Image: Octopi Media.

Houston 1 winner Justin Barcia has opened up about the WP air-shock introduced on his TLD Red Bull GasGas MC 450F to top the 2021 Monster Energy Supercross opener.

Barcia had been tight-lipped when it became evident that KTM Group would be introducing an air-shock for the first time since Ryan Dungey in 2013 and Andrew Short in 2015.

According to the 28-year-old, who has immediately gelled with the GasGas after transferring from Yamaha, it’s the consistency of the air-shock over the course of a main event that is the most beneficial aspect over a spring version.

“It was definitely really hush-hush before the season,” Barcia admitted. “I got to test it and then it kind of went away for a little bit because we were waiting on parts and stuff. Then I went back to my spring shock and then back to air-shock, probably three or four weeks before the season.

“It’s just very consistent, you don’t get any fade like a spring shock and there’s definitely some positives to it versus a spring shock. I’m super-stoked to have it and I think it’s a good thing for us – I’m glad the whole KTM brand and WP figured that out.”

Barcia said that even Roger De Coster, KTM director of motorsports in North America, has been hands on with development of the WP air-shock to ensure it was ready for the 2021 season. It’s understood that Red Bull KTM’s Marvin Musquin also used air on his way to the podium.

“It was cool actually, Roger [De Coster] actually did a lot of work on it, I would see him in the shop and he would be in the machine shop making parts for it and stuff,” he added. “It’s super-rad, it’s been a cool experience with that and that was really the only thing we were testing was a little bit of suspension stuff all off-season.”