Pit Beirer suffered every rider’s worst nightmare when he was paralysed in 2003 on a huge jump in Bulgaria in MXGP. Beirer’s mindset was inspirational, immediately accepting his situation and ploughing straight into the next of his life to become a huge success at KTM and now overseeing all their racing projects across the globe.
In an interview at Lommel, Pit opened up to us about his injury and also, a devastating world title loss in 1999, that he still cannot forget about.
You told me before, when you crashed and had the injury, as soon as you were able to, you were watching motocross races again and then you were commentating on Eurosport. You seemed to accept, mentally, you what happened to you really quickly and just move on. How are you able to do that?
Because I don’t know if that’s normal even for a motocross rider. I don’t know. I mean, mentally, not to give up was anyway is my DNA, also for my racing and training and preparation. Yeah, I don’t know. That was not a big question, mark. I mean, I had a lovely wife at home, a six-month-old daughter. So, I mean, I woke up after one week in a coma… okay, you need a bit of time to orientate where you are and what happened.
And then you ask a couple of questions. I found out I will never walk again and then you’re like, okay. I asked the doctor what can I do? Can I live my own life? Can I drive a car? Can I go work? He said, yeah, if you work hard, you’re going to live your own life. That was enough for me to say, okay, then let’s go!
So, I never asked what’s not there anymore. I just asked them what is still possible, what can I do? And I made immediately the best out of it. And my target was to get out of hospital as quick as possible. If they told me this will take six months, I said, okay, let’s do it in three because I want to go home, get a job, feed my family and be there for my daughter and for my wife. So, it was not too difficult to make a switch and just look forward and move on.
If you ask yourself why I’m also fighting maybe for KTM since exactly that day, maybe even more, as a worker, it’s because Mr. Pierer came to the hospital in that day and told me, okay, guys, you’re going to have a job in our company no matter what.
I said, you don’t know what I’m able to do. He said, I don’t care. I know you enough, you come. So, that’s how I got this chance to work for KTM. And if you have like a family, I made some money as a racer and then you have somebody who gives you a job, you’re complete, you should just go again. So, I was privileged to have in this negative moment really great people in place, really good friends, a job and a family. So, there was not even any moment of doubting if I should just switch on and go through gas. That’s what started 2003 and didn’t stop. So, until here. Still, go, go.
You were so close to winning the world title in 1999. Does that still stick with you or everything you’ve won with KTM and Dun & MotoGP? Does that fulfill that missing hole at all or does it drive you?
I hate that day when I lost the championship still. So, it’s really, I had so many, I raced really professional for many years, but there was really one year when I had a shot at the title and I think three races to go, I still was leading the championship. So, that was the moment to do it and I gave quite everything to do it and I lost it. So, I’m still angry about that one, about myself.
Gaildorf? (Beirer was involved in a crash at his home GP)
Yeah, that’s all bullshit stories, but I crashed at the start. Somebody rode over my bike, ripped off the rear brake and then saw too much damage on the bike to make any points. And then I lost it by a couple of points in Budds Creek two weeks later. That was pretty hard, but also that I cannot change. So, never look back. But if you ask me, no, I’m not happy about that one. I wanted to win that championship.
But, of course, my work gives me a lot of satisfaction that I get the chance to work with so many great people, great champions, and just try to do everything we can to win. That’s all we want to do. That’s how I create our teams, our stuff. Let’s wake up and do our best. This is not always enough because there are other great people out there, but we are trying as hard as we can and that’s definitely a payback for also being a racer so many years that you make your passion to a profession even after your career. So, I’m still happy with that. Everything I have here and all I could build up in my professional business was because I was a racer.
