Interview: Ian Kimber – Head of Global Racing Programmes at Triumph Racing

Image: Nigel McKinstry | Interview: Andy McKinstry

It’s hard to believe but this year was only Triumph’s first year in the sport and they’ve already achieved so much. Podiums and Mikkel Haarup finished an impressive fifth in the MX2 World Championship. It was the Dane’s best year of his career so far.

We caught up with Ian Kimber who is Head of Global Racing Programmes of Triumph Racing after they unveiled their new 450cc machine at the MXoN.

GateDrop: Ian, you’ve just unveiled the Triumph 450 there, I have to say you did an amazing job keeping it from the media, I was quite surprised when I seen that it was going to be launched on Thursday so was that a challenge and just how much work went into developing and when did it actually start to develop because it was all very quiet?

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Kimber: So, yeah I mean it’s always a challenge to try and keep things out of the media for sure, everyone’s looking for that spy shot, looking for that. I think the MX paddock, it’s really hard to keep stuff hidden in the MX paddock. We have to do a lot on private testing tracks, we keep everything super locked down and tell as few people as possible what is going on but we’ve got a super tight group and you know they’re really good at keeping it all confidential. The project, obviously the chassis project rolled over from the 250cc anyway, the engine project started slightly behind the 250cc so it’s a similar kind of development about three years, three and a half years for the engine project but we’re super proud of what we’ve produced, the bike is class.

GateDrop: When did you start the development just on the 450cc and did it happen in many countries or did you just focus on a few tracks here or there, how did that all work?

Kimber: No, so we try and make sure we’re testing in multiple countries, obviously there is a difference wherever you go and the tracks are different and different scales. I mean we use a lot in the UK but we test in Spain, we’ve tested in France, we’ve tested in America. The actual date of start development, I’d have to go back and double check it but about three and a half, four years ago to here.

GateDrop: Wow okay, that’s interesting and just on the MX2 GP season this year, I mean as you said there in the press conference, fifth in the world, it would seem a bit of a risk for guys joining because obviously you don’t know how a new brand is going to go until you’re a year in the project so you must be pretty proud and to start the season with the podium in Argentina, an absolute dream…

Kimber: Yeah, it’s incredible. I mean for our racing efforts to start from nothing and get on the box by getting that third in Argentina, all credit to Mikkel, all credit to Vince and the team you know, they’ve done an amazing job at taking that bike and turning it to a full factory machine. It’s not been easy along the way you know, we’ve learned a lot being new into the sport but both Mikkel and Camden have performed incredibly well and not just the MX2 GP team, I mean Jalek Swoll had some of his best seasons and his first heat race win and things like that in Supercross as well. If someone had said last year we would have had this season, I don’t think anyone would have believed us so yeah it’s incredible.

Image: Ray Archer

GateDrop: One thing that impresses me with the bike, the 250cc which we’ve seen racing in sand, hard pack and even Supercross, it’s pretty good everywhere which is very difficult to do in year one so it should only get better…

Kimber: Yeah and it’s kind of what Ricky was saying in terms of the window of adjustability is really good on the bike. The frame is unique to us in the four-stroke category anyway so it gives us a real good ability to be able to tune the chassis, get riders comfortable on it and really extract the most we can out of the engine. But you’re right, multiple different dirts or kind of terrains that it goes in, the bike just seems to perform.

GateDrop: Just on the team, I think you picked a really good team there to run the GP setup and also having Clement Desalle involved because I was speaking to Vince earlier in the season and he said Clement is very fussy but actually that’s what you need to develop a bike…

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Kimber: Yeah, we couldn’t have asked for a better team in the paddock. They have developed the bike, represented the brand, put the bike on the box and it really comes down to what we’ve done all through the product or the project. We’ve tried to surround ourselves with the best of the best, Clement is a prime example of that. Fussy, I don’t think fussy is the right word, he’s very particular, he knows what’s good, his feedback is incredible and he’s still a super fast rider as well. You can stand and watch people on the track and you can see a bike go round and I remember the first time I went and watched Clement ride and it’s like he’s fast you know, so yeah it’s an incredible opportunity for us to work with those kind of guys.

GateDrop: When you look at other brands in the paddock, obviously at the minute it’s only MX2 that you’ve focused on, which is fair enough for year one, but when you look at other brands you know they’ve got maybe a satellite team in MX2, they’ve also got an EMX250 team, maybe not next year but is that something you’re looking to have in the future?

