As his career as a rider was slowing down, long time pro racer Paul Lindsey took the next step and accepted an offer to manage the Tecate/Kawasaki De Mexico Motocross team in 1998.
One thing lead to another and in 2001 Paul, along with partner Tim Phelan, hooked up with Brian Juhnke to form the successful MotoworldRacing.com team racing in the AMA Motocross/Supercross championships.
Now into their second year with Suzuki, as an ‘unofficial’ factory team, Paul – one of the most popular figures in the MX paddock - hopes for bigger and better things in 2003, and here gives his verdict on his four riders - Ryan Morais, Andrew Short, David Pingree and Darryl Hurley.
Q: Paul, how did you get from racing professional Motocross all over the world into managing the MotoworldRacing.com team?
Paul Lindsey: Well, as my racing career was starting to wind down I met a guy by the name of Javier Martinez in Mexico where I was doing a Supercross with Phil Lawrence.
Javier talked about getting ready to start a race team, which eventually became Tecate Kawasaki De Mexico. In talking with him I expressed an interest in becoming the team manager and having a job in the industry, so it was kind of one of those deals where I was in the right place at the right time.
Plus it helped that I also had a little bit of a name going for myself with my overseas racing. 1998 was the first year I did it, and I still raced while acting as the team manager, so I was kind of double dipping. The Tecate Kawasaki Mexico team was only racing Supercross and I had a blast doing it, and working with those guys I really learned what it took to be a team manager.
Then when the Supercross season was over I was free to do some races on my own and make some money that way. From there, I guess as they say the rest is history. The next year Tecate Kawasaki went out of business and I jumped over to Planet Honda, and spent about a year and a half with them before I moved on to start my own deal with my partner Tim Phelan.
Q: After you left Planet Honda didn't you take some time off before you went to Motoworld?
PL: Yes, I did. I left Planet Honda in 2000 about half way through Supercross. Then I spent the rest of that year organizing, planning, and gathering sponsors and momentum to make our debut with Motoworld in 2001.
