As a person he has an aura about him, there is no mistaking Roger De Coster is one of the most important figures the sport has seen. His recent signing by KTM means the Orange Army means business for 2011 in America.

Having won all his World Motocross Championships on Suzuki and adding titles with names like Carmichael, Reed and Dungey De Coster seemed to have yellow blood running through his veins. That all changed last month when the Team manager of Team USA signed with KTM to lead their attack on the American racing scene.

We decided to ask Mr. De Coster a few questions.

MXlarge: Roger, what attracted you to KTM?

De Coster: They (Pit Beirer, Stefan Everts and the complete KTM team) seem to be very positive, even with the economy not so good and other companies looking down, putting on the brakes, but KTM seem more positive than ever and only looking forward. I don’t like to look back at what is bad, I want to look forward and what can be better.

MXlarge: Why didn’t it work out with Suzuki?

De Coster: I wanted a long term commitment with Suzuki and it was sad they couldn’t offer me that, but I wanted to move on (not look back). I tried for a long time to work things out, but it wasn’t possible and then I had to decide what was better for me. I had some two or three year contracts in the past and I wanted to do another three year contract and then retire, but I could only get one year. It seemed to be impossible for them because somebody high up didn’t want any contracts with anybody past 2011.

MXlarge: Working with Stefan, I mean you two guys are more of less the gods of Motocross. How will that be for you?

De Coster: It’s going to be cool to work with Stefan, he has done a good job with the testing and he has been very busy with the testing of the new bike. I haven’t worked with KTM yet (a month ago), but if you see the results in Europe and you see Cairoli on the Saturday at the MXoN, the bike is working well. It will be different in Supercross; they have no experience in Supercross, which is where we have a lot of work to do. There is a lot of enthusiasm and I am confident we can do it.

MXlarge: What can you teach Stefan?

De Coster: I really don’t know how much I can teach him. I have a lot more experience than him dealing with the management side. He is still fast on his bike and he can help us a lot with input on the bike. He has always been good with fitness and he can help the riders with that and hopefully I can bring in some other good things. Maybe a good combination.

MXlarge: Pit mentioned you would visit the KTM factory in Austria.

De Coster: I am going to Austria early in October; it will be cool to see. I like to see their shop where they manufacture the bike and also their race team shop. It will be good to see them and see what they have.

MXlarge: Changing the subject, you must be proud working with Team USA in 2010, a group of really nice people.

De Coster: They are cool guys, but they are very grounded and good people. When we got together 10 days before the MXoN and we hung out together and they mixed well together. For a race like the MXoN they need to approach as a team and with the bigger stars it’s hard to do because they have so much pressure to be the star and stay the star.

MXlarge: What about the age old question about AMA versus FIM. Where are we now, can you judge from the MXoN?

De Coster: It’s different because in US the emphasis is on Supercross and that is the first part of the year. I love the Motocross des nations because it’s the only time the best talent from Europe and the best talent from America is together.