Stroker genius!
By TMX Archives on 12th Apr 05
Back in October Carl Nunn didn't have a GP ride after the closure of RTT Racing but this month he goes to the gate at the opening GP aboard the world's fastest 125 - the factory SSX KTM!"I've gone from thinking I was going to stay Back in October Carl Nunn didn't have a GP ride after the closure of RTT Racing but this month he goes to the gate at the opening GP aboard the world's fastest 125 - the factory SSX KTM!"I've gone from thinking I was going to stay with RTT to losing my deal to going back to the two-stroke scenario and a full-factory ride with KTM."The sun was shining outside as we sat in the caravan Carl had borrowed to house himself and mechanic Michael 'Bubs' Palmby for the two-week trip to southern France. But the reality of Mediterranean winters had not been lost on the 25-year-old East Anglian."We've got no gas, no water, nothing - and it's only now at the weekend that we're plugged into the electric and have a heater. If we didn't we'd freeze to death because it's -12 at night. But that just shows how much I want it again. Getting the ride on the factory KTM with Champ has given me a whole new impetus. I wouldn't be here otherwise."There were times in October when Carl had seriously given thought to upping sticks and heading Stateside. "I thought European MX was finished for me. I was talking to Buddy Antunez just about getting a ride in America. But how could Naomi and I move to America while Mia is so young? She'll not be a year old until May. But I couldn't go without them."Naomi was already upset that I was going to be away so much in the winter when I said I was going to do the SX but I had to go there to win the championship. It was a difficult time because, as a family man, I was wondering where the money was going to come from - it wasn't just me anymore, I had to feed three."At the first round of the SX everyone thought I was riding an RTT Honda. I wanted to get a new bike because they've got more bottom end and I needed that for SX so my dad went out and bought an '05. We put RTT graphics on it, just so it would look normal and we'd stay on the right side of Rob (Bradley - RRT team owner] but I was a full privateer. Southside MX helped me out with some bits and Dunlop with tyres but that was it, everything else had to be paid for. I had to win or else I would be going home with nothing."So what exactly happened at RTT? "Rob told me these stories about how he was going to announce that he had nothing to do with motocross anymore but he was going to come out of the woodwork again in January/February and help me."And I was thinking 'that's a funny thing to do' but I liked the Honda and I kept telling myself we would find out who was making the engines in America so fast and get some. Then out of the blue he rings me up and says 'well, no, I'm actually stopping' and I'm thinking 'what do I do now?' I don't care that he's not running, I just wish he'd told me a little earlier instead of spinning me along. And I don't want to bad mouth him but he still owes me all my bonus money too."It was a call from Kevin Burk of KTM UK which brought relief to the Nunn household. "Kevin had spoken to Kurt Nicoll and they were interested. They asked me what I wanted to ride but I think from their side they wanted me on the 125 from the word go. It didn't take long to agree a deal verbally but it took about a month to finalise the details as they had to restart the whole programme. But they were assuring me every day that there would be something there."And an offer of the bike which finished second in the world doesn't come along every other day. "There have been a few minor changes since Tyla last rode it. They've been working flat-out all winter because the programme was effectively shut down when they didn't have a factory rider and I get the impression a lot of guys at KTM were disappointed that it was finishing."They were still going to help out support riders but not a full-factory effort and when the call went out to reopen the full programme a lot of people at Mattighofen got very excited. And Kees Van der Ven is a very keen 125 guy himself, he just loves two-strokes and so does my engine guy Stefan."I've already used four different engines this year, trying different things. I was surprised when I got on the standard KTM because already that had more power than my race bike last year. And we had to put a new clutch in the Honda every other week last year because they were burning out but I've never had one clutch go all winter on the KTM."So how does it feel to be one of the few riders at the start on a 125? "I'm not apprehensive about riding a two-stroke. I've been on them for so long and I've only been on a four-stroke for one year. I know the four-strokes have that little bit more traction but look at what Tyla did last year. He finished second in the world and won GPs so the bike is capable of doing the job. I think I can finish top five - possibly top three - but I've got to be consistent before I can think about winning."You have to be up there every week and that's what I plan to do this year, to have a consistent season, getting good starts - the bike is good enough to do it, there's no faster 125 in the world, that's for sure. I've always been a good starter and the KTM starts in second gear and she's gone. Last year I was having to start in first gear on the Honda."It's just a matter of persevering on the harder tracks because I won't have the traction of the four-strokes but I'm going to have my gains elsewhere, like in the sand because they don't get so hot and you can use the aggressive power to find new lines. They've promised to rip up the tracks more this year and that will help the 125 because the four-strokes are in their element when it's hard and shiny - they just find traction from nowhere."I'm riding with Tyla and De Reuver at the moment and that's bringing me on, that's what I need. I'd rather be in a situation where my team-mate is world champion or second in the world like Tyla so I can get on the bandwagon behind them and get up to their pace."It's coming up to five years now since Carl won his first - and, as yet, only - GP as a 20-year-old. "The last couple of years have been difficult. I've been riding and training as hard as ever and I feel that I'm riding really good but if you don't get out of the start, you're not going to get a result."I made a big mistake