Maria Forsberg has proved herself to be one of the most popular riders in GNCC Racing both on and off the track. After wrapping up her 4^th consecutive title at Powerline Park, a surprise announcement came in form of her announcing her retirement at the end of the 2013 season. We caught up with Maria to talk retirement, her career, and more.

 

GNCCRacing.com: How’s everything going today?
It’s going awesome!

Are you ready for another weekend of racing at The Ironman?
Oh, I’m totally ready. Should be a great weekend for racing.

Do you enjoy The Ironman? How’s it treated you in the past?
Well, one year I did the afternoon race and ended up getting taken out pretty hard so it didn’t treat me too well that year, but I did get the holeshot, so that’s good. But, I still like the course and really enjoy the creek crossings, and uphills. Those are a blast.

Does it feel weird knowing that The Ironman is your final GNCC?
I don’t know if “weird” is the right word for it. I think “sad” maybe? I don’t know really, there’s a lot of emotions for sure.

What do you think will be your favorite thing about retirement?
Probably getting to see my husband a little more, plus my dogs and my house. I’m super excited on one side but I’m also sad on another side. So, it’ll be interesting for sure.

Obviously you’ll always be a racer at heart and continue to ride, but what are you going to miss most about racing?
By far, the people and the fans. I was really fortunate when I first came to the east coast. Right from the start people just took me in as one of their own because a lot of times I was traveling on my own. I probably have 20 sets of “parents” on the east coast and a ton of brothers and sisters, definitely a lot of friends. It’s going to be really hard but I’m not going to stay out of the scene completely. I want to come back and visit, and hopefully give back to the sport as much as I can.

You’ve been doing all the GNCCs since 2010, what has been your favorite part about them?
Wow. There’s seriously like 100 different things I love about the series. It’s always been mixed feelings though. Working all week, then it’s really late and I haven’t seen Ted or my dogs much and I start feeling like “I don’t know if I want to go” but then the second I get to the track it’s like I’m welcomed with open arms and everyone is so great that I don’t want to leave. It’s always been like that and every race has definitely been worth going to and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I love the fans, I think it’s hilarious how they’re covered in mud at 8:00 in the morning and they love it, I’ve had people push me all the way up a hill before or help though a bottleneck. They just grab your back fender and push you, and it’s just awesome. I haven’t experienced fans like that on the west coast ever. So I like the fans, and I’ve also grown really close to my team, my teammates wives, other teams. When I’m watching the pro race I find myself cheering for pretty much the entire top 12 guys because I like them all. Obviously Kailub [Russell] and Charlie [Mullins] are my teammates and I cheer for them for sure but it’s like, shoot, there’s Chris Bach and there’s Thad or Rory and I’m really fortunate to know everyone there and that’s just been awesome!

 

You’ve accomplished so much in a fairly short amount of time, but what has been the biggest accomplishment of your career?
You know, I’ve been asked that before I don’t really have a good answer. I wouldn’t say it’s one event or one thing but the X-Games gold medals, the ISDE medals, being the first female rider on the factory off-road team, those are all my main feats but I guess the biggest thing would be how these parents come up to me and tell me how their daughter races because of me or to see the look in a little girl’s eye when they meet you, I never in a million years thought I would have that effect on people’s lives to the point that I still don’t really even believe it and I’ll have friends or teammates tell that I really do and have paved the way for women’s racing and that women know they have a chance for a factory ride since I was fortunate enough for KTM to give my an opportunity. It’s still crazy to me because I just think of myself as a hometown Washington girl, putting my pants on the same way as everyone else, one leg at a time. It’s still weird for me to think that I have, well, I only have about 3000 Instagram followers but it’s crazy to think that people are interested in knowing what I do every day, but there’s people out there who do. So I would have to say that’s my biggest, most proud moment in racing is knowing that there’s people who look up to me and I’ve had an impact on people’s lives.

