Roger DeCoster | Insight From The Man

Roger DeCoster is always open and willing to explain what’s happening in the world of KTM and Husqvarna. After getting promoted to Motorsport Director of KTM, Husqvarna, and WP’s North America operations, the motocross icon has even more influence as to what happens to the teams associated with the European brands. Considering what Red Bull KTM is in the middle of, two riders vying for a championship – one of which is in a contract season – and the battles between them, we spent a few minutes with DeCoster ahead of the Nashville Supercross and learned more about the team’s stance on their situation. Sure, it was a short talk, but The Man had plenty to say.

You’re a couple of months into your new role. How different is it compared to when you were just in charge of Red Bull KTM?

It’s not so big a difference because I was doing quite a bit of it, but there’s some more paperwork and more things to sign. Other than that, it’s not so different. Ian (Harrison, Team Manager at Red Bull KTM) and I worked very closely together and always overlapped a lot, so that made the transition very easy.

For Ian, it was easy because he always saw what was happening.

He had already been doing a lot of the stuff, so it’s not so different. It just feels a little bit weird wearing different clothes [Laughs].

Has your communication with Europe ramped up?

We talk a little bit more about the other teams, like the Husky team and the TLD team, and the suspension from the WP side. So, there is a little more communication there, but with the KTM stuff, it’s pretty similar.

Is there a lot of technical back and forth? When the GPs started to come here a few years ago, we could that there were different engine parts, longer headers, and other things being used. Is there a lot of information shared?

They have all of our settings on a weekly basis and we have all of their settings on a weekly basis. For us, even outdoors, we can’t try everything 100-percent because our riders are so under the influence of Supercross because it’s such a big focus here. Most of the year it’s what they ride and train on, then they have a week to go outdoors. Even if we give our riders the same settings as Cairoli and Herlings, they will not like it. But as the season moves on, they go more and more in that direction.

I’m sure that last week was a big talking point within the company. What do you do? Were you watching them in the first race at Houston thinking, “What are you guys doing?” or do you let them work it out themselves?

We were definitely worried, but we have talked about this several times already before because for a while now it looked like it would end up this way. We have talked about it but we want them to race and hopefully within the limits of not destroying the other’s championship chances. We are not going to change our policy, we want them to race and do the best they can. Whoever of the two ends up winning, we will be happy with. It’s always uncomfortable because if one wins and the other guy got beaten, there is one happy guy and one unhappy guy. We want to be able to enjoy whoever wins, so that makes it a little bit awkward. We still have four races to go and there are 104 points available. Eli could still do it and even Kenny, you never know. 26 points is a lot and not a lot. In this sport crashes happen often and it’s very easy to get an injury, so things could change.

Is it a challenge for you to manage two different riders, their emotions, and the people around them or is it simple for you?

I would not say it’s simple, but I have been in the same situation in the days with Honda with Jean Michel Bayle and Jeff Stanton. We had a really good team and even had a third rider that was competitive with Ricky Johnson at the time, so it was similar to this situation.

How do you feel about Cooper? Signing him is something that was a long time coming, I know that you had courted him in the past prior to his signing with Yamaha. A lot of people are surprised by how well he has done, but the team had faith in him to sign him in the first place.

I had a lot of faith in him. Like you said, I had approached him a couple of years before even and finally, it happened. I’m happy with him coming over and he’s been really good to work with. He’s still young but he’s very grown up in his racing mentality, so it’s been really good.

This is a contract year for Marvin, but he is a KTM legacy rider. You’ve come to know everything about him, so how has he progressed as a racer from the first year in the US to now?

He’s still improving. He’s not the youngest guy anymore, but what’s unusual is that a guy of his age that has been around for a few years is still progressing. I think that Cooper coming was maybe not the happiest thing for him when we told him, but I think he has used it and improved himself. Part of that reason was the coming of Cooper.

With him being in a contract year, the intent is to re-sign him, right?

We already offered him a deal for next year, but I don’t think he has made his decision yet because of the Supercross situation with the championship. We don’t want to pester him, but the offer is there. If he wants to sign today, we will sign today. If he wants to wait until the championship is done, we will wait until then. But the offer is there and it’s our intention to keep him.

Your new position is over KTM and Husqvarna, but there are other KTM supported teams in the pits. Do you have a lot of say in what happens at Rocky Mountain ATV-MC/WPS/KTM?

More in the TLD team, because it’s directly under our control. Rocky Mountain, we work with them as far as the amount of support and they have the same options with the bike, even though the bike looks a lot different because of the graphics, but they have the same options as our in-house riders. We try to make it open to everyone, even Bogle who is a replacement rider or Dean Wilson because they have the options of the same parts as the other guys.

To see how fast and how much KTM has gotten in the last ten years, with two guys fighting for the title this year and a number of other championships, this is the leading team right now. Are you surprised by the progression and how it happened so quickly or was that always part of the plan?

That was the focus and the dream. I would not have been surprised if it had taken longer, but KTM has been really good at working with us and paying attention to our requests. They let us do a lot of things the way we want to do them. They give us strict guidelines as far as the clothing and our image and all of that, but they have given us a free hand for the riders and the whole deal when we do our testing or make our choices. They have been very good to us on that side.