Greg White is the voice of the MotoAmerica Championship as the lead commentator for our premier classes on FOX Sports, including Superbike. White has been on air for a long time and has a history of success in motorcycle programming. He started with MotoAmerica in 2016 and has been in the booth ever since.
What was your introduction to the motorcycle world?
My dad riding and building motorcycles. I remember being four or five years old when my dad took parts of a BSA, Triumph, and Suzuki and put them all together to make his custom cafe racer. He had been riding long before I was born, having ridden his entire life. That sparked my initial interest in motorcycles. However, when my parents split, my mom shutdown the idea of riding as a kid. I had to make do with posters on the walls and great motorcycle magazines like Cycle News to read. When I was 19 years old and taking a break from college, I saved a few hundred bucks for a down payment and headed to the motorcycle dealership. A brand new black-with-red-stripes 1989 Kawasaki EX-500 was my first bonafide ride, marking my real introduction to the motorcycle world.
What led to you being a motorcycle racing broadcaster?
That in itself is a very long story. We will start after my two years of racing WERA and the WERA National Challenge Series as a yellow-plated Novice. I was already old by racing standards and had just moved to the Atlanta area after the 1996 Olympics. I was transitioning from Novice to Expert/Pro in road racing but had never ridden a dirt bike. Back then, lighting up the rear tire and turning the bike with the rear – dirt-track style – was all the rage. I didn’t know how to do any of it. Luckily for me, the brand new American Supercamp with Danny Walker and Chris Carr came to town. I took the school. At the same time, a man named Brian Drebber was shooting a feature story on the school for a show called Bike Week on a network called Speedvision. I had not heard of him, the show, or the network. Brian told me that he was working for a company in Marietta, Georgia, called Chet Burks Productions and that they produce a ton of motorcycle and motorcycle racing content for Speedvision. I asked him if I could see how TV was made, and he invited me over to the studio to take a look. While there, I met a few of the producers, including Chris Bond, the current producer of Pro Motocross and Supercross. At the time, Chris was the producer for the AMA Superbike Series on Speedvision. He asked me if I would fill in for one of the current commentators in the 883 and 250 GP races as the color analyst. I was just young and dumb enough to say yes. From there, more opportunities opened, like pit reporting and being a featured contributor for the show Bike Week. There are so many people who have been pivotal in giving me opportunities over the years. Drebber and Bond are just some of them, but that is how it all began.
What part of the job do you enjoy the most?
The research. It is never lost on me how lucky I am to have access to each team’s riders, crew members, and management. I enjoy getting good information and passing it on to the viewers and fans so they can feel like they are a part of the sport. For the most part, over the years, the community in the paddock has been gracious with their knowledge and time. This is racing, and there can be a ton of BS to wade through when it comes to getting the truth, and part of me loves that challenge.
What part of the job is the most difficult?
Watching someone get injured. I try and pull for all of our athletes. But when someone gets injured and cannot continue for the weekend or season, I really feel for them. Also, all of our racers are in this sport because of passion, not money. So, when I see someone lose out on opportunities because of injury, it just sucks.
What do you like to do when you’re not at the racetrack?
When I am not at the racetrack, I shoot competitive archery. I feel fortunate to have found archery in my older age. I’ve always been a competitive person, and archery allows me an outlet for that competitive stuff. When you race a motorcycle, the checkered flag has the final say. Opinions of what we do as commentators are purely subjective. A lot of what happens – meaning people’s feelings about you and the job you do – is out of your control, so that doesn’t satisfy the competitive itch. But archery, with points per arrow, allows for virtually zero subjectivity.
