Watts turns blue
By TMX Archives on 27th Apr 07
FORMER World Enduro Champion and US GNCC title winner, Shane Watts, is now a Yamaha rider having traded in his XC250 for a YZ250 prior to the fourth round of this season US GNCC series. The last time Shane rode a bike other than a KTM was in 1992, when he raced for Suzuki in Australia.
Having done his best at the opening rounds of the GNCC series to make everyone aware of the fact that he was now a privateer competitor, receiving no official support from KTM North America, Watts' relationship with his former employer finally came to an end a few weeks ago when he announced he would race a Yamaha. Watts has raced for KTM for 15 years, but a fallout left him in full privateer status with the orange marque in 2007.
''The call for support went right up to the company president, and he said no,'' said Watts when asked about his switch.
''I asked them one more time if they would be able to support me but they said no. I have an offer for some help from Yamaha, but nothing is official yet. At least this way I will get Yamaha contingency money.''
At round four of the GNCC series, Shane finished in eighth position, a result he was far from pleased with having ridden too cautiously. ''It's a decent finish considering it being my first time out on the Yamaha, however I'm still pretty disappointed with my result,'' he explained. ''I was concentrating too much on making sure that I finished the race, otherwise everyone would have been really questioning my decision to race the YZ250.
''I just rode way too cautiously. I totally missed this golden opportunity to get an excellent result and move into the points lead. That won't happen next time!''