In one of the best interviews you will see with Ryan Villopoto, the American legend revealed what his rookie salary was at 17 years old while riding for Mitch Payton, just how much he paid Aldon Baker and how he injured his knee after dominating Glen Helen in his rookie year on a 450!
On how much he earned at 17, that saw him win the outdoor title, RV said: “It’s good money, my first contract at Kawasaki, I had just turned 17, was $225,000 for base salary. A supercross win was £10,000 for the heat race and $50,000 for the main event.
“In the 450s it was still $10,000 for the heat race but $100,000 for the main event. Championship bonuses for the 250 class is still the same today, it’s $500,000, 450 is a million dollars and it’s the same for outdoors. There is a lot of money on the line.”
But amazingly, Villopoto lost the shot of a winning a million thanks to wrestling with his uncle after some beers on the Saturday night having dominated at Glen Helen in his 450 outdoor debut! “I think I came from further than 20 seconds back and went 1-1. We went back to the house, it would have been Saturday night. We had a lot of fun, got pretty wild and me and uncle were wrestling. Somehow we ended up in the spare bedroom, wrestling around on the ground and, from what I remember, he rolled over when we were on the ground and rolled over on my knee.
“I already didn’t have an ACL at the time, I hadn’t had one since I was 14. He rolled over on it and it just popped the thing out. I had popped it out a ton of times prior to this, I woke up the next morning hungover and thought, this isn’t right. This one was different, we finished it off! That was a million dollars lost if I had won the championship!”
“So I roll out to Pala (Monday/Tuesday), I didn’t say anything, everything is normal, go out and I think I spun maybe two or three laps and came in and I said put my foot down and tweaked my, I got to go get an MRI and I got it fixed three days later.”
Eventually Villopoto got in touch with Aldon Baker as he looked to up his game in the 450 class but it would cost him! “If I wouldn’t have hired him (Baker) Dungey would have hired him! At the time I had won races, it was the fitness side that was lacking and said ok, I’m in. So I had to talk about what I was going to pay him and he goes, “it’s $350,000 plus $50,000 championship bonus!” The way I justified it was I had already won a couple of races prior to that in 09 and a few also in 2010 before I got hurt, so I thought it’s $100,000 a win, so if I win three races I can have him paid off!”
Four supercross titles later and many more wins, it is safe to say the investment Villopoto made worked!
Watch the full interview below as an open Villopoto talks about all aspects of his career including the move to GPs and becoming a mini-dad for his kids racing now.
