The Second Coming

Returning to the World Enduro Championship and focused on winning BMW their first ever WEC title, Jonty Edmunds finds out that David Knight is relaxed, confident and excited about the challenging season that lies ahead…

Words & photos by Jonty Edmunds

When David Knight takes to the start of the opening round of the ’09 World Enduro Championship – the GP of Portugal staged in Penafiel on March 14 – he will officially begin the most exciting and challenging season of his career to date. No stranger to the demands of the WEC, what makes ’09 such a hugely important year is the fact that it marks the beginning of a second chapter of world championship competition for the burly Manxman.

With his two-year hiatus from the WEC now over - during which time he followed in Juha Salminen’s foot steps and claimed back-to-back US GNCC titles – Knight returns to Europe having achieved all he has ever wanted to as an ‘off-road’ racer. Putting his name to two WEC titles, while also topping an ISDE outright, in beating the Americans on their home turf David completed the Big Three – something he’s wanted to do ever since becoming a professional motorcycle racer. Achieving that, as well as indoor titles on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, prompted David to go in search of a new challenge for ‘09. One that would refresh his motivation.

So now David is starting over – returning to race in Europe and competing in the WEC once again. But while David is returning to a championship he knows well, things will be very much different second time around. The principal difference being the fact that along with Juha Salminen and Marko Tarkkala David heads BMW’s quest for world championship success. 

“Switching manufacturers is as much of a fresh start as I can get,” explains Knighter simply. “Riding for BMW in the WEC keeps things the same but makes everything fresh, new and exciting again. It’s not that I was unhappy at KTM, far from it. I simply wanted a change. I had nothing else to prove on a KTM. If I came back to the WEC with KTM I could only do the same as I’ve done before. My goal now is to try and win BMW their first World Enduro Championship title, which if I do will probably be more special than winning my first world championship in ’05. It could all go smoothly, it could be a bigger challenge that I’m expecting. But at the moment I feel happy and confident.”

The David Knight that will compete in the WEC in ’09 is in many ways the exact same rider he was when he first stepped onto the WEC scene back in ‘00 – ambitious, determined, and focused. But despite remaining down to earth and jovial about his work, now, unlike then, he’s one of the most well known ‘off-road’ racers in the world.

From a fresh faced kid loaded with talent to a two-time world champion David’s seven-year participation in the WEC first time around saw him work his way up from self-funded enthusiastic amateur, to a complete and all conquering factory backed professional. Growing increasingly confident in his abilities along the way, and earning himself the title ‘king of extreme’, David evolved from the proverbial rough diamond into a polished gem. It wasn’t all plain sailing, but following years of being beaten by Juha Salminen and Samuli Aro he finally came good. Very good. And thanks to his relaxed, happy-go-lucky attitude while off a bike and towering physical presence on it, he has amassed a huge global following and is known today the world over simply as Knighter.

“I’m the same person I’ve also been – just a guy who wants to go out and ride his bike and do as well as he can,” comments David when asked about how he thinks he’s changed as a rider over the past eight years. “I enjoy riding special tests fast, just like I always did. I’m the same guy as I was in ’00 when I had my first World Championship win.”

But while David remains very much the fun loving, chocolate eating, motorcycle enthusiast he always was one thing today is very different from when he first started competing in the WEC – his confidence. “That’s the one biggest difference this time around – I know I can win. In ’04 I was finishing second all the time and I remember speaking to Dougie Lampkin about it. I knew I could win, but it just wasn’t happening. He told me that at some point something would just click and it did. He said that the difference between being able to win and winning is all in the head, and it’s the truest thing anyone has ever said to me.

“When I started winning I didn’t feel any different or any faster, I just started winning and winning and winning. Then I believed I could win, which gave me confidence. I think it’s the same with Mika Ahola now. He tried for years to win and it just didn’t happen. Then in ’07 something clicked for him and he’s riding incredibly well now and has a lot more confidence than ever before. I always thought he was one of the best riders in the world, now he’s showing it.”