Kimber: Yeah for sure, I mean we’re always going to look to expand our racing programme from where we are at the moment and make sure that we’re representing the brand and the bikes in the right way. So next year we’ll carry on concentrating on our MX2 programme, build it out, make sure it’s solid. 2026 is the aim for developing to roll into MXGP and the same for 450’s in the States. Next year we’ll run on both coasts in the States and when we feel is the appropriate point we’ll spread that out to factory teams running in EMX250. I think the other thing we’ll concentrate on is starting to concentrate on national championships as well. Obviously these series are great, they do it at the high level but what we need to do is get it into the grassroots of the sport so people can see it, touch it, smell it you know and really get hands on with the bike.

GateDrop: Well, that was my next question actually because it’s a British brand… it would be nice to see it in the British Championship, do you think that’s likely to happen next year?

Kimber: Yeah, I reckon we’ll have a team in the British Championship next year.

GateDrop: That’ll be nice and obviously initially the plans was to race MXGP next year but as Ricky touched on, timing, it’s better to wait to get things 100% right so can you confirm the plan is to have an MXGP team in 2026 and logistically is there enough room in the awning to have four Triumphs or would you be looking maybe for another team to run the MXGP setup or is that still to be decided?

Kimber: We’re still working through the plan at the moment. Likelihood is we’ll start with one MXGP rider and run two MX2 GP riders. Three riders within the tent is probably okay but longer term we’ll see how that expands and how it plans out. What we do know is that Vince and his team can run an incredible team and they can develop the bike to the right standards. We don’t want to compromise that with necessarily partnering with someone who wouldn’t do the right thing so we’ll walk before we can run.

Image: Nigel McKinstry

GateDrop: Just on America this year obviously Swoll was very good for the first year on the bike but obviously it didn’t go to plan with Ferry and Savatgy. Maybe if we’d have knew there wouldn’t be a 450cc ready next year he wouldn’t have even signed but overall I think it was still solid especially Jalik’s result so he must have been happy with that.

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Kimber: I mean Jalek is great kid, he’s ridden really really well. Two great seasons, you know great season in Supercross, great season in outdoors as well. He really gelled with the bike, looks super comfortable, looks comfortable through the whoops. Yeah, Evan unfortunately didn’t work out. Sometimes it doesn’t work out and you know we need to let riders go and find other opportunities.

Joey is just down to the 450, if we have had a 450cc or if the 450cc was ready to race, Joey would still be with us. We offered him the opportunity to ride the 250cc only outdoors again but it really comes down to that route thing. It wasn’t right for Joey’s career to keep him just doing another year of Supercross.

GateDrop: It sounds like next year you’re obviously not going to tell me the riders but it sounds like you’re going to have four 250 supercross riders, two for each coast. So that’s going to be big on the budget…

Kimber: Yeah it expands it slightly from where it is at the moment but obviously if we only race on one coast then we miss 50% you know and the west coast is a big dirt bike riding coast so we need to make sure we’re representing our brand across it all. We have got some good riders lined up so it’s going to be an exciting year next year.

GateDrop: Just on a personal level how did you get involved with this Triumph project and obviously your Head of Global Racing Programme, are you enjoying the role and how it’s all going? Are you getting to go to plenty of GP’s and also in America or what way has that worked for you on a personal level?

Kimber: So I’ve actually worked for Triumph for 21 years. I started as an engineer and worked my way through the engineering department and I moved to product strategy when we started the off-road project. So Ricky and I got involved with the project around about the same time to be honest and since then I’ve seen it through into the production side of things and then stepped more into the racing. The racing is exciting, there’s a lot to do though so it was never going to be quick to get there but we’ve got a plan, we’ll carry on building it.

In terms of travel, yes I managed to travel around but we try and pick the key events to make sure that we go to and support all the teams that go out there.

GateDrop: Having Ricky Carmichael, obviously the 450 is named after him, what’s it like working closely with him, the GOAT of America?

Kimber: Yeah I mean it was a proper kind of pinch yourself moment when I remember the first I met Ricky, the first time I saw him ride our bike around a track, it’s incredibly fun. I mean the best thing is he’s a great ambassador for the brand, he’s super nice to work with.

Image: Nigel McKinstry

He spends, not just, how you see him in the paddock where he stops and talks to his fans, that’s how he is when he stops and talks to the engineers and kind of grabs the time with them. We couldn’t ask for a better ambassador for the year.

GateDrop: Perfect, thank you very much for your time and good luck for the Triumph future.