There’s no doubt that Robbie Marshall oozes natural talent. Any rider that can compete with the best of them on the race track, and then roll up to a freestyle event and dominate as he did at Zero Gravity, South Oz, back to back in ’01 and ’02, places themselves among a rare breed of individuals. One of my strongest memories of his talent is from the 2003 Red Bull Air Slaves tour where he rolled up to the last stop at Mullumbimby on the northern coast of NSW and stomped 140-foot off a dirt kicker placed on top of a rolling grass hill. I remember it clearly as I hit the jump myself to land a good 50 feet short of Robbie’s mark. The takeoff was blind as the landing dropped away gradually a few 100 feet to flat ground, and Robbie hit it several times while throwing his KTM 250 sideways like it was a 70-foot hit. You might recall the poster shot we ran of him from this session back in issue 19, it was a big hit with painful consequences if you got the landing all wrong. This was the same year Robbie would end up losing his factory ride with the Motorex KTM team that he worked so hard to secure two years before. How could things turn bad so quickly for someone who possesses so much talent, and has great support from the largest team in the paddock? I hit Robbie up for the answers.
Doing The Hard Yards
It was in his third year of riding a Honda CR 125 for Noyes Motorcycles that Robbie impressed the likes of KTM boss Jeff Leisk and team manager Rob Twyrould. It was the 2001 season and Robbie was riding the best he ever had to that point. He felt comfortable with his bike, and with the support from his brother Shane, who put his own work commitments on hold to work on the bike and share the thousands of kilometres driving required to get to each round every second week, he proved to himself that doing the hard yards pays after finishing fourth in the supercross and sixth in the motorcross championships, which is pretty impressive for a privateer rider. At the end of the season Robbie recalled talking to local Queensland pro rider Scott Bishop about whether he should give KTM a call about a ride for the following year, and with Scott’s encouragement he did just that to find out that KTM boss Jeff Leisk had plans to call Robbie himself to talk about a possible ride with the team. A deal was done, and with contracts signed Robbie carried his momentum through to the 2002 season aboard a very quick KTM 125 SX machine, with Robbie recalling his first supercross race on the bike, saying, “I remember the first round of the SX Masters series in Brisbane, 2002. I was getting OK starts in the first two races and finished with third and second placings, and then in my last race my mechanic at the time, Dave Parsons, said to me if you get the holeshot you’ll win, so I put my head down, got the holeshot and won the race easy against the likes of eventual series winner Troy Carroll, which was a great start to the year and a big confidence boost for me.” Robbie went on to finish runner up to T.C. in the championship and bettered his 2001 finish in the motocross championships by two places, which he was very happy with considering motocross has never really been his thing. “It was a good season for me as I never felt much pressure to perform from the team, and Rob T along with Dave Parsons gave me good feedback and helped a lot during that first year, plus I still had my brother coming along to the closer races to help me out as well as he wanted to see me succeed. It definitely was a lot easier riding for the factory team as there’s the benefits of a much more powerful bike, flights to the races, great support and a full-time mechanic. And it was great to be able to race without bloodshot eyes for a change like I did the previous season from driving through the night to each event. I also felt much more energetic on race days from being more relaxed,” explained Robbie when talking about his first year as a factory rider.
