Manxman Jamie McCanney wrote EnduroGP history last year by winning the E1 category in Slovakia as a privateer. The 29-year old veteran has had a long and illustrious career but remains as passionate as ever about riding. We sat down with McCanney ahead of the 3rd EnduroGP round of the season. So far Jamie picked up three E1 class podiums for the Fast Eddy team of four-time enduro world champion Paul Edmondson.
Congrats on your strong run so far, was that were you hoped to be?
McCanney: “Thank you! At the end of last Season I finished quite strong so I didn’t want to ‘sleep’ through the offseason and start all over again. I knew what it took to get where I was at the end of last season. I trained hard and did what I could with the tools provided. So with the first two rounds in Portugal being back to back it was important to come out quite high up in the championship. There’s not a lot of rounds in the series so you need to make them count!”
You stayed on the same bike compared to last year which meant you knew the good things and what to improve on. Did you guys do some development on the bike in the winter time?
McCanney: “We didn’t really struggle with the bike as such. But I knew we needed to improve on the handling in the corners because that’s where I lost a lot of time. That’s an area where the bike could be better. Last season we didn’t spend a lot of time on suspension testing or stuff like that. That‘s just how it is being in a small team. However from watching videos I figured out that I couldn’t corner the way I wanted. We spend some time adjusting the settings in the offseason and definitely made progress. In the opening round I was riding too stiff with the suspension so I went softer for the second round. That felt better and I’m feeling we’re heading in there right direction.”
You won in Slovakia last year, the first world championship victory in a long time, that must have been a great boost to your confidence?
McCanney: “(smiles) Admittedly conditions were very British, being a mudder and all that. Still it was a very cool experience. Obviously Josep (Garcia) had just come back from an injury so he was on the back foot. It was five years since I last won, so that’s a long time with a lot of stuff happening in between. The rider-level in EnduroGP is so high and there are so many riders with only a couple of seconds separating them. So to be standing on the top step of the podium with a privateer team is very special. In the end it’s mainly me and three other guys.”
So what are the things that currently you have to do without compared to the factory riders your competing against?
McCanney: “A lot of is just the limitations -of a privateer team compared to a works team- you’re up against in general. Like waiting for the race bikes to be purchased for example. As a team we don’t get 10 bikes from the factory delivered in one go. I have a race bike and a training bike. My training bike is last year’s race bike and it has probably over 200 hours on it! Unless we get additional support to buy another bike the race bike might have to last me all year. We try to be as professional as possible but you have to get creative. My friend who’s my mechanic has personally tuned my engine in our little workshop in Portugal. It’s not like the factory teams where the engine is put on the dyno or with all the special parts that factory riders get access to.”
With both Steve Holcombe and Josep Garcia in E1 you’re admittedly competing in the strongest class. How is that for you?
McCanney: “I think it’s 12 years that I’m racing the world championship so I know the score! They’re looking at success in the class but also competing for the outright EnduroGP title. On Sunday in Valpaços I was third in E1 but fifth in EnduroGP. So that’s three E1 riders inside the top-5. It is what it is. Also it gives a different goal to aim for. In my case that’s dropping the gap to Garcia and Holcombe to less than a minute, and keep on improving on my setup for each round. If I’m riding well I should be aiming to be top-5 EnduroGP among all the factory riders. On the other hand you can not influence how your competitors are doing…”
After a full day of riding you could be a minute down on the leader and be second or you could be sixth. That’s gnarly!
McCanney: “It is, definitely! That would be like being 30 seconds in motocross after a 30 minute race, you know. So even when we have one hour of tests often the margins are super close. As an 18-year old I went into the enduro world championship quite naive, not following the results or not really knowing the riders… I was just riding my bike. When you’re in the Junior World Championship and see where you stack up against guys like Pela Renet, Antoine Meo or Christophe Nambotin it’s a big shock! How on earth can they be three minutes ahead of me? Especially when I worked as hard as I could! So how are you going to close that gap? Sometimes I worried about how that would go if moved up to the senior classes! But it all worked out somehow.”
