Posted on February 7, 2012 by John. There have been comments

Teddy Maier has been racing around North America for quite some time now. Having experience in both Canadian and U.S. competition, he has certainly seen his fair share of tracks throughout his career. With a MX2 championship win in 2009, and after barely missing the title again in 2010, he has also enjoyed a great deal of success on the track.

Because his most impressive performances happened in Canada, however, the casual motocross fan may have missed them. If they're not already familiar with the name - or if they forgot about him due to the years he spent up North - they'll certainly remember Teddy Maier after the 2012 season.

“It has been kind of a long road back for me.” Maier said in a recent interview. “The 2008 season was my first year doing it; I did decent and ended up eighth in the series in the east. The following year I was promised a deal and I ended up getting socked in the face at the last minute with that and was forced to go do arenacross after that. That kind of hurt my exposure and I had some injuries along the way as well. I got this opportunity to do supercross again and I took a chance at doing it, money-wise, but I wanted to prove that I can do pretty good on a privateer bike and I'm happy so far with the way it's been going.”

Teddy Maier is optimistic about his return to supercross. He plans to compete at all of the west coast rounds in the 2012 season, with an ultimate goal of finishing in first place at every race possible. He has had some difficulty settling into his groove, however, and he has also had to deal with a minor - but persistent - health problem.

“I've been struggling with my asthma the last couple of races.” Maier explained in his interview. At A1 I felt good, but at Phoenix, something triggered and I had only half-breaths. I got some medicine and I'm on it, I feel a whole lot better. I can take a breath and my chest doesn't get tight. I've had problem pumping up because I can't get oxygen.”

Maier, born in 1985 in Fort Dodge, Iowa, has been riding for nearly two decades. He has spent no less than seven of those years in the professional circuit, where he has seen success with several different teams, sponsors, and even countries. Despite this, Maier credits his current sponsors for providing him with the opportunity to return to the United States for the 2012 AMA Supercross Series.

“I wouldn't be out there if it wasn't for Stu Bailey from Hyper-X Racewear.  He's the reason why I'm out there and I owe a lot to him. All the sponsors on the team like Ti-Lube and Race Tech have been great. Race Tech has done a lot of testing with us which helps a lot and everyone else is onboard.”