Whipping boy!
By TMX Archives on 14th Feb 06
He's the GP king of whip but Wyatt Avis has faced a stony road to stardom since coming to Europe six years ago. He's the GP king of whip but Wyatt Avis has faced a stony road to stardom since coming to Europe six years ago. Saying that, the reward for the 21-year-old's persistence is an MX1 ride with Sarholz KTM - Mattighofen's official GP junior squad - and a full-factory bike, Ben Townley's '05er!Wyatt's career has never been lacking in top class opposition, right from his early days in the SA youth scene. "I come from a place called Pinetown - a suburb of Durban - and I grew up racing locally every week with Grant Langston and Jarrett De Jager. And there were other fast kids who've never been to Europe like Ryan Williams and John Whiting."I was always behind them when I was younger because they were all one year older and that makes a difference at that age. I used to live about half-a-mile away from Grant and we used to go training together all the time."Wyatt doesn't come from a biking family but they were soon hooked. "I just went crazy for a bike the first time I saw one. We didn't even know about racing then but my dad bought me my first bike when I was four and a little time later he was driving through town and saw bikes racing and we took it from there. I had my first race at five."And it wasn't too much later that show became as important as speed. "I had just moved onto 65cc and we went to watch a pro supercross and I saw Jeff Hodson do a whip on a tabletop. I was hooked. I had to figure out how to do that. And my dad thought it was cool too and didn't try to stop me."Wyatt's affection for acrobatics has not brought universal acclaim. "A lot of people don't like to see a racer do a whip, they think it's just for freestylers. But if a rider feels comfortable on a jump then why not? You're not going to do it unless you feel right. People who know me better know that if I'm playing around on a bike and doing tricks in practice then I'm in a good mood. It helps me feel more fluid on the bike. I just love it."I did a little bit of freestyle at the start of 2003 but that wasn't me. They are true specialists now. I just like to have fun and I know where my limits are. It's sad to see so many riders nowadays winning races and doing nothing. Okay there's a lot of money in it but they jump dead straight, no mistakes. You know, the crowd come to see the racing but they want to see some action too and they really appreciate it when the riders put on a little bit of a show."People criticise Travis Pastrana for all of the tricks that he does but he learns bike control while he's doing it - if you know how it is to flip or do a 360 it becomes second nature to be able to save it if you get out of shape during a race."So how come Wyatt decided to cross the Equator in Y2K? "I came to Europe looking for prestige. Once I got to 16 that year age difference didn't mean anything anymore and Grant was gone. I won pretty much everything there was to win back home in SA then. I could have had the best deals there but the challenge was gone. I suppose I could have gone to road racing but that's not my scene."So halfway through 2000 I came here on a test for Sanstra Suzuki, a Dutch team. They were looking for a rider and Grant told them to give me a call."Wyatt had arrived in Europe but life has not always been easy. "I didn't get to ride so many times that first year. I was entered for all of the Dutch championship races but the clearance from the SA federation only came through in time for one race. And I only got to race three GPs. There were others like Grobbendonk and Luxembourg but they were triple-headers and you had to get invited."The whole team switched to Yamaha the next year but they were already running out of money halfway through the year. Fortunately for me Boonenberg Motors, who were backing Kevin Strijbos, were also one of the sponsors of the team and when Sanstra folded I got to ride for them. They let me go to the Europeans with Kevin."That first year it was just a mission to qualify but I learnt a lot. The speed is not a lot lower than the GPs, just enough that the guys who are 30th in the world will be racing for the win. But you learn how to qualify and you get to ride with a lot of different guys with different styles and different strengths. Everybody at that level is best at home and to beat guys of your age on their tracks is a real learning process."For '02 Wyatt was back on Suzuki but still with Boonenberg. "Our plan was to do the Dutch and the Europeans and just take in the GPs if we got a chance."But then he got hurt mid-season. "It was one week before the final round of the European championship in the Ukraine I was leading the series and only needed one fifth place to be champion but we went practising, I crashed and blew out my right knee and Luca Cherubini got the title."Initially the doctor said I would never ride again and it would be six months before I could even think about moving around normally. The medial bands, the crossbands, they were all wrecked. And I've got two screws in the top of my knee to hold the knee cap in place because I broke that too."But after three months I was already back on a bike. The doctor said he couldn't explain it but he gave me the OK. I trained for three weeks and came back with two times top 15 in the Dutch championship and a few weeks later I qualified for the last GP and even scored a few points."The '03 season started off on Kawasaki with Satellite Racing Team. "Glen Dempsey had set it up with me and Jarrett De Jager. We were supposed to get factory support from Jan De Groot and the suspension Maschio had used the year before. Everything seemed fine until the first Dutch race but I crashed and hurt my other knee. I tore the medial band on the inside of the knee and with the pressure of the brace every time I pressed against the bike I just couldn't ride.For full story don't miss the March issue of dbr - on sale now!Words and photos by Alex Hodgkinson