5 Minutes with ... Michael Willard

May 05, 2005

By Bruno Menard

Coming to Canada ... Michael Willard will hit the Gopher Dunes sand once again on July 16th when the Eastern Canadian Nationals kick off.

Photo: Brett Dailey

Columbus Ohio’s Michael Willard already rides for KTM’s support effort in the United States so he was a natural fit for KTM Canada’s national motocross team. Willard’s big debut will come at Gopher Dunes on July 16-17 for the opening round of the MX2 East nationals but he’s not wasting any time getting acclimated to Canada and his competitors. He has now made two trips to Canada—once for the Victoriaville Arenacross in Quebec and once for the Ontario provincial opener at Gopher Dunes.

He impressed his new bosses with a win in Victoriaville and gained some valuable experience racing Gopher Dunes on the weekend. He looked fast at Gopher Dunes— incredible corner speed—but he admitted that his results were not what he had in mind [DNF-5 in the 125 class and 3-6 in the 250 class] and Gopher Dunes was the roughest track he had ever ridden. Willard is hoping that his season in Canada will get him some exposure and will also help to kick off his pro career. Racer X Canada contributor Bruno Menard caught up with Mike at the Victoriaville Arenacross in Quebec for a brief interview.

    

Who are you?
My name is Mike Willard. I’m 18 and from Columbus, Ohio.

    
How did you pick up this ride?
Actually, on RacerX [website] there was a post saying that KTM was looking at riders for the Canadian Nationals so my dad and I talked about it and we gave a call to Andy White. I guess it just went from there.

   
How do you think you’ll do tonight?
Hopefully pretty good. There are some good riders here. I hope I’ll get top 3 if not a win. [Willard won the 250 class and placed eighth in the 125 class]

   
What have you done this winter?
This winter I went to the Mini-Olympics down in Florida and I rode 125 pro and 250 pro. I had a little bit of bad luck in 125 but ended up third Olympian for supercross and motocross.

   
What are your previous accomplishments?
I started riding when I was five. I raced Loretta Lynn’s on a PW50 and won the first two motos but crashed and did not finish the third moto so I ended up 11th overall. I have raced Loretta Lynn’s every year and all the other amateur nationals. In ’96 I won on the 65 7-9. In ’97 I got second in 65 10-11 behind Broc Hepler. After that I’ve just been riding and racing but this year I decided to step up my program by doing the Canadian Nationals.

   
What are your goals for the upcoming season?
I’m hoping to run inside the top five in MX2 East and continue to get a ride for next year too. I’ll also do some U.S. Nationals and try to get overall finishes in that.

   
What are your plans for the future?
Hopefully this starts me off. If I do well, things will just keep getting better and just go from there.

   
Good luck.
Thanks.

Willard tries to hold off Jason Burke back at the Ontario provincial opener.

Photo: Brett Dailey