Love him or hate him, Johnny Rock Page (yes that’s his real name) is competing for AMA’s premiere title: the AMA Pro National Guard American Superbike championship. He has a very charismatic presence and certainly brings a unique style to the Superbike grid. I recently caught up with him in the paddock area at Barber before he was scheduled to take to the track for Race 2 while race 2 of the Supersport class was running. Here’s that interview:

Bryan Group: We’re in Alabama for the last round of the AMA superbike championship. How’s the weekend going so far?

Johnny Rock Page: It’s been really strange. I feel OK but when I race and I try to expend any type of energy I get sick. After two or three laps I feel like throwing up. It’s really weird; Alabama or this weather is doing something to me. My electrolytes are not right or something in my body’s not right. Then again it could be my age.

BG: I know yesterday we briefly spoke and you mentioned you weren’t feeling well. What does puking in your helmet at over 100 mph feel like?

JRP: It’s definitely distracting. I had two things going on – I had my fairings coming off my bike and I was puking in my helmet. I had to swallow it back because I didn’t want it to fly all over my face shield. I desperately wanted to stay in the race so I was puking and swallowing, puking and swallowing – it was disgusting. I was in total survival mode at that time.

BG: I haven’t ridden Barber yet but I’m riding it tomorrow and the layout looks fantastic. How do you find Barber?

JRP: I like Barber. It’s really nice. It’s got all kinds of fun parts to it. It kind of reminds me of a lot of different tracks. It’s really smooth and flows and then it’s got some parts that you have to get on the brakes really hard and slam it in there.

BG: Surface wise what do you think of it?

JRP: The surface is really nice. It has so many cool parts to it. It’s got some really good parts that make you feel like a racer coming out of a corner, crossin’ it up and wheelin’. The ultimate photo shots that as a racer you love to see. It’s kind of a dream of a racer to capture some of those photos and it’s got some unique corners that allow that.

BG: Currently you’re competing at AMA’s premiere level but how did you get started racing?

JRP: At 20 or 21 years old I saw a picture of Eddie Lawson in a corner draggin’ his knee and the local mechanic set me up a bike and told me to go try it at the raceway. I’ve never touched a bike before besides on the street. No dirt bike riding so I didn’t grow up with it at all. I went out there that weekend and from the second wave is the novice’s start after the expert’s go. I beat the entire field on the track in one of the races that weekend. I guess at that point you could say a racer was born. Not necessarily a front runner at the superbike level but I was definitely a racer of some caliber. Then I had to hang up my leathers until 2005 but I did a little bit of racing to keep my pro license. In 2005 I got real serious and formed a team and then I got hurt in the Daytona 200 really bad. So 2006 was my first year completing a full season. Time wasn’t on my side as I was getting older and trying to live this dream to see if there was any place on the superbike grid in the history of my little life as I call it. Reaching 38 years old I was eligible to go out for superbike but I was still 2 seconds off a lap at that was when it was 108% and I decided to go for it anyway and I was a really bad back marker at first, in the way constantly, getting flipped off all the time. I just kept trying anyway and didn’t want to give up. It was kind of humiliating having all of your hero’s flip you off constantly but none the less I kept sticking to it and then finally I cracked it! I figured it out and I went faster and in 2007 it was a really proud moment as everything came together and all that wasted money wasn’t a waste anymore. Walking away from my business leaving $20-$30 million on the table made sense because I always had a “you can’t take money with you” attitude and at least I could feel like I belonged. My life goal was to be a racer and it was the coolest thing in the world to finally make it at the superbike level and qualify. I remember Eric Bostrom and Jason DiSalvo giving me a thumbs up because they probably remember what it was like since they made it at such a young age and here I am 38 years old on the grid.

BG: Now that you’re 42 do you think your age helps you or is it a hindrance?

JRP: I think my age definitely handicaps me as I could die my hair black to get rid of the gray's and stay in good shape but there are something’s you can’t change. Your body just starts reacting differently after a hard day’s work-out. Even if I work out twice as much to get in better shape I still don’t recover like a 25 year old or even a 30 year old. It just starts recovering different so now I’m out there and it’s different. Every year it changes and I’m trying to stay in there but my body’s fighting me.