With confidence comes the ability to brush off the pressure of expectancy. And while David is under no illusions that winning in ’09 will be anything but easy, remarkably he claims to feel under less pressure than at any other time during his career. “I think every rider faces pressure, that’s only normal. But compared to previous years I really don’t feel I’m under as much pressure. In ’04 I was on a private team and needed to prove myself after three years with Yamaha. In ’05 I was in the KTM factory team for the first time and had a lot to prove. Then I went to the States and there was pressure to win like Juha did. I know that I need to perform well for BMW, but I don’t feel under any pressure.”

Moving to BMW and onto a bike that despite vastly improved performance, reliability and results during the ’08 WEC season has still to prove itself as a winning machine at the very highest level caused raised eyebrows around the world when David confirmed he was moving away from KTM. Confident that his decision was the correct one when he signed his new contract, now that he has spent time on his new bike and made several trips to Germany to meet with his new team he knows he made the right decision.

“I know it was the right thing for me to do. I’ve been to Munich a few times, to both the old workshop and the new workshop, and the way things are moving forward is incredible. The new place just blows your mind – it’s so big and professionally run. The WSB team is on one half and the WEC team in the other. They have everything there that they could possibly need. But it’s still a relatively small group of people, which is what I like about it because everyone is focused and passionate. There’s still a lot of work to do, testing to do, and settling in to do, as things don’t happen over night, but everything is very encouraging.”

Like any rider that switches from one brand to another – and there’s more than a few doing just that in the WEC this year – David knows that the coming weeks and months are all important if he is to arrive at the first round of the world championship ready to give his best. “A race set-up evolves with time,” explains David, speaking from experience. “I felt much better on my KTM in ’05 than I did in ’04 because I’d dialled the bike in for one-year. But my BMW is well set-up now, and I know the team are working hard to continue making it better and better. I felt happy on the BMW right away. I don’t think there’s a huge difference stepping off a KTM, not as big as some people think. It takes time to adjust to a new model let alone a new brand of bike, but it’s not as big a change as some people might think. It was important for me that I remained with WP suspension because I know it well, trust it, have some good set ups. There will be small things, that I will learn over time, which is to be expected.”

So what about that all-important opening round of the World Enduro Championship? “If I keep plugging away and working hard I’m confident that I can have as good a season in ’09 as I did in ’05 and ’06 before I went to the States. I feel under less pressure than ever, but at the same time I’m more excited than I’ve ever been. I’m sure that I’ll make a few stupid little mistakes during the first few rounds of the championship but I’d like to think that I can win from the start.”

Standing between David and his third world title, and BMW’s first, are half a dozen ‘in-it-to-win-it’ rivals, each capable of making life difficult for David. Holding an advantage over the Manxman in as much as they’re a little more in tune with the WEC and the constant barrage of special tests each of its events delivers, Knighter will need to be up to speed right from the start of the series, and remain fast and mistake free throughout. “It’s not like I’ve never raced in a WEC event before, but I know that certain things will only come back to me after a few events. But I’m going to do what I’ve always done – my own thing. I’ll be in the E3 class but I will set myself the target of trying to be the fastest overall rider during each race. I’m expecting it to be harder than it was in ‘06 because Enduro 3 is probably the hardest class there is in the WEC now.

“Ivan Cervantes will go well on the 300. Seb Guillaume, who I think could well have won the E3 title in ’08 if he’d started the season on that bike, has proved that he’s fast. Christophe Nambotin will also be fast. And Samuli Aro is the reigning world champion. You can never overlook Samuli – when he has his mind on the job and is focused there’s no better rider in the world. Marko Tarkkala, like myself, has new motivation and will be fast. He can be blindingly fast, but needs to find some more consistency. All of those guys will be fast. I’m hoping that it will be more interesting for me, and the championship, as I will have to work hard all season. I know wining won’t come easily.”

Looking to the future

What lies ahead for Knighter?

“I guess I will probably stay with enduro until the end of my career now,” admits Knighter when quizzed about his long-term future plans. “I guess that’s what makes this the second chapter in my career. What I’d like to do is a couple of more years in the WEC, win a couple more world titles, and then concentrate on the fun stuff – a mixture of events that I’d pick and choose from around the world. There are a lot of important races all over the world. I’d never be able to switch to trials or motocross so the only thing that I could do that would be different, other than returning to the GNCC series, would be a season of one-off, high profile events. That’s something I’ve always wanted to do.”