Brett conducted this interview with Lee Ellis last weekend, March 13, at the opening round of the NSW Motocross Championships at Appin.  Lee is from Mentone in Victoria and after many years as a successful privateer has joined the hugely successful Team Motorex KTM for 2005 and has a big load on his shoulders thanks to being KTM's sole representative in the Pro Open ranks this year.

Believe in yourself - Lee Ellis Interview

Brett: Lee, you’ve made the trip up from Victoria to race today's meeting at Appin…..you no doubt want be as prepared as you can for next weekends nationals at Wonthaggi.

Lee: Yeah, the team thought it would be a good idea to come and get a race under our belt before Wonthaggi..…so far things are running pretty smoothly for me and my KTM. It’s good to see so many good riders out here today but I would have liked to have raced Craig Anderson and Daryl Hurley…just to see what the pace is.

Brett: What sort of goals have you set yourself for this year?

Lee: Realistically, my goals are to be on that podium each weekend.

Brett: The top three are going to be very quick.

Lee: As far as I can see there are going to be four really fast riders up the front that are going to be real hard to beat, and then it starts to taper off a bit……so I want to hopefully try and stick with those guys and then in a couple of rounds start to put it to them, we’ll have to see how it goes.

Brett: How are you adapting to the KTM?

Lee: Yeah…fine. The first week I rode it felt a bit strange and then after that I become accustomed to it fairly quickly…It’s a really good bike.

Brett: Now recently you competed in the your home state’s Honda Summer of Supercross Series…..tell us some more about those races.

Lee: I did better than I thought I would really because supercross isn't my strong point. The 250 KTM has way more power than the Honda…..it is heaps easier to ride all the jump sequences because the power so useable, I was way more competitive on it. I ended up running third in the series and ran with the top guys in the early rounds. At round three I kind of backed it off a bit. With the motocross season coming up I was a bit worried about injuring myself.

Brett: Lee, it doesn't seem that long ago when you were just racing amateur events like the ThumperNats. You seemed to have really come along in the last year or so…..what do you attribute that to?

Lee: A lot of hard work, and……you just have to believe in yourself. I always found it hard with all the factory riders. I used to think it was alright for them to pass me and get in front of me,………. you know, they're factory riders right, they should be in front me ………wrong. You know, two or three rounds into last year I just said I’m sick of this…..I have to try and start beating everyone……and that’s when things started to pick up.

Brett: The pace did pick up toward the end of the series……at the Raymond Terrace round you hit the dirt pretty hard, didn't you?

Lee: Yeah that was a huge one…..first turn triple jump…I think I got run over by everyone. I thought that was the end of it, really thought I’d broke my arm but just corked it really hard. But it went away in about an hour and I was able to race the 2nd moto.

Brett: Good luck for the year Lee.