For the moment Holcombe and Garcia stand out in EnduroGP. What makes them so special? Or should I put Andrea Verona in the same bracket?
McCanney: “I do feel that there are a few more elite guys than just Steve and Josep. Brad Freeman is getting back to his best level again after a pretty serious injury, Nathan Watson is stepping up and posting some excellent times here and there. Samuele Bernardini is more consistent, Zach Pichon can be super quick… Having said that both Holcombe and Garcia are phenomenal riders who have been able to keep on building without having big injuries or getting much time off. You see how strong Steve actually is from how he well he adapted after swapping bikes this winter from leaving Beta and going to Honda. He’s immediately up there so you can not say that his level is up to the bike. Once you get that ball rolling and you have that confidence much of it is down to your mindset and your fitness.”
You have to be 100% to compete at the highest level for titles and that’s impossible without momentum and focus
McCanney: “Exactly! I think that goes for each series because the level of competition is so high now. I don’t think that any of the top-5 MXGP guys could now come into EnduroGP and get top-5 straightaway. Nor would that be possible the other way around with a top EnduroGP rider going over to MXGP. You even see that when riders switch disciplines with offroad. Like going from EnduroGP to GNCC or going from hard enduro to EnduroGP.”
If all riders are healthy the British team should be the hands-on favourite for the ISDE in Spain?
McCanney: “It would be cool to get everyone together but it depends on their contract situation, how they’re doing at that time of year and so on. But we all know that if everyone turned from the top Brits we would be very hard to beat!”
Absolutely! It’s remarkable what you’ve achieved so far. Youth World champion in 2013, Junior World champion in 2015, Enduro vice world titles, the ISDE win in 2022 and of course doing Dakar. Would you consider returning to rallyraid?
McCanney: “I never had a clear run at rallyraid in fact. I experienced some good things and I experienced some bad things there. I was just very unfortunate that this happened during COVID. I had just done the Merzuga rally in April and my next race was Dakar in January the next year! I managed 5th or 6th in a stage, made rookie mistakes like stopping to help a rider in trouble thinking that I would get my time back. Possibly I threw away that rookie win. In my second Dakar my bike broke down on day four. But even before that race in 2021 I had only done Andalucia. In the end I did four races in almost 3 years so that nowhere nears add up to a fulltime program. It was an experience and on the other hand there wasn’t a lot going on at that time in the world. The story could have been different if COVID didn’t happen and I managed to get a proper run at it.”
The riding skills or individual rider level in EnduroGP don’t always translate to rally either.
McCanney: “True. I enjoy the technicality that you need for enduro: bouncing in and out of trees. I also enjoy the physical side of it, how you can make a difference by pushing yourself in training. I like how physical and difficult EnduroGP is at the moment. You feel that you’re going to the limit physically, that’s very different in rally. Granted, you have to be fit but it’s nowhere near at the same level of intensity or corner speed. Those are the things that you lose a bit in rally. And of course there’s more risk involved. I got to taste it and I was lucky to have left without any major crashes. From that side I’m happy to have returned to enduro. Although at the money -even when riding at the highest level- is not comparable to the money at the highest level of rally racing. One thing that I’ve come to fully appreciate is how much fun it is to be able to call this -my hobby, what I love to do- as my job. That’s a very fortunate position to be in.”
There seems to be a great atmosphere in the FastEddy Racing team. How is it be riding in a British setup for the first time in your professional career?
McCanney: “We actually built the time from scratch together with Paul Edmondson. When he asked me to ride for him he asked if I knew any mechanics or helpers. So they’re all guys that I met over my years of racing and that I became friends with. To put together a team with a bunch of friends is of course very different from being on a team where you only see the mechanics at the race. There’s a really connection where you keep in touch or spend time together during a holiday. These guys being friends before mechanics makes it a more friendly environment. And I don’t only meant that in cozy matey sort of way. Because there’s that trust and openness they’ll tell it like it is when you’re not doing well too.”