Dropping The Ball
It’s easy to understand that someone who has a passion for jumping would only naturally want to spend his off season earning some bucks riding freestyle, which is exactly what Robbie did come the end of the 2002 season. He’d worked hard for years to reach the pinnacle of the sport, and now it was time to enjoy his time with some mates until it was time to go racing again, but what he didn’t take into account at the time was his hungry rivals kept working hard 24/7 to ensure they were ready to win once the season started. Sure Robbie beat the likes of Jake Bowen, Richo, Pete McCann and Tim Watson to name but a few to take the Zero Gravity crown for the second year running, and had a hell of a time doing it, but did he expect to come out firing for his race team when the gate dropped in the first race of 2003? “I had set myself a big goal to win a championship in the 2003 season for the Motorex KTM team, but looking back now I can see I definitely dropped the ball in the 2002 off season by spending too much time riding freestyle instead of preparing for the season ahead. I had a shocking year and was flat out trying to get top fives. It took me until the end of the season to regain my speed and confidence on the bike. I feel I let the team down, but some things were starting to get to me at the same time, like living so far away from the team headquarters and having to send an engine away out of my practice bike to be worked on that would often take two weeks at a time, which meant it made it hard for me to practice. Whether it was my lack of preparation at the start of the season or something else, I just couldn’t get comfortable riding the ’03 125, and I also started to feel the friction building towards the end of the season from the team as my results failed to come in. It was also hard when you’re hearing rumours going around that they’re talking to other riders and stuff, which just made me feel pretty over it all together. I got to the stage with KTM where I just didn’t want to get good again, I just felt like, stuff it! Then I eventually got the call from Rob T saying they were on the lookout for other riders, and by then I had made the decision I wanted to race the 250 in 2004, and they didn’t have a position for me to be able to do this so I followed up talks I’d already had for another possible ride for the following season.”
Lesson Learnt
2003 was a year Robbie would rather put behind him and learn from the experience, which no doubt many top riders go through on their path to the top. His saving grace for the 2004 season came in the form of Gavin Eales from Serco Motorsport Yamaha. He obviously saw the potential in Robbie and signed him to a healthy deal considering he had nothing besides his talent to bring to the table. Robbie did learn from his disastrous 2003 season though and made sure he was better prepared to take on the open class riding a Serco-prepared Yamaha YZ 250 two-stroke, with him saying, “This new deal brought back the excitement of riding in me. I had no idea how I would go stepping up to the open class riding a 250, but I ended up finishing sixth in the new SEL SX Nationals series, which I feel is a great result considering I broke the fibula bone in my leg after jumping off the bike over the triple jump at the Brisbane round, which put me out of the last two rounds. Then for the Mr Motocross series I started riding the 450 for the first two rounds, but I was no way ready as I only jumped on the bike like three days before it after recovering from my broken leg. Basically I wasn’t happy riding the 450 as being only 65 kilos is a little on the light side for such a powerful bike, so I sat down with Gavin and my mechanic Michael and they suggested either riding a 250 two-stroke or dropping back to the pro-lites class aboard a 250 F, which is what I did and it’s worked out well. After missing the first two rounds in the class I’ve managed to catch up to 10th place already, and by the last I should be able to reach fifth. I’d be pretty stoked with that after last year finishing 19th on the KTM.” Robbie’s turnaround has proved that by fuelling that natural talent with a bit of hard work definitely is the key to getting good results. For the future he talks about heading over to America for a few months to race the supercross series. Robbie’s parents Joe, and Dorothy, have offered him the support do it for his 21st birthday present, and with contacts through his Australian sponsors a three-month stint is quite achievable. Freestyle for Robbie is still very much a passion, and while I was there he hit his old ramp for the first time in months on his Yamaha YZF 250 over a 70-foot gap and within no time he look relaxed busting out a few Lazyboys. He wants to learn a few of the newer tricks like the Stripper and Ruler to add to his already healthy bag of tricks for the Supercross Masters Expression sessions coming up, and even the Backflip before the end of the year, which he says is more of a personal goal than one for competition. You could say the last few years have been testing times for the talented Robbie Marshall, but when you take into account the guy is still only 20 years of age, he definitely has time on his side and has shown in 2004 that he is very much “Back On Track”.
Robbie would like to give thanks to: First my parents, as without them I would be nowhere, also a big thanks to Gavin Eales and Serco Motorsport Yamaha as after my last season’s effort I’m real lucky that they even signed me up. Also Michael Marty as he has a lot of belief in me and it’s great to have a mechanic like that. My personal sponsors Dragon eyewear, who have supported me for five years now, Red Bull, Etnies shoes and Hurley clothing, M2R helmets, Brassall Club Fitness, and team-associated sponsors.
