Tuesday Toolbox: Paul Whibley

AmPro Yamaha's Paul Whibley is used to change. Whibley said he's back at square one, and in many ways he is. With a new team and a new bike, Whibley is getting ready to defend his first GNCC Championship. We'll check in with Whibley to see how he's doing with his new set-up and how he feels about his chances for the 2010 season in this week's Tuesday Toolbox.

Paul, we're winding down to the last couple weeks before the start of the season, how are you feeling? I'm kind of excited to get back on the bike and back to GNCC racing. It's been a good off-season in New Zealand, just chilling and having some time off. But now I'm ready to get back to business.

Last year was a phenomenal year for you. Can you go through how you felt when you knew you had the championship clinched? It was probably more relief, that's the word that would be the best way to describe it. We had taken the points lead at Snowshoe, but before that it was back and forth with josh and Charlie was always close to the front. From Snowshoe on, I just sort of maintained to the finish. When we completed that last race, I was relieved. It was nice to have it wrapped up and it was pretty cool. But it's something that I'll look back on more in the future to appreciate what I achieved. Right now, I'm just forcing my head into the new season, because we're back to square one again. So, I can't really dwell on it too much. It was awesome last year but this is a new season with a new team.

I know it had to have been a hard decision to leave JG/Offroad Racing. Yeah, that was a pretty cool team to work with last year. It seemed to work well for me. Anything I needed they did the best they could. It was a good team environment with my teammates. It was pretty cool. It was definitely tough to have won that year and move on so quickly. I really hoped it was going to be a long term thing. But we ended up having to move on.

You've gotten kind of used to switching teams/machines the past three years. Have you just figured out the program you need to follow to make the transition go as smoothly as possible? It's something I don't really like doing. It actually takes me awhile to get used to a new bike and get comfortable on it. It's something I've done the last three season, switching brands. It's definitely tough to do it. It's a lot of prep to keep developing what you've developed over the years. But I guess it's been good with the finishes with Suzuki and Kawasaki and I think again with Yamaha. The development so far has been going good so far. I think we're going to be really ready by the first round.

How has this transition gone for you with Yamaha? It's been good. Randy and AmPro have been really good. Randy has done everything he can to welcome us into the team and get us settled in South Carolina.  He's helping us a lot. Our new mechanic, Dale, is doing a great job getting the bike ready. The team has been great. We're getting comfortable and digging in for the year.

Speaking of bike setup, are you the only one who will be running the Ohlins suspension this year? I began in Ohlins last year and it really worked for me.  That's something I wanted to continue. I'm trying to develop a good thing. I think Barry might be starting up with that though as well.

You rode Yamaha's motocross bike, the YZ in New Zealand, why didn't you ride the WR as you'll have to race that? It was more because of the guy who imported them in New Zealand. He wanted to give me the YZ there. The guy was more keen to give me that. I'm really comfortable on the YZ.

How much time on the WR before the season starts? I was hoping to get one in NZ, but they didn't have the bike ready for that. I've been here a week and half. So I've had about 2 weeks on the WR.  It's taking some time to develop it this year. It's a little more different than the YZ than I thought it was going to be but by the time the race comes around, we'll be in good shape.

How does it feel to be on the AmPro team? You said the transition was going well. They have a pretty good team and they have a lot of resources at their disposal. Randy has been running a team for several years and he has a very refined setup. It's good having Barry and Charlie around as well. They are a good bunch of guys to work with. It's nice to learn things from those guys. The team seems like it's going to be pretty good. They're giving us as much support as we need.

You said you felt pretty comfortable about round one, but what about after round one? How do you see the season as a whole? Is it going to be a big challenge to defend your championship? I'm not really looking at it as defending it. Like I said, I'm back at square one. Everyone has an equal amount of points right now so we're all starting together. But it does feel strange seeing the bike on the stand with number 1. I'm trying not to look at it as I'm number one, the guy everyone's trying to beat. I'm not trying to put too much pressure on.

But does having the number one plate give you any more confidence going into the season? No, not really. We've won races. We've got to just continue to keep doing as well. We need to continue getting on the podiums and finish the ends of the season with no DNFs. Charlie has been going fast in the pre-season and Josh has just the same. I don't think Jimmy will be slow either. It's just another season and we'll just start from the beginning and keep it right through the season.

Those guys were all your competitors last year but how does it feel being back on a team with Charlie and now seeing Jimmy as a competitor? I've always gotten along pretty well with Charlie so it is quite good being back on the team and Jimmy and I have been pretty close. It will be a bit strange seeing Jimmy under there but it should be good. I think it will be good working with Charlie.

It will be really interesting to see what round one brings for sure.
Yeah, the start of the season is always really exciting.

Alright, Paul. We'll see you in a few weeks! Thanks, Rachel.