It's official, Paul Whibley will defend his GNCC Championship as a member of the AmPro Yamaha race team.

Okay Paul, the big question on everyone’s mind is what bike you’re going to be riding next season and for what team?
Yeah, I’m not too sure when everyone over there will be ready to make the official announcement, but, yeah, I’ll be riding for the AmPro Yamaha team next year.

So are you pretty excited?
Yeah, it’s gonna be pretty cool to be riding for Randy. He’s obviously got a very well established and proven team. Randy himself has won a lot of championships and a GNCC Championship with Barry a few years back so obviously they know what they’re doing.

I know you had a really good relationship with JT and Gretchen Bennett and everyone else at the JG Racing Geico team, was it hard to leave those guys?
Yeah definitely. To be honest I was hoping to be able to remain with those guys next year but Kawasaki had some pretty big cutbacks and they basically told me a few weeks ago that they wouldn’t be able to help me at all next year because of those massive cutbacks. They basically told me to do what I had to do to get a ride somewhere else next year. JT was very disappointed and he had been bending over backwards to make it all work and the last piece of the puzzle just fell apart like that it was a definite bummer.

Do you feel like maybe you won the GNCC Championship at the worst time? It seems like if this had happened 3 or 4 years ago every factory would’ve been knocking down your door with offers.
Well you can also look at it as though I won at the best time, because you really needed to win to be able to get yourself a decent ride. I know a lot of guys that are really struggling to get rides this year, guys like Jason Thomas that finished 3rd in the Lites class and 7th overall, and I heard he’s going back to England and he might not even be racing next year. It’s a bad time to win this series with the economy, but at the same time I’m glad I won so I was able to get a good ride.

Have you been able to get in any seat time on the new bike?
I actually just got one here.

There will be a lot of changes in Whibley's program for 2010, but he's become a pro at changing brands between seasons.

Will you be riding the all-new YZ or the WR?
I think we’re going to be starting the season on the WR and moving to the YZ later in the season after some development. But I’ve actually got a YZ here at the moment. I get pretty well looked after by the importers here in New Zealand and they were able to get me a 2010 YZ that they had. I did a race on it in the weekend and I won a local cross country. I got it on Friday and went out and raced with it and won on the weekend. The bike seems really good, it’s got some new features on it, but it all seems good. With a bit of suspension work it’ll be really good.

Over the last three GNCC seasons you’ve raced on three different brands, a Honda, a Suzuki, and a Kawasaki. Now you’ll be racing a Yamaha, why do you think you’ve found yourself moving around so much?
It was never my intention to move around like I have. I’ve always been a Honda rider here in New Zealand and I was always trying to get a Honda ride overseas and when I was able to land that ride with Scott Summers it was great, but Honda wasn’t a real big player in the GNCCs and we ended up moving to Suzuki. I thought that could be a longterm relationship working there and that didn’t pan out, and I had really thought that the deal with Kawasaki last year would’ve been a longterm relationship as well but again that didn’t pan out. It’s kind of tough to just stick around with one team and create some brand loyalty and it seems that this Yamaha thing will actually be for a few years and I’m hoping that it is.

You made a seamless transition from the Honda to the Suzuki, and then from the Suzuki to the Kawasaki, with your results steadily improving each year as you changed brands. Do you feel like your at any disadvantage every year because of the switch?
I think it puts me at a little disadvantage and that’s why I always need to get back to riding here [New Zealand] as soon as possible. That’s the way I operate back here in New Zealand, I get a bike when I get back here as soon as I can and start testing and developing. This year I’m a little behind because it’s taken so long to get the deal sorted out. I’m probably a month behind where I would like to be. I usually start riding again in late November but it’s been December now before I started riding again. The time here for me is good for me to get a setup working and by the time I get back to America in late January I’m ready to make the final changes with the team and get ready to go racing again. Obviously it would be a lot easier to just stay with one brand and just continue developing what I’ve got established already but it hasn’t worked out like that.

In 2010 Whibley will be on his 4th brand in as many years. Has any GNCC racer ever won a race on each of the big four brands? | Photo: Dave Scearce

Will you be living in Ohio again or will you be staying in South Carolina close to the team HQ?
We probably will stay down in South Carolina near Randy’s–that’s the current plan as of right now–I know he’s got some nice facilities down there and we’ll be trying to stay down there and take advantage of all that. I think it’s a good place, not too far from Hickory, NC where we normally base in the beginning of the season. There are a lot of guys around there to ride with and a lot of tracks to ride so it should be good.

Will you be defending your OMA title next year as well as the GNCC? Will we see you compete in any other series like Endurocross?
That’s the plan at this stage. The OMAs are a fun series and they’re good practice and training so that’s the plan to do them again. I’d like to do some more Endurocross races. It’s something that I never really planned or wanted to do but after doing one I think I’d like to do another one but with some more testing and practice. I feel like my result at the first one was pretty poor, but I couldn’t really expect too much at my first go since it’s such a different type of racing. But, yeah, they’re good fun and I’d like to try them again.

Do you know who’s going to be your mechanic?
Scotty is actually going to stay back here in New Zealand–that was actually always his plan. After coming back and helping me in America he decided he wanted to go home to New Zealand and start to set himself up there. I believe that Randy’s mechanic Dale will be handling all the bikes for the team next year.

There’s the old saying that it’s easier to win a title than it is to defend it. Do you feel that way?
I guess I don’t feel like that yet. But I guess when I get to the races and there’s a big number one on my bike and people are expecting me to be winning all the time I might. But at the moment I don’t feel that. I’m just going to go out there and give my best like I’ve always done and whatever happens happens. I’ll be happy if I give it my best and put my best result in. I think next year is going to be tough, Josh Strang is going to be really tough. He’s obviously going to be really disappointed about not winning the championship and I’m sure will be hungrier and training really hard, and the same with Charlie [Mullins]–wherever he ends up–I’m sure he’ll be out there with a point to prove that he’s capable of winning the championship. With Cory Buttrick moving up as well there’s going to be plenty of fast guys as well.

Alright, Paul, thanks a ton for taking some time to talk to us. Is there anyone you’d like to thank?
I’ve got to thank the entire Geico team for helping me out, they’ve done a really great job. Now I’m looking forward to bringing some wins to the Yamaha team and doing good things for them.