EnduroGP will visit the UK with the Welsh round in August. That must be awesome to look forward to?
McCanney: “Yeah, I think that will be really good. Everyone from the UK offroad scene will be attending with a lot of friends and family cheering the Brits on. Wales always delivers the goods for enduro. Normally -fingers crossed- the weather should be nice that time of the year. The last British round was in 2008 so it’s been long overdue!”
Since 2022 EnduroGP has a new promoter in the form of Stadium, a Portuguese company. They replaced ABC that had been around for a long time. What do you think of the changes so far?
McCanney: “First of all we need to consider that the tests are still put up by the clubs, as they’ve been in the past. So of course there are important differences between each GP. Still, it’s clear that Stadium is pushing hard to make everything look more professional. As a rider I’m not really bothered about how the paddock looks or how fancy the trucks are. For us it’s more about the quality of the tests, how we are treated and so on. Recently the tests have been quite good whereas they’ve been too fast or dangerous in the past. On thing I’d like to see more of is a newer style of enduro. I don’t think we should be riding around for 7 hours a day in 30°C to do an hour’s worth of test times. We could probably manage in 3 or 4 hours to keep it more intense and have the spectators more locked in. When it’s 7 hours you naturally will lose a lot of the interest. Spectators decide to see the first lap or the last lap. And when they watch the last lap they might not be so keen to hang around for the podium. Riding around the mountains for hours on end without any spectators makes little sense to me.”
You had some really interesting team manager over the year from Thomas Gustavsson (Husaberg & Husqvarna) over Marc Bourgeois (Outsiders Yamaha Racing) to Franco Mayr (Jolly Enduro Team) and Paul Edmondson (FastEddy Racing-. All characters in their own right, how do they compare?
McCanney: “(grins) They all have a screw loose, one way or the other. I think I was very lucky to start my world championship journey with Thomas. And I don’t think there are many Thomases about any more! He was very calm, I don’t think he ever raised his voice. He did his job and he sat back to let you get on with yours. Even if you came out of a test with bent handlebars or the subframe hanging off, he’d ask if you were okay and send you back to the paddock to have it fixed. No screaming or shouting which created a calm environment. I have huge respect for him as a team manager and his track record as an engineer and rider. Just think of what he pulled off with Husaberg!
It was nice to move on to Marc Bourgeois after that. The full package he ran with Outsiders Racing was very professional. I also had a good bond with my mechanic Fab and my suspension guy Dan. I spent time at Marc’s home to go riding in his region and it was clear that he had built a very positive team environment. On the hand hand family-like but professional and result oriented. With Franco you sensed how much experience he has in running a team without any pretenses. A been there and got the T-shirt type of thing like many team managers in the EnduroGP paddock have. And that’s all of the reason why they’re there. Maybe I didn’t enjoy the bike I was riding there so much but all the guys working on the team were great to work with. I wasn’t there that long but the atmosphere in the Jolly team was super nice.
With Paul there’s an history that goes way back because I’ve been racing is FastEddy events all my life. I hung out with him at his house way before I was on his team. The cooperation with Paul has been fantastic, he allowed me to give a lot of input on loads of decisions from team staff to sponsors, and even parts on the bike. So that freedom has been amazing, especially because I now have the experience to make choices like that. There’s a lot of trust from Paul as long as I don’t take the piss with anything! I’ll be turning 30 so I know what I need to do and what needs to happen. This is the first time where I’m involved in such a way with a team, managing a few things as well. However I respect a lot what Paul has done as a team manager how he built it up and how passionate he his about this project. With the look of the team, our results and Paul’s background as a world champion you would tend to think that it’s easy to pull something off like this and you couldn’t be any further from the truth. For me this is the first time that I ride on this level without manufacturer support so everything is coming out of Paul’s pockets. There’s not a lot of teams in the paddock doing it like that, without a title sponsor. All of this makes the FastEddy Racing team very unique in the EnduroGP paddock. Without Paul’s passion none of this would be possible. Admittedly with a setup like ours that makes it so much more special to have the FastEddy bike -without a brand on the side- in front of the podium when you’re standing at the top step of the podium. To pull that off without manufacturer support was pretty cool I have to admit!”
