He gave up school at age 15 to concentrate on racing – and now he’s a motocross world champion at 17 Gavin Foster In 1998, his first year of 125cc motocross Grand Prix racing, Durbanite Grant Langston, then just 15, finished 35th in the world championships. Last year the youngster took a very impressive 10th. At last, in August this year came the reward he’d sacrificed his schooling for – Langston became South Africa’s fourth motorcycling world champion by winning both heats of the Finnish Grand Prix at Heinola. Langston caused a stir in motocross circles at the end of last year when he took pole position and won both heats of the German Grand Prix, the penultimate round of the 1999 world championships. Some of the critics said he’d been lucky, and when the youngster crashed out after taking pole in the final Grand Prix of the season a week later, one of the magazines ran an article saying that “Langston was brought down to earth with a thud on a real man’s track”. Humble pie must form a major part of the European diet by now, because Langston’s performance this year proved that his talent has contributed more to his success than has luck. In 32 Grand Prix starts he scored no fewer than 12 wins, with a total of 25 podium appearances.
Just six months ago Langston said he was hoping for a top-five placing in the championship. “I think everybody expected me to do well, win a few races, but not many thought I had the consistency to win the title,” he told me from his base in Holland this week. “It was never easy, but I came into the season prepared mentally and physically which gave me an advantage. Even after a slow start in Spain, where I finished second and fourth, I knew that I’d be in contention for the title at the end.” At the French Grand Prix two weeks later Langston on his KTM finished second and third, before taking the lead in the championship with a double win at the Dutch Grand Prix – the first of four doubles he would score this season. Having achieved his goal of winning a world championship Langston is now heading west, where he will contest the 2001 American national motocross and the West Coast supercross series. Although not classed as world championship series the competition is every bit as tough as it is in Grand Prix racing, but Langston’s quietly confident that he’ll do as well for KTM in the United States as he did in Europe. “I’ve beaten Travis Pastrana, who dominated the 125cc class in America,” he says. “But he’s fast and will probably be harder to beat in his own backyard. I don’t think I’ll change my tactics by much, though – why change a winning combination?” To some it may seem a step backwards for a world champion to move to a national championship series in his title year, when he should be reaping the huge financial rewards that come with a world title. The fact is that motocross and supercross in the US are big business, and many Americans consider the Grand Prix world championships as a European thing. Competition is stiff, and top riders earn millions of dollars without ever leaving the country. “The money’s quite a lot better in the US because the market is so much bigger,” says the teenager who is already worth millions in rand terms. And after America? “I’m not sure as yet. I’ve signed a two-year deal and haven’t thought further than that. If it goes well I might stay in the US for longer, but I’d like to do some races in Europe, or even return to Grand Prix.”