We caught up with humble 1996 500 world champ, Shayne King, at the British GP with the for factory KTM rider over with his son who rode in EMX250 and his now making his own journey in Europe, with guidance from his dad, who has been there and done it all over the world.
We spoke to Shayne about his successful career from becoming a world champion to heading to the US and doing supercross on a, wait for it, 520 four-stroke KTM! We even discuss Shayne helping out a young Chad Reed in 2001!
Read or watch below:
First GP steps back then compared to now
It’s similar, obviously the bikes are bigger now and the bikes have more technology. You gotta be fast, there are a lot of fast Europeans and people from around the world that race this championship, so you have to have the right bike and right team around you. It hasn’t really changed, we still race from the gate drop to the chequered flag.
Adapting to GPs, different countries and currencies coming from NZ in the 90s with brother Darryl
It’s just part of the job. We had to work hard and figure out how to ride deep sand. We had sand in NZ but never had tracks like Lommel and Lierop. We had to learn a lot as we went along. We were prepared to do whatever it took and that’s what it takes in any sport, do whatever it takes to get to the top. I made it to the top and it was a great experience, I couldn’t have done it without KTM, they were a great partner of mine and throughout the years.
Winning the world title in 96
It was a dream as a 16 year old kid to race in the world championship, get a whole load of free stuff and be a factory rider and be in a big truck! It was really cool, racing Joel (Smets) was fun, I didn’t only race him, I raced his whole team, it was a very tough goal. We came out on top and had some great battles throughout the years.
It was sad to have to leave in 2001 and have to got back to normal life but that’s what happens in sports, it’s a very short time but it was a great experience.
The American experience racing supercross and motocross (2000)
That was an experience and a half that was! It seemed like a pretty good idea at the start but when we got there and realised that the 520 was real big bike, it was very difficult to do supercross. We had high hopes for the outdoors but the bike just wasn’t developed enough for the American circuits with so many big jumps.
Maybe another year or two it would have been a different story but it’s something I will always remember, it was great. I went to America and raced. I remember finishing sixth in one of the outdoor nationals and I think my best results in supercross was 16th. It was good, it was good for KTM, I think they learnt a lot from there and look at KTM today, massive in America and Europe. It all starts from somewhere and I like to say I helped start that a little bit in America.
Racing a 520 KTM with no linkage in massive supercross whoops
Yeah, still reminded by the bone I broke in my hand at Anaheim one! The whoops were massive, I just remember one thing, forever in my life. You go throw whoops and you have the throttle on in the sticky position but I was rolling the throttle off because I was gathering speed, the four-stroke just picked up so much speed! But an amazing experience, if I could re-do one thing, I would love to do it again but on a different bike. It was cool, I loved it.
Everything was new; the team, the bike, the bike set-up. It takes a while to get accustomed to America. You hop on a supercross track and all the riders go out and jump everything first lap and they are just about full speed! That wasn’t the way I was brought up, it’s a different sport, even though it’s riding dirt bikes.
The outdoors, the same thing, they have been to those tracks a lot and it’s not an excuse, you need 2/3 years there to get more experience. The one year was great and then I got to come back and race the Grand Prix the following year.
Coming back to GPs after America…
Pretty much slipped back in (to GP life) which was pretty cool, raced for a Millenium KTM which was a German team and had factory engines, but I soon realised that I was maybe getting a bit too old for the sport, so made the decision to go back to NZ and raced in Australia. I raced there for five years and won a lot of championships there and then just raced in NZ, then had some children and now it’s like it’s going back around again!
It’s a cool sport, I enjoy it. A lot of people in the paddock are still the same people, just in different places. We have a lot of friends over the years that are still here in the sport and have kids now that are racing. The sport is a great family affair globally.
Helping Chad Reed in 2001…
Chad and Ellie came to Europe in a couple of suitcases, my wife and myself took them under our wing a little bit and guided them to a few places, Chad was already pretty fast and knew what he wanted. I love what he has achieved in his life, him and Ellie. It’s impressive to see where they went too. I would love to say Chad wouldn’t have done it without me but that’s not true at all (laughs), he did it all by himself. Chad and Ellie are great people and it was really cool to help them understand the first few things they needed in Europe and it was pretty cool to be a part of his life at that time.
Southern hemisphere riders success- single minded?
I think maybe it’s smaller countries and it’s a minority sport in Australia and NZ, Rugby is a big thing for us in our country. I guess we are grounded, we don’t take things for granted and we know what we need to do. We are human, we should be nice, happy, joyful, sad, maybe we just enjoy the challenges of life coming from a smaller country. We love what we do, you are racing with the best in the world with or on factory teams and it’s just a great experience.
I just wish everyone could experience what I experienced, because it’s the coolest thing in the world. To have a dream at 16 and achieve it at 15 years old, it’s cool. This sport offers you so much and gives you so much, it’s great to have in your life, it’s cool.
Racing Jeremy McGrath, Joel Smets, Stefan Everts, Ricky Carmichael – what makes them great?
Just good people! They love motocross, supercross, they love challenging themselves, They love the highs and the lows, you don’t like the lows when you are racing but when you look back you realise the lows were not that low, it’s just a part of the sport.
Jeremy was a very unique person, amazing on a bike, just incredible to race with him. Ricky Carmichael the same. I remember at A1 he gave me a bit of a drilling into the finish line I was like, ‘man, welcome to America.’ I pulled the big 520 out at Southwick and showed him how to start properly there, got a couple of holeshots!
Stefan is a great person, I trained a little bit when I was over here living in Belgium. Racing Joel was fun, tough – he is a beast! I knew I had to be a bigger beast! We raced some big motorcycles back in the day even though I raced the 360 KTM. Just good people riding and having fun.
Interview: Jonathan McCready
Image: Archive