When you rode for Outsiders Yamaha you did the French classics and won Aveyronnaise classic twice. What do you think of that type of racing?
McCanney: “I loved it! I was really happy to be introduced to it by Marc (Bourgeois), who was a bit of a classic king himself. Okay there’s a lot of riding involved in relation to the length of the tests but I really enjoyed Aveyronnaise and Le Trèfle. It something that I could see myself doing even when I’m not racing EnduroGP any longer. Fitness is not that important over there, so you could still be doing well even when you’re no linger racing at the highest level fulltime. Bourgeois proved that as well. He was leading Le Trèfle ahead of Garcia in 2018 before he sadly broke his leg on the second day.”
How is the interaction among the riders of the team. There’s Mikael Persson, doing E2 this year, who’s similar to you in terms of performance and you have one of the most promising young Brits in Harry Edmondson. That must be an interesting dynamic right there.
McCanney: “It is cool. I was actually Micky’s team mate at Miglio Racing Yamaha before in 2016. So I knew him well before and he’s one of my good friends in the paddock. When I heard about the possibility of him joining the team and then him signing with us that was of course pretty cool. I organized a pre-season bootcamp in Spain and Portugal that we did together which was fun even when the timing was difficult due to the birth of Mikael’s son. It’s a shame he’s out for a while know with his achilles heel injury. I also trained with Harry before and we’ve been team mates at Jolly Enduro. He’s a very special lad. Very funny also. For sure you can see some of his dad in there. I try to help him and push him on in his quest to reach the top. I hope he can come back strong after hurting his shoulder.”
There’s been a few other brothers at the highest level competing together in motocross or enduro. Like the Watson brothers or the Coenen brothers in MX2. How was it for you to share this adventure with your brother Daniel?
McCanney: “It wasspecial that’s for sure. Dan is semi-retired but he’ll come back to to the Welsh EnduroGP. We always travelled together, stayed in the same hotels and all that. At one point we were together on the Husqvarna Factory team which was a bit unheard of. The feeling of two ordinary guys from the Isle of Man being on one of the most professional teams in the world together was pretty cool. Sometimes it would sink how amazing this experience is. We would ride a transfer together somewhere at a race in a foreign country or discuss lines. I was actually riding with him yesterday. I think we both were for fortunate to get our professional break and turn our hobby in to our job.”
Did you and your brother have a big rivalry?
McCanney: “I didn’t really see it like that but he mentioned in an interview that I was the person he’d like to beat the most! I was more laidback about it. It’s you against the clock anyway, not me against this guy or that guy. I guess it was different when we were both doing youth motocross. Ha was on the 85cc big wheel and I was on the 85cc small wheel. At that time I was the little kid that would annoy the hell of of him, getting the hole shot and holding him up for as long as I could. Sometimes I was able to beat him and we would be scrapping in the paddock, or mom holding us back with us shouting and swearing. That was funny yeah. And we ran into each other on the track a few times. With enduro things settled down between us!”
How was it to grow up on the Isle of Man, where your have such a big motorsports tradition or guys from all different disciplines riding offroad together?
McCanney: “It’s becoming more tough to go out and ride just like it has everywhere. Also due to the limited amount of tracks. When I was younger the guys would could ride naturally, have access to good terrains and would progress from there. That’s becoming a lot harder, you do have to plan your training, or take the boat to go over to the UK. Back when David Knight was coming up you could literally leave your garage and go to so many places to ride. I was still riding British youth motocross in 2011 when David provided me with a bike to do the enduro sprint championship. That was a actually my first real deal. As a young guy I looked up to David, how he was dominating enduro, went over to the US to clean up there. We’ve been lucky that he lived just up the road or even that we had the chance to see him ride.”
Thank you for the interview Jamie, best of luck in Romania!
McCanney: “Thank you, you’re welcome.”
