MotoOnline.com.au catches up with Pirelli Moto national manager Don Nicholas for an overview of the tyre brand’s racing programs and plans for 2014.

Firstly, thanks for taking the time for a chat. I imagine, with all of the series having kicked off now, that you’re in a fairly busy period managing the different disciplines?

It’s always very busy at this time of year because we’re working with a fair few teams to get them set for the new season. Some have new riders, new bikes and updated equipment, and we’ve got some new product for them as well. So it’s always a busy time.

Can you bring us up to speed on your racing programs for 2014, starting with road racing? Any major changes or developments, particularly as a result of the two national series running independent of each other?

I think the core stuff that we build off is the state-based championships. Things like BEARS championship, which runs on a Pirelli control tyre, and the Pirelli Road Race Series in Victoria, Motorcycle Sportsmen in Queensland and the Western Australia state championships as well where we’re heavily involved through contingency programs and things like that.

We have the national level as well, and as you say things have changed a little bit from the start of this year. We’re involved with the ASBK [Australian Superbike Championship], as one of the tyre providers in that championship.

With the ASC [Australasian Superbike Championship] the riders are all on a competitor’s control tyre predominantly. The are a couple of classes we do there with 250 production and some stuff in Formula Oz that allows us to still be present in the championship.

But with the state-based, club-level activity we can really support riders coming through. One of the things that is really important for Link and for Pirelli, is the health of any racing championships which are happening.

One of our key focuses when we invest into series to try and keep the series and motorcycling racing as a sport going along as best it can, in conditions which, as you know, are pretty tough at the moment.

Image: Jeff Crow.

And you’re heavily involved in the off-road scene, with the MX Nationals being the current focus having just kicked off. How is this side of Pirelli’s program going thus far?

From a road racing perspective we’ve worked on the state stuff for quite a few years now, and national in only the fairly recent times. Motocross we’ve been doing at a national level for a few more years longer.

You probably notice our presence a little bit more in the motocross and enduro side of things because of that. We work closely with a lot of teams. We’ve had a long relationship with Gavin Eales and Serco Yamaha, who were the first to come back on board at the national level when we returned to racing motocross in Australia.

There is also KTM with their enduro team. Brands like Husqvarna, too, we have been with for a while. Suzuki, with Jay Foreman and Matt [Moss] obviously, is a really good partnership for us that has been really successful.

Matt had been with Pirelli previously and when he came back to Suzuki it was really good to get that combination back together again, so that has worked out really well.

This year we’ve changed a little bit. We’re with Suzuki, we’re with factory Honda, Kawasaki, which is a new one for us which we’re enjoying in working with Troy Carroll and the guys. We have Husqvarna as well, which has this year had a bit of a resurgence. It’s nice to keep that relationship going with the manufacturer there.

With the Under 19s program we have a reasonably strong contingency program, again trying to help out with the costs of a young rider coming in. Normally they’re all funded by mum and dad, so we try to look at ways we can make it a little bit more affordable to do a national series. We’ve had that program with Kevin [Williams] and the MX Nationals now for a few years, and we’re the official tyre sponsor too, so it has been a good thing for us, and hopefully for the competitors.

It’s a good showcase for the product because, just like with road racing, we have the saying ‘We race what we sell, we sell what we race’, which just means we provide the same product to everybody.

So, for example, Matt Moss and the Under 19s rider gets the same product, and everybody can have access to it. Tyres are just one little part of going fast on a motorbike, but we really believe in this philosophy and making the same product available to everybody. We’ve done the same type of thing with road racing.

How closely do you work with the Pirelli on an international level?

We work closely with the racing department for our road racing operations. And all of the off-road department, with the work they do in the US and also MX-GP, where they do a lot of their product development. We’re fortunate enough to have a good working relationship with those guys at the factory level and have done so for quite a few years.

They’re always interested in what’s happening here. Terrain in Australia is a bit different to the other parts of the world. In some cases it’s similar to the US, and some it isn’t, and Europe, again, can be quite different.

We provide them as much feedback as we can through our teams and our riders to help improve the product as we go. Racing’s part of Pirelli’s DNA, for sure. It helps them to develop key technology for all types of tyres.

But in essence the tyres we give to, again for example, Matt Moss, are the same tyres that anyone can buy. We put some stickers on the side wall to make them look a bit cooler and then they go racing.

Because Pirelli has been so active in World Superbike, we’re really starting to see better and better products flowing through from that level. Down at the World Superbikes at Phillip Island the support races down there saw the local guys using an identical tyre to the top guys as a rear solution. That’s pretty awesome to be able to make that available to racers here.

Pirelli has also pinpointed certain riders and teams to work with seemingly on the sponsorship and ambassador level. The example I’m thinking of is Glenn Allerton, who runs prominent Pirelli branding on his BMW in the ASC. He is obviously a rider you consider valuable to your brand?

Most definitely. Glenn and Pirelli have had a really good, strong relationship for a few years now, which stretches back to a few years ago when we were racing back then. He’s an awesome ambassador for us and and the brand. We have a really strong relationship with the Next Gen BMW team too, so we’re really happy to continue to work with them.

As you have said the structure is a bit different this year, but we’re pretty keen to keep up our program. His feedback on the products is good, and in particular, when we do testing at Phillip Island for World Superbikes, we can involve Glenn and the team, because he has ridden at that level.

And he’s been to Laguna Seca, and to other places, and he’s capable of giving us and Pirelli some good feedback as to how the tyres work here. Somewhere like Phillip Island is very important for tyre testing, so any feedback we can give in between time helps them to develop product further.

In terms of off-road, you have what seems a broader level of involvement in terms of sponsorship involvement. Is there a particular strategy in that sense?

People like Matt Moss are one of our bigger representative for the brand. We try to work as closely as we can to get the best results for the team, and for all the teams we work with. But I guess our investment and involvement is a lot broader, in terms of the teams choosing to run Pirelli in the MX Nationals.

And because we’ve got that, and the contingency layers beneath, our investment is spread that little bit broader. And then we have enduro, with Toby Price and Glenn Kearney, they would be our key representatives there. That’s an important market also.

Thanks for the chat, Don, we look forward to checking in with you later on in the course of the year.

Not a problem, thanks for the opportunity to tell you a bit more about our programs.