It was one of those seasons where everything clicked for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing outdoors as 2024 manufacturer champions, where Chase Sexton delivered his first-career Pro Motocross 450MX title, Aaron Plessinger finished third overall, Tom Vialle took runner-up in 250MX, and Julien Beaumer won Rookie of the Year honors. Team manager Ian Harrison speaks about that success in this latest Industry interview.

Image: Align Media.

When I think back to the outdoors, one of the main narratives is the podium photos of Chase and AP, then at the final round with Tom [Vialle] winning the 250MX class. Can you describe that feeling when you achieve that success as a team? And then on top of that, the overriding success of the manufacturer championship… Overall, it was such a positive year for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, wasn’t it?

Yeah, it was a great season, especially for motocross. We practically got every award there is to get, which is outstanding. I don’t know how to put into words about Chase winning and then his teammate being right behind in third, I suppose it’s just a feeling of pride. I’m sure Chase would agree with this, our days are really calm, we check on a couple of things in practice, then everyone goes about doing their job, and at the end of the day, we were lucky enough to be standing on the top of the podium with Chase seven times out of 11 rounds and ten overall podiums out of the 11. It was truly an outstanding season, one that I will not forget. I believe the team morale and general team feeling helped everybody, and I feel like that carried over to Aaron [Plessinger], Tom and Julien, so it was a really cool season.

What were the keys to success?

I think the key thing for me was keeping the main thing the main thing… just focusing on what we could do and how we could get better and just looking at it logically. You could see that the ingredients were there from the very first time we went to the track with Chase and did some outdoor testing, we knew that we were going to be solid. His strength of being strong builds your entire team. I felt like Aaron really grew, he had his best season with us this year, I think he had six total podiums and Tom was strong. So, overall it was just focusing on what you can really do, there are some things that are just distractions and we try to brush them aside, and that was it really.

How impressed have you been with the progress of AP this year? Especially outdoors, he seemed to come into his own towards the end of the season.

Yeah, he did. He’s a grassroots, true American kid. Nearly every morning that you see him, he’s happy, he enjoys life, loves to be at the races and on top of all that, he’s a great rider. He has championships in his own right – supercross and motocross championships in the 250MX category – and to see his progress this season has been outstanding. He has definitely raised his game, big time. This last weekend, he was by far the second-best guy on the track, so it was impressive to watch and to have him and Chase as teammates has been icing on the cake, for myself and our entire team. It’s great to see how well they get along, it’s not a fake thing either, it’s real, which is super.

Image: Align Media.

I want to say it was a disapointing season for Tom, just because he [hadn’t won] a race coming into the final round. Did you guys have bigger expectations for him, knowing that this was his second full season [in America] and that he was a multi-time champion overseas?

I wouldn’t say disapointing, because he won that supercross title. You put so much focus into winning that title, your mind can never switch off and you’re just thinking about it constantly until it’s over, then it’s such a release. Then you switch and you’re straight into another season, and he’s never done this before, winning and then having to compete two weeks later again. I think it took him a little bit of time to get going, and also, the competition is stiff. Every one of these teams that are out there has good riders and they all want to win, it’s not easy. So, I think he learned a lot this summer, and I believe he’ll be able to carry that into next year and hopefully get better. It’s all a learning curve coming from Europe, these are all the same challenges that I’m sure are going to meet Jorge Prado when he makes the journey here.

So even though it wasn’t a great season, missing out on the Pro Motocross title, it was still a great year for Tom to get that supercross championship and to learn throughout the whole year…

Yeah, absolutely. He did finish second in the championship, I mean that’s not bad, you know? I feel like he’s constantly growing and I believe he’ll get there, he’s a great rider, he’s a very calm person and I think he has all the tools he needs to fight for that title, absolutely.

And with Julien Beaumer, how did he come across your radar and what was that transition like bringing him on to the team?

If I’m perfectly honest with you, it was a little bit lucky really. I always follow amateur racing, but I’m not embedded in it that deeply, because our season is so long and we have our own challenges that we need to address and I feel like the factory riders that we have on the team always need our full attention, and they deserve it. So with Julien, we saw him at that first race at Anaheim where he was competitive against [Haiden] Deegan in practice, and that’s the first time I was really like, ‘Who is this guy?’. Then things just worked out in our favor with having him ride the bike and getting him on to our Orange Brigade team, then moving him up. As a practicer, the guy is incredible, now we just need to get that practice form into the race and then I think he’ll be really good.