It was back at the end of the 2006 Grand Prix season when KTM had looked very average when their riders Sebastien Tortelli and Mickael Pichon first struggled to ride the new bikes, but then both retired from the sport mid-season. For sure it was the blackest day the KTM factory had seen and Pit Beirer made a deal with himself that this black moment would be the start of something special.

Sure enough as Stefan Everts was putting his racing gear away for one last time KTM announced that the greatest Grand Prix rider of all time would join them not as a racer, but as a “team manager”. Everts roll was not so much to run the team, but control how the riders did their preparation and make sure they were 100% prepared for battle.

Now some four years later Everts can feel comfortable as he helped KTM build what many people are saying is the best production bike ever made, and leads the Red Bull KTM team to what might just be a record setting two World titles.

MXlarge: Stefan, your dream of MX1 and MX2 World Championship is looking good; does that make it a little scary that everything doesn’t fall into place?

Everts: It’s not scary, it is actually nice. Finally you see the work you put in the last years and it’s also showing. I have been a little unsure about things I was doing, but now everything is working out well. Like the 350 bike which is such a great success and then the team, plus the future plans for America.

MXlarge: The sight of the two 350’s bike lengths ahead on that long start straight at Glen Helen must have given you some pleasure?

Everts: I think everyone was thinking how this is possible and even if you looked at the images back then I thought that is really cool.

MXlarge: So how many cc’s is that 350 then?

Everts: It’s a 350. Even after Valkenswaard I saw some comments in the press that is wasn’t a 350, but if you listen well you can hear the difference. It is a 350, honestly. We have some good engineers in Austria that build a great engine. It’s very promising and more will come.

MXlarge: Obviously you can take a lot of credit for that bike, but hats off to KTM for their efforts in producing not only a great bike but also their effort in the sport of Motocross in general.

Everts: I think KTM have put big efforts in. I mean the total off-road thing, Enduro, Motocross, Rally, but that is their main business, I mean the Japanese manufactures have road and other things, but off-road for KTM is the total business and they pushed hard for it and succeeded.

MXlarge: Rumors about James Stewart being signed for KTM. Any truth in that?

Everts: There is no big news about America right now. Marvin (Musquin) is signed and Mike Alessi is signed, you know we are looking into the team side of it and which direction we need to go and what do we need to change. There will no big changes, it is also important to do it step by step, it is important to get the 350 sorted for the Supecross. We know we have a good bike, but Supercross is a different ball game, we need to work really hard on the engine spec and the suspension, which is something that we are looking at now and by the end of the year we need some new things for that.

MXlarge: How often will you be travelling to America?

Everts: Next year, I don’t know, right now Pit goes, sometimes I got, sometimes Stef, we swap the rolls a little and I think that is good. It’s good to see what is happening for all of us. The plan is to have two riders in both classes, we don’t know who or what and we are not rushing to sign somebody, we need the top guys who take the big money and we don’t have a lot of money to spend, so we need to make a good decision.

MXlarge: I remember talking to Michele Rinaldi just after you stopped racing and started with KTM, I asked him how he thinks you will go as a team manager. He mentioned at the time that you didn’t have any experience and it might be a difficult change for you. How is Stefan Everts as a team manager?

Everts: What is the roll of a team manager? I leave it up to the people. I like in general the whole situation with KTM, the whole thing how we did the new bike introduction and worked towards making it a success. Also the future of KTM, the strategies we put out. Can you call that a team manager, what is the true job of a team manager. I just want to have a good attitude within the team and I like to keep the pressure on and that is in everything. I think they learnt to know me better in Austria how I put the pressure on and how important it is for me. It’s a challenge I like to do.