Travis Preston
Team AMSOIL/Chaparral/Honda

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Last season, Factory Connection's Travis Preston and his Honda CR125R took the AMA 125 Western Region Supercross series' championship, with two race wins for good measure. It was Honda's first 125 Supercross title in nine years. Yet the toughest part of that remarkable feat for the 24-year-old Southern Californian wasn't the fiery heat of competition, but staying focused despite the unfamiliar glare of media attention.

"Riding on the track was no problem," Preston says. "But when I got off the track, the most difficult part was doing interviews, people asking a lot of questions.

"It was tough at the time, but I think I can get used to it," he says with a smile.

Yet while Preston might be unfamiliar with all the attention that goes with winning a major championship, he's certainly not unfamiliar with winning in general. In fact, he got an early start. After starting riding at age 5, Preston entered his first race three years later.

"One day my dad was racing and he asked me if I wanted to race," Preston says. "I said, 'Yeah!' It was at De Anza Cycle Park in Southern California. I was on a Honda 60, and there were three of us in the race. I think I won!"

Some 17 years and one championship later, Preston's drive and ambition have only grown stronger. "The thing I'm really persistent about," he says, is that I want to ride as hard as I can every time I ride. I started thinking that way two years ago, and now it's starting to sink in. On race day you have to give it 100 percent."

As he's learned, that's especially true in the hyper-competitive 125 class, both Supercross and outdoor National racing. Preston agrees with his teammate Michael Byrne that winning in the 125 class is a mighty hard dollar.

"On a 125 you don't have any time to really set up for corners and obstacles," Preston says. "You're wide-open the whole time trying to clear jumps. On a 250 you can take more time, you have to be a little bit more precise, whereas on a 125 you're just casing everything, and out of control."

Rather than specializing in the 125 classes for 2003, Preston will be following a similar program to teammate Byrne's. For his second year on the team, Preston will defend his 125 Western Region title, and compete in the smaller class outdoors. But at Supercross events that don't have a 125 West support class, he'll ride the headlining event on a CR250R. And although he doesn't have a great deal of 250 Supercross experience, Preston showed what he's capable of at two end-of-season European races last year. At the 20th annual Bercy Supercross in Paris, France, Preston finished third overall. A week later at the Italian Pianeta Supercross, he took the overall win, with 3/1 finishes.

Clearly, Travis Preston has all the right stuff to become one of the sport's great champions. He's already got one title, and he's learned how to win on his CR250R. He might have felt uncomfortable in the media spotlight last year, but he adapted quickly. And now he's ready for more of the attention that goes along with being a winner.