in my career after I won the GP in France. I thought 'okay, I'm there now, I've shown what I can do in the 125s and it's time to go to the 250s'. I should never have done it. I just thought I had spent my time on the 125 and I thought I'd proved myself. I didn't think it was necessary to win the actual championship. I've got a smooth riding style, I use the gearbox and I thought it would suit me to ride the 250s. It's the premier class - everyone wants to ride there - and it's where the money is."I had some good results on the Husky. I led the British championship, won a lot of races in England and got quite a lot of top 10s in the GPs but my career pretty much stayed still. Before I moved up I used to think 'there's Everts out front and there's the rest of them, just 20 seconds behind him'. I thought I must be able to get in there with those guys but then you go to race there and you start to realise that all those guys know how to set their bikes up, they know exactly what set-up they want, they've got factory help to do it and that's what it's all about. I never ever expected it to be so difficult."You have all that power and the bike tends to take you round the track. With 125s power is crucial but the set-up is not so crucial. I've always seemed to have a problem setting the suspension up, it always seems to take me a little bit longer than other people but I get there in the end."But when I was riding with suspension like I had on the Husqvarna it just confused me. We'd be making changes and seemed to be going round in circles. Husqvarna and Trevor Avery did everything they could - Trevor was the biggest help I ever had in my career so far - but with what we were using we couldn't make the bike do what we wanted it to."I can still sit and watch MX1 now and you think there are only three or four good riders. You have to get in there to appreciate it. Odd results you can get but to be there every single weekend is very, very difficult. It was even more difficult for me because during my time in the 250s there was only one moto and I've never been a one race man, I've always been a bit tight in the first race and got a better result in race two when I'm more relaxed."The Huskies were so fast but the chassis wasn't the best. I went with Kawasaki because of the chassis and thought they could build an engine as fast as Husky but we couldn't get any power and we couldn't get any factory help. Then last year the Honda had brilliant suspension but it just seems that, while the MX2 Honda is a superb bike for the public to go out and buy, it is very, very difficult to get the power out of it to race up front in the GPs."The only people who seem to have got good power are the Americans and they were keeping their mouths shut about how they were doing it. There's no such thing as a factory Honda - we were told by Honda Britain that if any HRC parts come then the leading Honda in the world championship would get the parts. We were that for most of the year and nothing came so I just had to ride as hard as I could with a basically standard bike. We had power but we were up against three factory teams - plus all those Yamaha teams who are helped by the factory - and it wasn't enough. I've ridden for Rinaldi myself and everyone knows that he can produce a lot of power. But the power they've got on the KTM is unbelievable, not only the four-stroke but also my two-stroke."For 2005 Carl will also be training again with Roy Carter, the man who guided Kurt Nicoll through his long career. "I've had spells when I've tried other people but I've always gone back to Roy. Sometimes you think the grass is greener but it never is. You just have to look at how fit Kurt was when he trained with Roy."KTM will bring over a factory bike for the British championships in a Sprinter - "I'll work out of the Phoneparts awning at the races" - but Carl is well aware of the need to fly over to Holland as often as possible. "I can fly over Monday night, ride Tuesday and Wednesday and be home again Wednesday night. If you want to ride good in sand, then you want to be riding with someone like De Reuver."And the foreign connection is important. "Just look how many British riders have won a world title based in England. The tracks in England are nowhere near as fast as those abroad - the GP tracks are more spread out, the straights are long, the corners are sweeping. They've started tightening them up but English tracks are English tracks. They suit me but any rider in England who wants to do good in GPs needs to get abroad as much as possible - Italy, Spain, the south of France, Holland, Belgium - to be riding all sorts of different tracks."But the biggest thing for British riders when they get to the GPs is the heat. I remember racing in Hungary when I was 17 and I dehydrated so bad because I wasn't prepared for it. That's why they should go to Spain to train because we never get heat in the UK like they do in Australia, South Africa or Indonesia. When we went to Indonesia for a GP the heat was just ridiculous."The same goes for bike set-up. You think you have your bike set up well and for UK tracks it possibly is but you go abroad, you're flat-out and you run out of power long before you get to the end of the straights."Or things like the 100 foot table top we had in Bulgaria. We never have anything like that and our young riders are just not prepared for hitting a jump like that fast enough. In England they take out whoops, they take out doubles. There's no wonder our boys don't want to jump them."Carl Nunn the family man will not be shooting off to a hotel on Saturday evenings at the GPs this year. "I'm getting a camper so that Mia and Naomi can come to a lot of races with me. It will help me if I'm not wanting to rush home all the time."Christmas made me realise how important my family is to me. It was Mia's first Christmas and obviously she didn't understand a lot about it at seven months but we got her some little bouncy things and she started jumping around. It was great."And I hope and feel this is the year when Carl Nunn gets back on course. I have to put the effort in and I can do it without pressure because I have two riders in front of me in the team who are expected to be doing the winning. I remember back to my days with Yamaha when Malin was expected to be winning while I was learning and I started to be able to beat him. My confidence went up and I had my best year ever."