A regional race team hits the big time! Here's a look at the WBR Yamaha team taking it to the Factory teams.
I love a good story, and I particularly like a story of success, like the WBR Yamaha team have had. WBR motorcycles first opened its doors in 2010 after the local Kawasaki and Suzuki shop had closed down leaving a void in their hometown of Echuca, Victoria. After some thought brothers, Travis and Nathan Whitten leapt in the deep end and decided to open a dealership. Suzuki weren’t keen but Kawasaki gave them a chance and they were off and running. Trav remembers the stress over that first order of 15 bikes and having one toolbox and a trestle table for a counter, humble beginnings but big dreams.
For those non-Victorian’s. Echuca is a regional city in north central Victoria, right on the Murray River, a shopping hub for the surrounding small towns and farms and a popular tourist spot, as is the norm for the Riverina towns.
The boys sold 30 bikes that first year, but it was a start. In 2015 they added Yamaha to the lineup after another of the town’s dealers had closed. They were keen to get hold of Yamaha with its big line up of offroad models. Trav recalled though, that they made a few business mistakes at that time, leading to losing Kawasaki which was a shame.
That little Yamaha shop turned into a juggernaut. The country’s biggest seller of off-road Yamaha’s in 2023, it’s a huge and extremely well stocked store by any standards, even more impressive for a country store. WBR now also includes a Giant bicycles dealership after the boys purchased the local shop and moved it to their location.
Prior to being the faces of WBR, both the brothers did their trade as fitter and turners, and their parents Peter and Gaylene have a long running automotive repair shop, Echuca Performance next door. Travis and Nathans little sister Amy, even has her Occupational Therapy office at the same site. Mum and Dad have been and still are a great support to the boys, having been in business themselves for so long. Back in the day, Peter even dabbled in selling Suzuki’s for a while.
Yep, it’s an awesome shop, very impressive, blue bikes everywhere, some white and purple ones and a huge amount of gear and accessories. But I was more interested with what was out the back! Let’s talk about the race team.
In the lead up to the Newcastle Supercross last year, I was lucky enough to call in. I wanted to take a look at what it takes to run a “factory like” but “family run” race team, Trav was awesome and gave me the grand tour.
A passion for helping other riders led the family to begin investing in that direction rather than their own racing. The team grew from there and they first had manufacturer support in 2015. That same year, Tasmanian Dylan Leary was hired to spearhead the team, Dylan brought Bulk Nutrients with him as a sponsor and even after Dylan left the team they continued as a sponsor. I’d say they have got their moneys worth, the brand sure is synonymous with the WBR team.
The teams’ first MX2 podium and win came in 2016 with rider, concreter, and pilot Kale Makeham, but Trav thinks 2018 was the team’s most successful year to date. That year Yamaha gave the team the reigns of the MX3 program and young guns Bailey Malkiewicz and Hugh McKay went 1-2 respectively in the championship. Bailey also won the World Jnr MX Championship held In Horsham. Interestingly Bailey won that 125 World Title after a hard fought battle with current MXGP star Mattia Guadagnini, it’s very interesting to look back at results sometimes.
For 2024 the team is once again running the factory supported MX3 effort, with a four rider crew of Queenslander Kobe Drew and New South Welshman Seth Burchell, Kayd Kinsford and Koby Hantis. Some line up indeed!
There is no doubt, the Whitten family is all in, right down to Peter driving the truck and Gaylene running the pit kitchen and no doubt organising everything, as our better halves usually do. The truck serves as Mum and Dad’s home away from home as they trek around the country. Well half of it anyway.
When you look around the ProMX pits and survey the various sized trucks, awnings and colours, you would be hard pressed at first glance to pick which of the BluCru set ups is Factory Yamaha CDR and which is WBR. The look is full factory, totally on point, and so is the set up back in Echuca.
Out the back is a dyno room, suspension room, engine room, machine shop and the race bike workshop that was housing a couple of very sad looking Bailey Malkiewicz 450’s, the news of his wrist injury was all too fresh. US star Robbie Wageman and Ryder Kingsford’s 250’s were already in the truck. Robbie was there that day and I wonder if Trav and Nathan ever thought they would be flying out a pro from the US when they were putting up that trestle table? Tip of the lid to that, I’m always a fan of taking chances, working hard and dreaming big and the boys certainly did all that.
The rig is very impressive just ask my wife, I’m a freak about packing vehicles efficiently, like seriously its maybe my greatest skill, so the neat set up of the WBR truck really warmed the heart. Everything is thought of and everything has its place, labelled cabinets, drawers, containers in drawers, anything and everything you can imagine needing has a home and it’s as neat as a pin.
Pre-season truck loading and set up is a matter of weeks not hours, a bit of a chore. Once it’s set for the season it’s a little easier than I expected as a lot of things stay in there. Being the day before the rig was to leave for Newy, I was really expecting a stressful hive of activity, but the vibe was pretty relaxed, busy and focused but confident and very organised. Trav was actually serving customers in the shop and the fact that he had an hour or so for me is further proof of a well-oiled machine.
Come race day everyone sees the shiny stuff setup out the front of the truck like the bikes, spare bikes, awning, flooring, posters, flags, merch and tool boxes. But there is so much more you might not think of.
To start every part imaginable, pretty much a whole bikes worth, is packed, organised and labelled and there’spit trolleys to move it all around. Then add wheel sets, spare engines, forks, shocks and bars ready for a quick swap. Gear set cupboards are ready for Darnell to fill with Alpinestar kits, and pressure washers with chemicals, hoses, brushes, and buckets help keep things sparkling.
For creature comforts there is heating and cooling, rider bunks and lounge, food, cooking and cleaning equipment and sitting underneath the kitchen is 2400 litres of water. A sleeper cab has been converted to seat extra passengers. To top it off there’s room for 10 bikes on the second level and even a little car that slot’s in the back!
Travis runs a book for everything that is used during an event to make for quick and accurate restocking of the rig, as long as the mechanics write it down! It doesn’t end at the great shop and truck set up, the guys even have a 160 acre property with their own practice tracks. Located over the river outside Moama with former rider Kale Makeham, as the track builder.
I asked Travis about the challenges of a regional based team and the main challenge by far is the distance to Melbourne airport, and someone had just done the near five hour round trip to pick up Robbie. That’s something I hadn’t thought of. The benefits of available space, low traffic and land prices is at least some trade off to the airport issue.
It was really cool to see all this and this article just won’t do it justice, but I hope it gives a little insight into the hard work and dedication that’s done years before the shiny pit set up goes up at an event.
Thanks heaps to Travis for his time, his very open answers and the tour of the facility. Best of luck to WBR for the rest of season 2024. If you’re at a ProMX round be sure to cheer for those Bulk Nutrients bikes, and if you need a new Yamaha or Giant bicycle, you know who to call.
WORDS | Steve Hall