That’s definitely something to be proud of and like you said, you’ve been a pretty big inspiration to a lot of riders, not just girls but also some guys too, what is one thing you’d like to say to them?
I guess, the biggest thing would be that it really is possible to accomplish your dreams. Everyone always says work hard and do your best, but that really is true. It took me 10 years of racing, spending my own money and reaching out to sponsors before I ever became a factory rider, I think I was 25 when I finally ended up with the ride and I started racing the WORCS series when I was 16. It doesn’t just get handed to you and it doesn’t just come in 1 or 2 years. If you really want to pursue it, it can be a long road but it’s worth every minute of it. Even if you don’t become a factory rider or have tons of support, the people that I’ve met on the east coast, in Europe , in X-Games and everywhere else, would more than make up for that. When I was younger I used to look up to Destry Abbott and Kurt Caselli, those were the two I looked up to the most in racing and now I’m fortunate enough to call them my friends. I remember getting autographs from them and thinking they’re such an inspiration to the sport, and to have them text me or something now, or hangout together, it’s still so cool to me. And I’ve learned so much from not just them but so many other pros, it’s all not worth giving up. Even if I had to spend all my own money to get to where I am, I wouldn’t trade it for the world because it’s made me who I am today.

So you’ve got your 4^th consecutive GNCC title wrapped up already, but what do you hope to accomplish at The Ironman?
I think after announcing my retirement, there’s going to be a lot of girls and guys too who really want to beat me because it’s going to be their last chance to and that really doesn’t matter to me. Obviously, I’m going to go for the win and the overall, that’s always my goal but I really just want to have fun and enjoy it. I really want to soak up those two and a half days with as many people as I can talk to and as many hugs as possible. That’s really my goal going into the weekend. There’s a lot of people I need to thank for the opportunities I’ve had and been given but I think it’s more about really soaking it up and saying hi and bye to everyone. I just want to have fun at what could be my very last time getting to even ride on the east coast. I don’t want to be all caught up on “win win win” because I know I can win and it doesn’t need to be every race. I don’t feel like I need to prove anything to anyone and I just want to go out, have fun and if a girl or a guy beats me, it’s well deserved.

What kind of advice would you give to aspiring female racers?
It’s really hard because a lot of female racers hangout with guys, I always have and sometimes it’s hard to take advice from guys because they’re built different and have different styles. So, just be open minded, but my advice for well, any race really, would be to ride with people faster than you. I was always the only girl who would go on the guy’s ride growing up and I was always the slowest one but I wouldn’t give up. And it doesn’t make you a better rider to go out with people who are slower than you. It’s fun because you’re the fast one and you’re waiting on other people but it makes you a much better rider if you branch out and ride with faster people. There were rides I went on with my brother and his friends where I was pushing my bike up hills and over logs but that’s helped to make me the Endurocross rider that I am. Trust me, there were a lot of tears, maybe some bad words but I look back on it now and I was really fortunate to have those people let me ride with them, even if I was the slowest because I wouldn’t have gotten any better if I only rode with slower riders.

Alright, before we wrap this up, who would you like to thank?
I truly can’t thank everyone because you’d be on the phone with me until the race started (laughs). The main ones would obviously be the Factory FMF/KTM team for sure. I had 3 mechanics this year and they were all incredible to me. Hollywood, Big Stu Baylor and Woody, plus Chuck, Tanner, Antti, it really is a team effort because we all help one another. My teammates, I’ve gotten great advice from Taddy [Blazusiak], [Mike] Brown, Kailub [Russell] and Charlie [Mullins],  and I think I’ve been incredibly fortunate to be on the best off-road team there is. Thor, Motorcycle Superstore, Rekluse, Sidi, Asterisk, Motion Pro, Dunlop, all the team sponsors. I also have to thank all the GNCC staff. Jeff Russell, Barry Hawk, Bill Allen, all the Coombs family, you Mr. Bolt-On, Chandler, Courtney, Rachel, and all the wives I’ve become friends with, and Chris Bach and the Douglas Family, that’s my dinner crew every weekend. Just truly everyone, all the girls I race with. It’s pretty cool to call your competitors your friends like Becca [Sheets] and Kacy [Martinez] and it’s cool to see more girls coming into the series like Kacy and Jessica [Patterson] step it up and make all the girls faster. Just everyone really. I honestly could go on forever, but everyone, thank you all!