Ryan Villopoto has a lot going on these days. A four-time 450cc AMA Supercross champion, two-time AMA 450cc Motocross champion and three-time AMA 250cc Motocross champion, the Pacific Northwest native is one of the icons of the sport.

And now, well over a decade removed from calling time on his AMA Pro Racing career, Villopoto is still making things happen in the racing world. After knocking out the latest "Title 24" podcast with his right-hand man Ricky Carmichael, Villopoto caught up with legendary American media guy, Eric Johnson about what he has going on and where he is going next.

Q: Ryan, how are you?

"I'm good. The kids have been racing and riding a lot. On Friday, my son Brax broke his arm, so we’re going to get a little pin put in it tomorrow. Yeah, that’s part of the sport."

Were you the one who got them interested in motocross?

"They pretty much wanted to do it. So it wasn’t me. They wanted to quit baseball and football and wanted to race and I said OK."

You have a lot going on in both the sort and industry. What all is keeping you moving?

"Basically, real busy with the kids and amateur racing. I’m trying to get them to ride as much as they can and improve their skills. The level, as everybody knows from professional all the way down to amateur, is high. There are a lot of fast kids out there, so I’m just busy with the boys. I’m working with Yamaha and they and the kids keep me busy."

If you’re kids keep moving forward and excel in the sport, are you going to go with them?

"Yeah, we played baseball and we played football and my kid Gage, he was saying, 'Dude, I just want to race. I don’t want to play baseball anymore.' And then Brax kind of followed suit. I guess the way that I look at is that we all know the pitfalls of the industry and the racing. I guess the biggest part of it is the injury side of it, right? That’s the worst part of our sport, I think. Everything that I do, if I travel, I travel for some type of motorcycle event and my kids see that. Everything that’s on, or talked about, or if you pull in my garage, it’s motorcycle helmets and motorcycles. So it’s pretty hard to keep my kids from it, you know? I didn’t push them into doing it. By no means did I push them into doing it. They chose to do it and that’s kind of the road we’re taking at this point.

We’re only a handful of races into the 2026 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship, but what’s your take on what’s shaken out thus far?

"Oh man, it’s been good. Anaheim kicked off two weeks ago and was a packed house, like usual. A great stadium to go and race in, and also a great stadium to go watch as a fan. Kind of what I expected. San Diego just happened and we’re onto Anaheim II coming this weekend. I guess the biggest surprise for me is Eli Tomac. We were waiting to see what Eli had and how he was going to look. Obviously he made a big transition from Star Racing Yamaha to Red Bull KTM, and man, he looks pretty damn good on it, I’ll be honest. I didn’t know what to expect, you know? This late in his career to make a switch, and it wasn’t a switch to a Japanese manufacturer, amazes me. He switched to an Austrian brand and a completely different motorcycle. The frame is a chromoly steel frame versus an aluminum frame. Big change at the end of his career, or towards the end of his career. So far it is panning out. He’s two-for-two right now."

You’re a four-time Monster Energy AMA Supercross champion and have been retired for a fair amount of time now. How do you see Eli and all the elite racers going after this title?

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"Obviously, we’re missing Jett [Lawrence] right? That’s a big thing that is a total bummer for the sport and the entire supercross season that Jett is gone. All these other racers, Hunter Lawrence, Chase Sexton, and a lot of these guys are title contenders, have to be kind of wondering, “Damn, big switch for Tomac. Switching teams and a new bike, and coming out and having the success that he’s had…” That has to put them back on their heels a little bit and gets them thinking “Holy s---!” And obviously for Eli, things are jelling well right now. It’s a long season. Seventeen rounds. Everybody knows we’re on the West Coast swing currently and then we get to the East Coast tracks and the dirt and everything is going to be different. I think from Eli’s standpoint, I don’t think he could be in a better position. He’s the veteran of the sport and he’s probably one of the smartest racers out there and everything is gelling. It’s all got to be pretty encouraging from his standpoint."

How about the 250SX West guys? Anyone standing out or surprising you early on here?

Yeah, obviously Haiden [Deegan]. He’s doing well. I think he’s going to be the one that a betting man will bet on him for the championship. Levi Kitchen is another one. He’s had two not-so-great races. However, his ride coming through the pack at San Diego was a good ride. I’m a big Levi fan. He’s from up in the Pacific Northwest area. I hope for the best for Levi, but he’s kind of had some issues in the past, and I hope he gets those worked out. I think it’s more in his head than anything. The skill is there, the speed is thee and I think the fitness is there. You have to shut that brain off and pull it out of your head and put yourself in good racing positions on the track. Obviously at A1 and San Diego, he hasn’t been able to do that."

Any of the guys out there racing right now remind you of yourself at all?

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"I mean I think form a riding standpoint, and the way he charges and the way he hits things, I would say Haiden Deegan. Obviously I didn’t have the controversy around myself that Haiden typically does. But from a riding standpoint, I can see myself in him. However, he’s way more refined than I was. I was more like RC [Ricky Carmichael] and hanging it out a little more. Not that Haiden doesn’t hang it out, but it is done in more of a calculated way. I guess he’s not as reckless, if it were. If you go look at RC back in the day, he was a little bit out of control in some circumstances. I refined RC and then I feel like Haiden has refined that. He’s still that sender guy."

Do you have a favorite championship and favorite race from your racing career? Any of them totally stand out?

"I would say for a championship, I think knocking down your very first 450 championship is a huge feat, you know? And then to go four in-a-row was excellent. So I think all four 450 supercross championships were huge. As for a particular race win, I’m probably always going to hang my hat on that 2007 Motocross of Nations race. That one was pretty iconic. That’ll never change. I think that was probably my best outing."

Your performance at that race was the greatest performance I have ever seen. I’ve never seen a racer go as fast and be as dominant as you were that day.

"Yeah, it was a pretty special race. It was on American soil. It was RC’s last race. Tim Ferry was also on the team. Yeah, it went picture-perfect, really."

Do you ever think back to your one-off season in the MXGP World Championship?

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"You know I think what made me a strong racer throughout my career was that I didn’t dwell on a lot of the things that went wrong, or maybe with stuff I could have done better. I look at MXGP like it definitely could have gone better. No matter how you slice it, I bit off a lot to chew. I think we saw it with Jorge Prado, right? He was a two-time world champion in the 450 class. He expected to come over and race in supercross. We saw the results in outdoors. It’s a big feat to come over. It’s a big feat to go any direction. I think it’s better to come this way, if you can ride supercross just because of the American lifestyle. Everything open 24/7. Grocery stores, food, I mean whatever you want you can get pretty much at any time, right? It was a big learning point for us at that standpoint. It was harder going to Europe. But no, I don’t look at it as a negative experience. Obviously, I wish it would have went differently. I was mentally cooked. I wanted to retire and I had a year left. I thought it could have been a good idea. I don’t think it was executed very well on my part. But I don’t look back and say, “Man, I should have done that.” I just wish it would have gone differently."

Where do you see the sport going?

"I think that’s a mixed bag of answers, you know? From the consumer-side, I know things are not as strong as everybody would want them to be. But from the professional racing side, I don’t know if I’ve been to a stadium that hasn’t been sold out, or at least at 95-percent capacity. From a professional standpoint, I think the sport is growing. We changed up our TV package this year to where we start on the West Coast at 4pm and we are on the East Coast at 7pm. We’re getting those viewers now. As for the next step, we have SuperMotocross, which I think is a cool idea.: