After five years with Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing, and the start of his pro career plagued with injuries, the team and Nick Romano have parted ways. However, after competing in 2024 and staying injury free, with a season’s best finish of sixth at Indianapolis Supercross, Romano found himself with a few options heading into the 2025 SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX). Finally landing at Phoenix Racing Honda, Romano is looking forward to a fresh start as he told the media last week during the SMX media days in Anaheim, California.
Nick, how's red treating you?
Nick Romano: I actually like it a lot. A lot more than I thought I would. Bike's good, bike's really good. I'm surprised on all of it, handles really well, power's really good. It's an all-around better package than what I've been on before. So, yeah, I'm excited.
So, how soon did you realize you had a home to go to? Were you stressing for a little bit during that season?
I wouldn't really say stressing was the word. I was kind of just in a weird place, you know, not having anything until late, but I knew something was gonna come together whether it was early or late. So, yeah, I kind of just did my best, put my foot down and sure enough I had a few offers, so it was cool to have a choice.
Is it reinvigorated your career for you going over here?
Yeah, I think so. I was in a dark hole, I guess you could say before. Just not having fun, not enjoying it. Best way to put it I was just in jail. So, this has been an awesome restart. Like I'm actually enjoying riding a dirt bike again. I wake up, I look forward to going to the track. I don't wake up and be like, “Oh you know, another day of this.” So, it’s awesome dude. Like I'm down there in Florida at my place. I have a full compound and like I said, team's been awesome bikes been great. I'm excited for the future.
You miss so much time ahead of last year's supercross season. How would you rate last year's season knowing it was gonna be your last with Star and just everything that was going on with it.
Yeah. My rookie season, it was fun, I guess you could say results weren’t top notch, but like you said, I had a brutal amount of injuries. I'd say probably a year and a half to two years prior to the beginning of the season. So, I had maybe I've counted it up with my dad. I think I had like six or seven weeks of supercross within two years. So, you can't really expect much, right? My first goal, and I said this before, was just to get through the season, healthy and learn a lot. And I did that and here we are new team. You're gonna see a new me, I'm sure.
Do you feel like towards the end of the Star you didn't have access to sort of a personalized program, which is what you needed to accelerate your progress. It was more one size fits all, which is fine for some riders, but you were in a very specific situation.
I mean, that's exactly what it is. It was just kind of got to a point where I was there for five years and I had an amazing five years there and I made tons of memories, had great amateur races, great moments in the pros. But it just kind of got to a point where I just wasn't enjoying it. I couldn't do what I wanted, and like you said, it's one size fits all there, which it works for some people and it, doesn’t work for the others and I did my best to try and make it work for sure. But at the end it just didn't play out to my cards.
Did you kind of doubt yourself by thinking, "This program works for X person, why can't it work for me?" Will you almost try to make yourself fit in the program?
Yeah, I think the people you see do good on the 250 side there, they kind of get to do what they want. And then you see the guys this year that were kinda not to where you thought they would be and we were kind of just stuck in one place, and we don't have much say when we're in the back. So, it's tough because they want the best out of you, but you want the best out of yourself and sometimes it just doesn't work together.
What do you do to dig yourself out of a hole like that? Like with injuries and headspace things? Is that what do you do to kind of bounce back?
A lot of faith in yourself. A lot of trust, good people in your circle. I mean, that's all I've tried to do. Like I said, I was in a dark hole, I felt like it was injury after injury, after injury and when you get hurt, you're just setting yourself back, back and back. So, this year is big for me, even though it wasn't result wise, it was just massive to get a whole year under my belt finally, because I went pro in 2022 did a few outdoors got hurt right before 2023 missed all last year. This season was big for me, just stay in touch with yourself.
Have you had a chance to ride with Gavin Towers and Evan Ferry?
Yeah. Yeah. So, we've been riding together the last few weeks. I guess, I really haven't done much, just because I went home for Thanksgiving. I could actually get home for once. So that was cool to spend some family time with some family. And now it's cool, but I'm excited now with Gavin, I grew up racing him and have been literally my whole life. So, it's cool. Like our parents sent us pictures of us when we were young around the fifties that we don't even remember. But we laugh about it now. So, no, it's cool. It's gonna be a good year.
