VOLUME 58 ISSUE 2 JANUARY 12, 2021 P33
win this coming weekend in
Houston. He has a history of
starting Supercross seasons
strong. What does Troy Lee think
about stepping up from several
years of running a 250SX team
to having a 450 rider that has
won races?
CN: Chatting with Troy Lee,
lead dog at that new race
team that is coming out. Big
news obviously is Justin Bar-
cia coming aboard, a multi
time 450 race winner. Tell
us about what that feels like
having that caliber of a racer
on your team as you transi-
tion to 450s and what you
see going forward this year.
Lee: It's a dream come true.
It was a little bit of a shock five
months ago when we started
talking about this and seeing if
we could make the transition,
but I'm like, we've got to do
this no matter what. It was just
trying to get everybody at my
company on board because we
had everything ready to roll out
for the 250 program and the
pandemic and everything else.
I can't thank all my employees
enough and everybody and the
new sponsors that we brought
on. It's amazing. I was so stoked
to be running the 250 Red Bull
KTM team, but now we're in
the premier class and Barcia
has been a great friend. I've
painted some helmets for him.
We've known each other for a
long time. He's so much fun
to work with. He fits the brand
perfect. So when that fell into
place it was just like, yes! We're
going to Anaheim. We're going
to win Anaheim! Then we saw
the schedule and we were like,
ugh. I was so mad. I was like,
no way! So that's how we pulled
that other program together.
It's amazing. I feel so lucky,
so fortunate. GasGas is a little
bit more fun brand, which is
awesome too. I think it's a good
thing. We're going to throw a
little Spanish flavor into it too.
It's out of Girona, Spain. I like
the trials bikes. I'm going to get
a trials bike so I can start play-
ing around a little bit. Thank you
to Red Bull. Thank you to KTM
for giving me the opportunity.
John Hinz and Stefan Pierer and
Pit Beirer have been amazing.
They always let me throw my
own little flare into it.
The design of the GasGas
seems like a new blank can-
vas for you and all the design
and style stuff that you al-
ways implement. How much
fun has that been designing?
Yeah, it's been fun. We
brought Sony Pictures in, so
we got some really cool things
going with Sony to do some
new things with them. We're
going to race some Venom
gear and Venom helmets from
the movie. That will help launch
the movie in June. Atari Hotels
came in. That's awesome.
We're working on a bunch of
stuff with Atari. PPG has been
amazing. They just painted
our rig last year and I had to
call and said, can we strip this
down and repaint it again?
They were like, what? We've
been working a lot of week-
ends, the employees at nights,
just trying to redo all the pit
uniforms and clothing.
You did a full rebrand in
not much time.
Yeah, a small, little window.
Basically, when we signed
this thing it was like, we might
be going to Anaheim wear-
ing t-shirts. But we pulled it all
together. I'm stoked. My son,
Max, now is working with all the
athletes, working with Barcia.
So, it's super fun working with
my son. It's a big team effort.
I'm smiling. Can't wait to fly to
Texas next week. CN
