Doug Henry’s still the man. Busted up and in a chair thanks to a high speed supermoto accident in 2007, the famed New England MX champion and longtime Monster Energy athlete mined the most precious of metal out of Winter X Games 15 this past weekend – a gold medal in Adaptive Snocross.
With the effort Henry became the only athlete ever to win gold in both the Summer and Winter X Games’ motorized racing sports, doing so in Supermoto (’05) and now Winter X snowmobiling.
For the younger Monster Army members that may not know the Doug Henry story, check out this video from Budds Creek in 1995, featuring Henry and fellow Monster-backed athlete Jeremy McGrath. Henry broke his back in this wreck, then pulled the sport’s single-most amazing comeback when he won the Outdoor National MX title three summers later in ’98.
Doug Henry’s infamous crash @ Budds Creek, Md.
Henry was also was highly instrumental in the MX industry’s transition period from two-stroke to four-stroke engine technology, winning the first-ever modern four-stroke Monster Energy Supercross main event on a prototype YZM400 at Las Vegas in 1997. That summer he’d break both wrists in a wreck at the track that had become his nemesis, Budds Creek. Un-phased, Henry returned the following year on the new Yamaha YZ400F, avenged his two injuries at Budds with a spectacular win, and went on to win the ’98 Outdoor Nationals’ AMA No. 1 plate – easily one of the greatest stories in all of motorsports.
Inducted in the AMA Hall of Fame in 2005, Henry’s the kind of guy we should all aspire to be: Hard-working, fun-loving, good-natured and possessing a drive to succeed that’s second-to-none. Here’s his words on the recent X Games, his gold medal run and what’s going on with him here in the near future.
Monster Energy: So good to see Doug Henry back in the saddle again, albeit a broken saddle. What happened to your get up at Winter X after you pulled such a good start?
Doug Henry: I have a clip that connects my strap to the seat. And the connector clip broke.
Monster Energy: When did that happen in the race? Looked like you pulled a great start and were off and running with Mike Schultz.
Doug Henry: If you look at the video you’ll see I over-jumped the last jump I went over – that’s when it happened. About a third of the way into the opening lap.
Monster Energy: So, basically, that made the sled almost unrideable? Looked like all you could pretty much do was roll everything.
Doug Henry: For me, yeah. After that there was no more jumping. Because if I were to jump I’d physically leave the snowmobile – without being connected. So I’d end up going one way and the snowmobile would go the other.
Monster Energy: So a $3 part ruined some priceless adaptive engineering?
Doug Henry: Oh, yeah … lots of engineering (he said in disgust).
Monster Energy: At least you walked away with the gold medal, you’ve got to be pretty pleased with that.
Doug Henry: I’m happy they were able to separate it (Adaptive SnoCross) into the two classes. I felt that I was riding pretty strong, though – would have liked to finish better in the race (6th overall, 1st given the severity of his injury).
Monster Energy: So do you think that with your speed in practice, had you not broke you’d have been pretty close to the overall podium?
Doug Henry: Oh, I think so. I think I had the speed to be able to run with the front runners for sure.
Monster Energy: Did you clear some of the doubles and that during practice?
Doug Henry: I was doing everything that all the other adaptive riders were doing.
Monster Energy: Who helped you pull the engineering together on your sled, how did that all work?
Doug Henry: I designed the seat and I had a friend of mine fabricate it up, Steve Serafini of FabUThis. We’re still working on the finished product. We only had about two weeks to get that one done (for X Games 15), so by Lake Geneva (ISOC Snocross Series) we should have something even better.
Monster Energy: So are you kind of the crash test dummy for this product?
Doug Henry: Absolutely!
Monster Energy: Do you get any time to do any backwoods riding, stuff above and beyond your racing, up in Connecticut?
Doug Henry: Yeah, around here I just jump on my sled and go ride – have a ball.
Monster Energy: Were you able to watch the other Winter X SnoCross main event? Did you get to see Tucker Hibbert race? And in your opinion, Doug, how good is Tucker Hibbert? Can you compare him to a McGrath or Ricky Carmichael in his prime?
Doug Henry: Or even a Henry (laughter). He’s definitely in the league of that. Tucker is on his game. He really wants to win and he has a program that works, with his training, with his setup and with his mind. He knows he’s fast and knows he can be strong for that many laps. He’s in good shape and, the most important thing of all is he wants it bad.
Monster Energy: When you were in Aspen did you get to run any of those adaptive mono skis?
Doug Henry: I’d done mono skiing in the past and really enjoy it. It’s a lot of fun. Lost mine in the fire and just haven’t replaced it yet … so I haven’t got out this year. But it’s definitely something that I love to do.
Monster Energy: Do you ever see yourself being competitive on a mono ski, maybe racing at Winter X, along with the sleds?
Doug Henry: I think so. Came out last year and tried to do it, but had the wrong equipment and everything broke. It’d be tough (to do both), but doable. I’d like to, but I’ll tell you – trying to get good on both things for an event would be real tough. We struggle just to get ready for one. Plus, in New England we usually get snow around January, so I really don’t have that much time to get prepared.
Monster Energy: What else did you do as Aspen for fun?
Doug Henry: I got to ride one of those Action Chairs, which they loaned us. A powered track chair. Those things were awesome. We got to cruise around the whole place on those.
Monster Energy: Any chance we’ll see you race a dirt bike this summer at X Games?
Doug Henry: Yeah, my bike’s sitting in my basement now. As soon as the snow starts to melt I jump on that and start riding. And if they have an Adaptive MX this summer, yes, I’ll race it.
Monster Energy: Sounds good. Hey, thanks for the time, Doug. Always a pleasure to speak with you. Keep us posted on your upcoming adventures.
Doug Henry: Will do. Good seeing everyone from Monster out as Aspen this past week!
