Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/850369
INTERVIEW N-FAB/AMPRO YAMAHA TEAM OWNER RANDY HAWKINS P68 retiring in 2014, Whibley returned home to New Zealand, but came back to the States in early 2017 at Hawkins' invita- tion. "Paul is like family here," Hawkins said. "I came up with this idea with Paul. I said what about maybe coming up here, spending a couple months [in South Carolina]? Here's these fresh guys I got, do you have the time to come spend a couple months with these guys just to help get them in the right direction? That's how that started." For Randy and the AmPro team, it was like slipping back into an old shoe. Ricky and Josh took to Whibley's training regimen like ducks to water. And speaking of water, Whibley brought a somewhat unique part of his training to the team—the Monday swim. "Paul has a lot of ideas, a lot of outside the box," said Hawkins. "Swimming was a big thing for Paul, especially Mon- days, after the races on Sun- days. He's still about swimming for an hour, hour and a half, just stretching your muscles out, low impact, getting everything mov- ing again, getting all the blood going. So that's really a big part of his program. After a Sunday race, Monday is a swim." Whibley's return just so hap- pened to correspond with the newly introduced XC3 (125cc) class at GNCC—a happy coinci- dence for the team. "I didn't realize the new XC3 class was coming about," said Hawkins. "Paul's old mechanic, Cory McDonald—he's my lead mechanic now—said, 'Well hey, if Paul's coming over, maybe for fun, he can ride a couple races.' He rode those races and had a ball. Just really completely enjoyed himself." It all amounted to a welcome return for Whibley who had en- dured a family tragedy just after his retirement. In December 2014, Paul lost his wife in a car accident, only days before their son's second birthday. "Miss Katherine; she was a wonderful lady. She was the backbone of Paul's program," said Hawkins. "That was another reason I reached out to him. You can imagine how horrible that is to deal with. He really needed to see four new walls and some old friends to help with that. I just feel so fortunate that I had the opportunity to help make that happen for him." Whibley brought his son, Colton, to help him with his training duties. According to Hawkins, the youngest member of the AmPro team is looking rather promising. "Colton, he's a character. I already told [Paul] I'ma go ahead Racing is in Hawkins' blood. He's fast at anything he does, like racing a UTV in a GNCC with Cody Miller, nabbing second place.