Dave Thorpe - a man on a mission!
By TMX Archives on 27th Jan 12
When all we seem to be faced with is economic doom and gloom its good to know that the British motocross scene seems to be holding its own in these turbulent times. For 2012 there will be a new addition to the paddock in the shape of former world champ Dave Thorpes newest venture the Buildbase Honda Motocross team which will see its line-up of riders competing in the Maxxis British Championship, the Red Bull Pro Nationals and selected rounds of the world championships.
This isn't DT's first foray into the world of team ownership having run the Cat Honda team a decade or so ago and having the job as CCM's Race Director last season reignited his desire to be at the helm of his own team once again.
"I really enjoyed the CCM thing and when that came to a natural close my wife, Gail, said ‘why don't you do your own thing',” explains Thorpey. "I wasn't keen as I'd done that before and to be fair it wasn't a brilliant experience. I slept on it, got up the next day really early as it had obviously been on my mind, put pen to paper and started writing down a load of ideas.
"I was thinking that I'm in a different place now, let's see what sort of support we can put together. I think the sport's in a different place from when I last had a team, there's more potential to attract sponsorship for things like the Red Bull series and the Maxxis and I do enjoy being involved with motocross.”
The first port of call was to obviously decide on what motorcycle would be the weapon of choice and with DT's historical links to Honda that was the number one target. A proposal was put together and presented to Honda and after a few meetings and lots of talks things slowly started to evolve.
"I tried to think outside of the box and when I approached Honda I tried to think of things outside of racing, I wanted to include the dealer network because ultimately we go racing to try to sell bikes at the dealers. We go racing to be a showcase for our sponsors, for everyone to see what we use and why we use it and anything new that comes on the market we get to test, use and provide feedback on. I absolutely want this to be a success because anything I put my name to I want to be sure that it is success!”
With Honda on board the next job was to select a rider line-up that would be able to deliver on all fronts and a seven-strong squad was announced, headed up by none other than MX2 GP winner, Frenchman Nicolas Aubin.
"One of the reasons we have a reasonably big team is because we have to have people in there that can cover all aspects of what we're trying to achieve,” explains Thorpe. "The team is divided into two – the Buildbase Honda team consisting of Nicolas, Jordan Booker, Ryan Houghton and Dani Marsh, who will be having a crack at the women's World Championship series plus the Phoenix Tools Honda team with Maarten Cremers, Jackson Evans and Ben Denison.
"With Nicolas we have a proven GP rider, 23-years-old with plenty of growth left in him along with two of the best young riders out there in Jordan and Ryan, who both have a huge amount of potential.
"We've got Jackson Evans, someone that I believe can and will produce the goods at national level. We've got Maarten Cremers with whom I've had an excellent relationship for the last two years and who does a great job for us as regards the public and local races. Then we have Ben Denison riding for us down in the South West as part of our Phoenix Tools connection.
"We will also have Dani riding in the women's GPs which will give us good exposure there so in that group of people we have someone for everything. Our open evenings, our dealer days, our set up days – we have someone for everything and that really is what it's all about. We want to make people aware of what we do, where we are, what we want to attract and the people we want to attract.”
With full-time GP rides as rare as a genuine whiplash claim the chances of persuading someone into giving one up to come and race the British domestic series would seem slim at best but that's exactly what the silver-tongued Thorpe managed in securing the services of French flyer Nico Aubin.
"I had two good options really. One was to stay with HDI KTM as we were coming off a good year and the other was to ride for Dave,” explains Nico. "I knew David was really interested in me and motivated to work with me so that's what really made my mind up. I had a good feeling about it and I feel it's a good moment in my career to make the move. I know what David has achieved in his career and I respect that a lot, for him to believe in me gives me a lot of confidence.”
FOR FULL REPOT AND PICTURES SEE T+MX JANUARY 27
