Returning home from a stint in Europe that included multiple EnduroGP victories and an E2 World Championship, Wil Ruprecht adds his name to a stacked line-up of Australian Enduro Championship (AEC) riders in 2025, teaming up once again with ShopYamaha Off-Road Racing. MotoOnline caught up with the 26-year-old to get the lowdown on his decision in this Conversation interview.

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Wil, welcome home mate! You’re reunited with AJ Roberts and ShopYamaha Off-Road Racing, who you’ve already shared success with in the past, so it must feel good to know you’re heading into familiar territory in your return home…

Yeah, I was with AJ and Yamaha before I went to Europe and we had some good success and some really good developmental years before I went to Europe. AJ is probably the most knowledgeable guy I’ve ever worked with as far as bike set-up and the whole package. There are other guys I’ve worked with in there that are really great in one area, like suspension or an engine, but as far as understanding the whole package, you know, he’s been with Yamaha for a lot of years now and he gets a lot of intel as to what the bike like. So you spend a lot of time just making forward steps, rather than having someone who doesn’t know the bike inside out and only knows the one area of the bike. It’s not one step forward and two steps back with him like, it’s just very fast progress which has been awesome since coming home, because coming off a steel frame and circling back to an aluminium frame there’s a lot of differences.

It’s been a number of years since you raced a Yamaha, and they’ve updated quite a lot since you’ve been overseas. What are your thoughts on the new WR450F so far?

It has really been a big step from the prior generation and a big part of that, I think, is how much weight they’ve gotten off the front wheel. It doesn’t dive in the front and it almost feels a little bit more European in a way how they keep their front-end light. It creates a lot less work as a rider and also you can go softer with suspension in the front as a result of that, which is only a positive for enduro, because you know it’s one thing to talk about setting up a bike for acceleration and breaking bumps and turning, but then it’s another thing to have feel over the tree roots and rocks and what not. I think this new generation Yamaha is a lot more of an all-rounder compared to what I had previously ridden with Yamaha before I left for Europe.

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Take us through your time in Europe… What motivated you to leave home and chase a world championship overseas?

One of the things on my bucket lists growing up was to win a world championship. There were a few Aussies over there having a good go at it, and I kind of felt like it was the pinnacle of enduro, so that’s just where I headed. I put my head down for a handful of years over there and had a really good time doing it. I feel like I learned a lot as a person and as a rider over there, you have to be so versatile because they encounter so many different conditions that we’re not exposed to here at home. But you know everything comes to an end and I saw out, what I thought, were my best years over there – I was just ready for a break and ready to come back home. So to rejoin Yamaha in Australia, you know, they’re a staple team here, and the national championship here is decent, so it’s good to be back.

You mentioned being ready for a break from Europe, so do you have intentions of heading back in future or is the focus set to Australia for now?

At the moment, I’m just focused on the Australian thing. There were a few boxes overseas that I didn’t tick that I would’ve liked to have, so it’s not out of the question that I go back, but I’m just going having a bit of restructure with myself personally at the moment, and Australia works really well for that. I’m just trying to surround myself with people who are on the same wavelength. In Europe, I was always trying to fight between where I wanted to be and where other people wanted me to be, so I’m just giving myself back some freedoms and getting back to a normal routine again.

It’s a pretty exciting time to come home with the restructure of the Australian Enduro Championship. Did that influence you at all in your decision, or were you already locked into a deal before you even found out about that?

That didn’t really influence my decision, but just talking about that topic, it is only for the better. Just some of the things that come along with the restructure, like the outright points and it’s being acknowledged as a national title, that’s exciting. Our contracts paid us bonuses for outright wins, but it was never really recognised as a championship. You know, other championships around the world like in Europe or America follow that kind of structure, so I think it’s about time we jumped on that bandwagon and then give some recognition to the guy who was fastest on the day.

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Explain that a little bit, so you did get paid for the outright win in the past, even if you weren’t recognised for it in terms of being an Australian champion overall?

That’s right! So everyone knew who won the year and there was a trophy for it, but it was never actually put in the history books as an Australian outright championship. Basically, since MA took over the series, it hasn’t been a thing, but before that when there was a promoter involved, it was. But then basically, I haven’t seen a contract in Australia that hasn’t involved outright bonuses, so I think that kind of tells the story of what should be happening. So now it’s recognised officially, which is which is a good thing!

Sounds like things are headed in the right direction then. Thanks for your time Wil, and good luck this season.

Cheers mate.