at the start of the year. We soldiered through that for five or six years, raising money when somebody got injured. I thought it is hard when somebody gets injured, but I wanted to build something that had a reserve. So I spoke to a bunch of people and I said let’s bring a lot of people onboard and let them be a part of this foundation as well. So that is when I reached out to Davey Coombs and Roger De Coster and Keith McCarthy and the boss and Honda. I went to every VIP in the industry and let them be a member of the board, but I also wanted them to bring support or some money. At that time the manufactures were doing well, and I asked $20,000us from each one, not all of them did, but I did get good support. We were able to start a reserve that is now over $400,000us. Now I have a base and we continue to do fund raisers and we continue to build.

Q: Which riders have you been able to help up until now?

Moore: Unfortunately we had the accident to Ernesto Fonseca five or six years ago and we were able to help him. Just recently we had another rider get injured, Ian Treddle, a young Suzuki rider had a crash at Daytona and went into a coma. Fortunately he is coming out of it, but he has to learn everything over again, like eating and his working skills on his body. Two weeks ago we did a board meeting and he was eligible and we gave him a cheque.

Q: Where else can you get help?

Moore: Unfortunately most of our injuries you get paralyzed from the chest or neck down. We have a working relationship with Walk For Live Company, the specialist in helping people with that. So we give them a donation, and leave it up to them. Maybe they need a new car or a new wheelchair or hire some people to help them. We don’t tell them what to do with the money, but we give them once a month a donation.

Q: What type of money can you give these riders to help them with their costs? Moore: In Ian Treddles case we sold jerseys and clothing and we raised about $50,000us and we gave that to him, he was also part of the endowment and that is $50,000us as well, so that is paid $5000 a month for 10 months. We are still helping Doug Henry when his house burned down; we are helping him with that. Q: Do you have many people working for R2R?

Moore: We have Jimmy Buttons mother who is involved and she does a lot of good work and is totally committed to the foundation. We also have about 15 volunteers.

Q: What made you want to get involved in Europe?

Moore: What my vision was because I spent a long time in Europe racing I wanted to start it up here. I was fortunate enough to get some money together in the winter. I don’t want to take money away from America, but I want to also get the foundation involved in Europe. Everyone on the board was happy and supported it. Everything that I can raise in Europe will stay in Europe and everything I raise in America will stay there. Somebody can make a donation of 5euro and if they want that to go to Ernesto then that is where the money goes, the people who donate can give the money to whomever they want.

Q: How do you get the ball rolling in helping the FIM World Championship riders?

Moore: We just did our first function yesterday, which as you know was an auction, and thanks for helping organize that with us (MXlarge with help from Monster Energy, THOR and FOX organized many jerseys from riders). We did another on Sunday and it was a nice start to raising money here.

Q: What other ideas do you have to raise money?

Moore: Doing this for so many years we know we are not going to raise much money at the races, we will do some stuff on eBay, having all types of American and European stuff. Also I talked to Giuseppe (Luongo) last night and he is creating all these fan experiences, a VIP trip for four to a Grand Prix, everything paid, the flight, the hotel, food, meeting the riders, get riders jerseys and this is something we will try and build. My goal is that next year we have somebody who wants to do that here, so we can build it up here like it is in America. Right now we are at every single race and we have great support from FELD the promoters of Supercross.

Q: What is your end goal?

Moore: My goal is to one day be able to support every two wheeled racer, be it amateur, hobby rider, MotoGP, everything. Of course if we opened that up to everything now we would only have like 5euro per injury. We want to first start with Motocross. In Europe we will support the MX1. MX2 and MX3. Once I get to three million dollars then that money will generate enough income to cover two or three injuries a year.