Catching Up with … Andy White

By Danny Brault

It’s no secret—times are tough. We’ve seen some scary moves and budget cuts in all forms of racing in the last few months. Most recently, in our little racing world, we were shocked to hear that Suzuki Canada was pulling out of OTSFF’s national program. From what I know (which isn’t much), Kawasaki, Yamaha and KTM are still supporting national efforts. KTM Canada is often considered the little brother among the “Big Five” so I thought it would be good to check in with their race director, Andy White, and see how the economy is effecting their program.

DMX: Hello, Andy, how have the holidays gone for you and your family?
Andy White: Good! Just relaxed and got together with the wife’s family. They live north of Montreal in ski country. It actually rained on Saturday and Sunday, so we couldn’t go skiing. We ate lots, napped and did the same old thing. It was good.

Was Santa good to you?
Yep, Santa is always good to me!

How are things shaping up for you and KTM going into 2009?
Well, my budgets are usually talked about in July/August for the 2009 season, but we didn’t anticipate the problems with the economy that we’re seeing now. So we knew that we couldn’t start spending money until it was time to hire riders. Obviously, we had to make cuts and the racing budget was one that we looked at. We’ve dropped a couple of lines of support, like supermoto, ice racing, and our Parts Canada Superduke program. Unfortunately, we started the [Superduke] program last year, and had some success, but due to sales and the economy, we had to make some cuts. Fortunately, we are going to keep going strong with off-road, ATV, minis, and some of the motocross. For motocross, it doesn’t matter if we have three or five guys, we’re still going to be out there. At the end of the day, we have to careful, budget-wise, to keep ourselves going.

For sure. I am happy to see that KTM Canada is going to continue offering contingency for amateurs. But does that include pros, too?
We started that last year when we were thinking of ways to promote our bigger bikes more. Our little bikes, the 65s and 85s, basically sell on their own. We wanted to boost our big bike sales to paying people, like juniors, intermediates, vets, and women racers. We also had a pro contingency last year for the nationals, but we didn’t use a dollar for that because those guys were factory riders and had their own contracts. We took the national contingency and used it between the three amateur events, Lethbridge, Sand Del Lee and Walton. So we’re going to be supporting the amateurs, events and girls better in `09 than `08. Another thing, too, a lot of people think that our product from Austria is more expensive than the Japanese. We did a price comparison recently, and we discovered that our 250F and 450F are cheaper than most bikes in their category. So our motorcycles aren’t anymore expensive like some people are led to believe—and you can earn money for doing well on one.

So you’ve got Eric Nye and his #1 plate under the big tent for the Canadian Nationals. Who else is on the team?
I do kind of know, but with the budgets and everything, we’re waiting until the last minute. I’ve never signed a full team before Christmas; I’ve always had an idea of who I wanted to sign. Right now, there is a hell of lot more riders than ever. Not that I’m shopping, but I want to make sure I have the right budget to spend on racing. I don’t want to promise anything to a rider and than sign them. I don’t want to be in the negative with KTM at the end of the year. I enjoy my job at KTM and want to keep it [laughs]. We’re planning on issuing a press release shortly announcing the team, and I don’t want to give it away quite yet.

Have you been talking with young Ryan Millar at all?
Yes, we have.

Okay, because one rumour is circulating that he is on the factory team.
Well … we’re talking about that. Nothing is 100 percent yet. As I said, we’ll be putting out a press release shortly.

Interesting…. The headlines are hard to miss; it’s no secret that we’re going through some tough economic times. What’s your outlook on the New Year and Canadian motocross?
I think we’re lucky that we’re in a different country. We’ll definitely get some spin-off from the U.S.; we’ve already seen that with our dollar and gas prices. People, who have spent big money on racing, may cut back a little. It’s still a family oriented sport, and I think people will still be racing and having a good time. We need to see people buying parts and accessories to keep our economy going. It will be harder for dealers to sell units, and that’s why we’ve cutback on the amount of units that we’ve brought in. That said, we’re still going to be out promoting our product. I think we’ll see fewer riders at some nationals; we might see some guys with year-old machinery, which is fine, they’re still competitive. For some, it might be keeping a tire or plastic on for an extra race. It’s a big question mark that we’re all wondering.
 

Andy White (12) was once a national pro chasing his racing dreams across Canada, and he still takes in the odd local race when he can.

photo: Dan Stenning

I’ve read some debates on the forums regarding the possibility of 250 two-strokes being allowed to race in the MX2 class. Has Mark Stallybrass discussed this with you at all?
He has not brought it up, but in the U.S., they are allowing the two-stroke in the 250F class. I think two-strokes are still important in our industry. One of our best selling units is our two-stroke off-road units, the 250s and 300s; they are what our top off-road riders choose.

Would you support that change if it were proposed?
Definitely. We build a really strong SX 250; it’s a rocketship. If I had a rider who can ride a two-stroke just as good, I would definitely entertain the idea of him competing on one. And we sell a lot of these things, so it makes sense for us to market these, like we did with Jacqueline Ross and the 144.

Would it be cheaper for you to support a rider on a two-stroke 250 opposed to a 250F?
For a privateer, I would say a two-stroke is cheaper, but because we have our motors done by KTM USA, we don’t pay $3,000 to $5,000 an engine like Pro Circuit, FMF or MDK. A Bondi two-stroke engine, you’d pay, what, $500? For a factory team, it really isn’t any cheaper because it’s all done in house. The parts may end up being a little more, but it wouldn’t be much cheaper. A two-stroke 250 racing against a 250F would be incredible to see, though.

What was your best racing memory from the 2008 season?
I think Gopher Dunes was a big surprise for the team, and me, watching Eric Nye go 1-1 and then Jacqueline lapping the field on her 144. We didn’t expect Eric to go 1-1. The year before, Eric rode the MX1 class at Gopher just to get some seat time and he really struggled. I wouldn’t say I was disappointed because I didn’t have big hopes for him in the 450 class, but we had heard rumour of the series going nine rounds in 2008, so we wanted to give him an opportunity to race all of the tracks. I think his results then made him go home, reflect, and realize that he needed to get his act together to be an MX2 champion. We have a little sand track near the shop, and when he came up in the spring, he would just go out and ride, ride, ride. It paid off. He dominated both motos. [Kyle] Beaton tried hard to stay with him but couldn’t maintain the pace for the entire moto.
 

Eric Nye captured KTM Canada's third MX2 championship in four years.

photo: James Lissimore

I had an opportunity to hang out and chat with Eric quite a bit this year, and he seems like a really good kid. He’s kind of the silent champion, isn’t he?
Yeah, you know, he’s not a Norcal or Ryan Lockhart or [Michael] Willard. He’s very to himself and he has a very supportive family behind him. He’s not a wild child [laughs]. He was hard to read the first time that I met him, but the more time I spent with him, the more I liked him. He’s just an all around good kid. There are some riders who are just training nuts. Eric doesn’t look like that character, but on the track, he just keeps going and going. At Gopher, he maintained a steady pace for the whole motos. There are guys who are quicker than him, but he has strong speed and is a smart, calculated rider. We’re going to put our efforts behind him again and hope for the best for a second championship.

What about the Women’s class. Is Jackie Ross returning to defend her #1 plate this year?
We’re hoping to have her back; we have a verbal agreement. She will be at the Toronto Motorcycle Show this weekend. She will in the Royal Distributing/KTM booth signing autographs. She is actually coming up to do some testing for the Royal Distributing snocross team. She’s pumped!

Cool! I do recall her telling me that she wants to experience a snowy winter, so I guess this is her chance. Thanks for the interview, Andy, and good luck in the New Year!
No problem, Danny, you too.