By Allison Kennedy  

In a season where many of Canada’s top riders are still looking for support, the newly announced Leading Edge Kawasaki MX2 team is a shining star. The Kamloops, British Columbia shop signed a deal with Canadian Kawasaki to represent the manufacturer in the new nine-round MX2 series. So how did the BC shop earn that right? And how did they sign two promising American contenders and a talented Canuck? Read on to learn more from Leading Edge owner and manager, Jason Hughes, about how Canada’s newest National team came to be.

RXC: First off, congratulations on the announcement of the Leading Edge team. It’s really exciting to see a Canadian team step up like that for the MX2 series.
Jason Hughes: Thanks. We just wanted to elevate our program from last year and the previous seasons. The last two years we contested just the West series with Kristopher Foster and Brock Hoyer, but we figured we either had to step it up or maybe even get out of it, so....

What made you feel it was an option to go this direction?
It was an option once we put a plan together and approached the sponsors. Once that all fell into place, it became viable with a lot of help from Kawasaki and Monster Energy.

I guess the fact that Cernic’s isn’t running a 250F team worked in your favour?
That was part of it, yes. Cernic’s is running the 450 effort for Kawasaki Canada and we are running the 250 effort. Our deal is strictly 250’s.

What are your thoughts on the new nine-round format?
To be honest, I am a bit torn about it. I’m not sure it’s going to promote the younger, local riders to do a whole series. But from a marketing standpoint, for CMRC, I think it’s definitely better.

That class is actually shaping up to be pretty competitive.
Yes, I think it’s going to be pretty competitive. It’s going to be a long series and I think with some of the riders, it’s going to go down to the last race probably. Hopefully we’re ahead by then [laughs] but we’ll see.

It’s no secret that industry and manufacturer support has been tight this year for teams and racers, why do you think you’ve been able to get support for the Leading Edge team?
Riders were a key thing; definitely the riders we had on board. With Teddy Maier on the team—he’s going to be a major player—and Brock Hoyer being a Canadian definitely helped us with a lot of our sponsors. I also think we are doing it on a tighter budget than most teams; I think giving Kawasaki that option—on a tighter budget than what they have done in the past—I think that was very attractive to them. Once they were on board, some of the other sponsors came on board quite easily.

You’ve managed to line up some strong riders for the series. Can you tell me a bit about how you signed each of them: Brock Hoyer, Teddy Maier, and Nick Evennou?
Yes, with Nick Evennou and Teddy Maier—I think those are two riders that are going to be contesting for the podium each weekend and Brock, hopefully, shouldn’t be too far behind.

What can you tell me about working with Brock?
This is our second season now. We got involved with Brock on a regional level at the end of the ’06 season. He was looking for a ride, he had given up his Honda ride and he was looking for a ride. We had raced side by side with him throughout the Nationals and I just saw him as a very, very dedicated rider who showed a lot of heart. He might not have been quite as quick as some but his heart was there and it seemed to really elevate his finishes.

And what about Teddy?
I’ve watched Teddy ride for a few seasons previous and his speed was obvious, he just had a little bit of bad luck. He’s a very easy to work with rider and he knows what he wants. Once I put the package of him and Pat O’Connor together—his longtime mechanic, he used to work for Dusty [Klatt]—once I put those two together, that package is more important to me than anything. If I can get those two working well together, I think it’s going to be a very successful season.

For sure, I think Teddy is pretty determined to make this happen this time around.
He’s very determined. When I first talked to him back in October/November, he expressed a lot of interest in coming back to Canada. I think he felt like there was some unfinished business that he had up here. He really wanted to do better than he had done; the second place he had wasn’t really what he was looking for. He was looking to win the series.

And Nick was a later addition to things?
Yeah, Nick was a little bit later addition to things. He brings a lot of experience and judging from his finishes last year, he’s definitely got the skills and the potential to win.

What are your goals for the riders this season?
That’s a tough one. I definitely want to see Teddy and Nick contesting podiums on a regular basis and I’m expecting and hoping for a top 10 overall for Brock by the end of the season.

There were a few people discussing the logic of having two Americans and one Canadian on the team. How important was it to you to have a Canadian on board?
It was a must. It wasn’t even an option. It was one of those things, we wouldn’t have done it without a Canadian for sure, and I don’t think our sponsors would have either to be honest. With Kawasaki Canada, it was a major thing for them, as well as with a lot of the other sponsors. As well as Brock wins a lot of races for me back home here, he’s my regional guy, BC arenacross, BC motocross. He’s here winning races.

Tell us a bit about yourself?
I’ve been running the shop since 1994/1995, I’ve been the owner/manager of Leading Edge Motorsport; we sell Arctic Cat and Kawasaki. Racing has just always been in my blood. I grew up racing snowmobiles for Arctic Cat. Over the years, I won two World Championships. As the years went by, I’ve withdrawn from that but the racing was always an important part of who I am, and who Leading Edge is. It’s what the dealership is all about. It was just sort of a natural step, when we got into motocross, it’s a big part of our business. We have a really nice local track. We did a smaller effort for Nationals in ’05 and ’06, and in ’07 we stepped it up and here we are for ’08, just sort of spiraling.

Have you seen many of the tracks out East?
No, I haven’t seen much past Morden, just Ste-Julie. It will definitely be a learning experience.

Well, it’s not long now …
No it’s not. The semi is out right now being painted and it will be getting graphics next week. Two months and we’ll be in Montreal. It’s been a long road, a lot of work over the winter and I’ve put in a lot of hours putting it all together. It will be nice to see it all taking shape.

Thanks, Jason, and we look forward to seeing Leading Edge at the Nationals this year.
Thanks.