Roger De Coster at 80

A short story about Roger De Coster’s legacy. This report was written in 2018. Ages and statistics have been adjusted.

Roger De Coster doesn’t think he’s very smart. It’s not a bluff. Close friends have heard him say it, too. A Belgian expatriate, De Coster marvels at how his youngest son – who is studying to be a doctor – absorbs knowledge quickly, or the way an engineer at KTM can create a part with software on a computer.

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“I just have a lot of experience,” De Coster said. “I’m a slow learner but I’ve learned for a long time.” Born in Belgium on August 28, 1944, the same month Paris was liberated in World War II, De Coster has, without question, experienced more professional dirt bike racing than anyone on earth. He’s now 80 years old and has made no hints of stopping.

I’m a slow learner but I’ve learned for a long time.

–Roger De Coster

He’s a five-time FIM World Motocross champion; he’s been a sport ambassador, an advisor, shook President Ronald Regan’s hand and has been in managerial roles since 1995.

He’s an accomplished fabricator and machinist and speaks Flemish, English and French fluently. In Italian and German, he holds his own.

De Coster’s ultimate job is to win championships for KTM North America. Here’s where that experience is most valuable: Marvin Musquin’s hubs were twisting under the stress of his unique riding style – heavy simultaneous braking and acceleration. De Coster could have told Technical Director Ian Harrison to find a solution. Instead, he sat down with a pencil and paper and sketched, drawing from nearly six decades of knowledge, which includes his job as a machinist for the Belgian industrial giant, Contigea. He mumbled about something he once saw on a road race bike.

Harrison watched De Coster. After 15 minutes, he identified the weakness and determined the hub needed to be two millimeters thicker in a specific area. He handed the paper to the engineers. They weren’t sold on the problem’s source but they would look into it. Three weeks later, their solution matched De Coster’s.

“That’s where he’s exceptional,” Harrison says. “He can get out there and make a part and 98% of the time his solution works. He also has a magical way of listening to the riders and mechanics and finding something that’s truly going to benefit the rider and team.”

Six decades after De Coster rode his bicycle nearly 40 miles to watch Rene Baeten win the 1958 MXGP at the Citadel in Namur, Belgium, he continues to progress and reinvent himself. No matter what changes around him, he’s still relevant. That’s because his passion never wanes. In 1967, four years before he won his first world championship, he came to America to ride.

He returned every single year but instead of glad handing at awards banquets, his four Trans-AMA championships were accepted by a cardboard cutout someone brought on stage as a joke. De Coster was already off displaying his magic for crowds in South America or Australia.

“I always felt like it was part of my responsibility that came along with becoming a champion, to try to promote motocross and make it bigger and make it more international,” he said.

When American Honda formed HRC and committed to winning championships in the early 1980s, they hired Dave Arnold as the team manager and De Coster as a team advisor. Arnold was De Coster’s mechanic in 1980, his last season racing GPs.

“It was like motocross on heroin that whole year,” Arnold said. “Roger was always hands-on when it came to development. I was living with him in Belgium. He’d be over on the lathe making an axle. We’d go to dinner and come back and it’d be midnight, 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning. I’m like, isn’t this guy a rider? Shouldn’t he rest?”

It was like motocross on heroin that whole year.

–Dave Arnold

Their ability to develop hardware and talent became legendary and produced champions such as David Bailey, Ricky Johnson, Jeff Stanton, Johnny O’Mara and others. De Coster became so revered as a leader that on August 28, 2010, Ryan Dungey didn’t even have to think about it; he was coming, too. Inside Dungey’s motorhome, De Coster broke the news that after 16 seasons he was leaving Suzuki for KTM.

Dungey had just completed the greatest 450cc rookie season ever, winning the Monster Energy Supercross AND the Pro Motocross championships. It was an hour after Dungey won the MX title and they still smelled of champagne. He told the 21-year-old to wait. He needed time. KTM had never won a supercross race, let alone a championship.  

“When Roger came to KTM about half the people said ‘What the hell is he doing? That’s the dumbest move,’” said Mark Blackwell, a former racer, team manager and industry executive. “The other half of us said, ‘Wow. Watch, in about a year Dungey is going to be there and KTM is going to start being a force in motocross.”

Dungey retired in May 2017 after winning three supercross titles with KTM. He also won two motocross championships with the brand. In August 2018, De Coster was appointed Motorsport Director for the KTM Group, which produces brands such as Husqvarna and GasGas, as well as KTM. He’s experienced championships with Cooper Webb, Zach Osborne, RJ Hampshire, Chase Sexton and Tom Vialle.

He’s 80 years old and can still be grinding away at a lathe or mill. On an early December 2023 evening, he was doing just that while the Rockstar Husqvarna Team was in the lobby of the new KTM Group headquarters building throwing a party to celebrate the 2024 team. Roger had a test session scheduled for the next day and he had an idea he wanted to try.  

Maybe that extra time in lab paid off. In 2024, KTM’s Vialle won the 250SX East title, Husqvarna’s RJ Hampshire won the 250SX West title and Chase Sexton won the 450MX championship.

De Coster isn’t a ‘legacy’ guy. He doesn’t think about his impact or influence. Sure, he’ll talk and laugh about the good old days with his friends who also came from those eras but he has a tendency to forget yesterday. He only cares about progress, and he’s happiest when he’s in front of some machinery, figuring out a way to make a better part.

As a rider and manager/director, De Coster has won over 70 major championships. If he ever actually feels smarter, the competition is in trouble.