Arnaud Tonus grew up hanging off the fences of the Grand Prix tracks of Europe as his father Charley made a living as a 500cc title contender. Mentored by the late, great Georges Jobe as he climbed the ranks, Tonus hit high gear in 2014 when he won his first GP and found himself on the podium often during the globetrotting MX2 World Championship. In fact, the Monster Energy/CLS Kawasaki rider was the only rider capable of keeping the streaking Jeffrey Herlings on the toes of his jagged footpegs last summer, until an injury ending his season prematurely.
Tonus has since made the move to America and is now a member of Mitch Payton’s Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki team. Set to contest the East Region as part of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship, the Swiss rider will line up for his first supercross this Saturday inside the massive AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The realization of a boyhood dream—yes, Arnaud was inspired by Ricky Carmichael, has always wanted to be a part of Monster Energy Supercross—the time has come for the 23-year-old racer to follow in the boot steps of the GP riders who came before him. We caught up with him before he headed for Dallas.
Racer X: Arnaud, how is it going?
Arnaud Tonus: Everything has been going good. I’ve had good preparation. And it was my last day riding today and I had a good day. Now I’m just looking forward to the race and see how it’s going to be. It’s a new challenge for me. It’s going to be unknown for me. I’m going to go there and everything will be new. I’m looking forward to it and I’m going to have some fun.
You suffered an injury earlier in this winter. How is your health now and what type of injury did you have?
I broke my wrist at the end of November. I broke the radius in my wrist, and I was off the bike a bit more than six weeks. It took me a bit of time to recover from that. At the beginning of January I was back on the bike, so I wasn’t able to spend too much time on it—it’s been only five weeks—but I feel good on the bike and now my wrist is good, healthy, and solid.
I know you were making a lot of headway with your supercross riding before the injury. Is it disappointing to lose that time on the supercross test track?
Yeah, for sure. It’s always a tough time when you hurt yourself, but I didn’t have much experience in supercross and sometimes you crash and just learn, you know? It’s part of the sport, so I’m going to learn from that and keep my head up.
Did you come out to watch any of the earlier rounds?
Yeah, I’ve been to all of the Anaheim races and I also went to San Diego last Saturday, so it was good for me to see what was going on. All of this was the first time for me seeing supercross live, so it was nice to see how it goes on. I’m just looking forward to racing right now.
Many of the Grand Prix racers who have come to race here in the US have mentioned to me that the atmosphere surrounding a supercross is unlike anything they had ever experienced. Do you find it all different than a Grand Prix?
Yeah, sure. It’s a lot different. It seems like the people know the sport a little bit more here. I don’t know… It’s kind of different, like you said. Supercross is another thing compared to Europe. There’s a lot more people here when you come to a stadium. It’s huge. It’s nice to see all the fans at these races and that all the fans love the sport that we do.
And now, to actually be racing a supercross event is going to be quite a new experience for you, isn’t it?
Yeah, for sure! The cool thing about racing is the excitement that is always around it. But yes, anything can happen in a supercross and you just have to prepare yourself as good as you can, and when you’re behind the gate you just let go and do the best you can. For sure, it’s going to be different, but it’s going to be a nice experience.
What type of expectations are you putting on yourself for both the opening round and the series?
First, this is just a year that I have to learn, so I’m going to go out there and definitely do the best I can and try to be the best Arnaud Tonus I can be. The goal is just to be the best I can and hope for the good results.
Marvin Musquin, Justin Bogle, Martin Davalos, Jeremy Martin: Coming straight from the GP circuit you haven’t really raced against these guys, have you?
Yeah, that’s a thing I was also thinking about. That’s kind of weird for me because I know these guys from TV, but I’ve never been racing with them so it’s going to be all new. I’ll discover all that. But when you’re on a track you don’t really care who is in front of you or behind you; you just want to go as fast as you can and try to beat the guy who is in front of you. I know this kind of racing will be more aggressive than what we get in Europe because it’s a tight track and stuff. I’ll try to get into that intensity right away and try and beat those guys.
The Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki team has had a pretty rough go of things thus far in 2015. Do you feel a little bit more pressure to go right out and succeed right away due to that? What is Mitch saying to you?
Mitch hasn’t been saying much to me except that he wants me to do good. For sure he took me on to do that. More pressure? Well, there is always pressure on yourself because you want to do good anyways. When you’re behind the gate you have that pressure that you put on yourself. For sure, I want to do well for all the team guys because they have done a great job so far. They are so involved in everything and with the bike setup and all, so I want to make them happy.
How do you like your race bike?
I love my Kawasaki. I’ve been on that bike for three years now. To work with Mitch and Bones and all the guys has been great. We’ve done a lot of testing and I was not really used to that, so I learned a lot and we’ve been better and better on the bike and now I feel really good on it. Like I said, the team has been so involved, and you can feel that on the bike because everything is working great.
Do you think you can you fight for the championship in your first year?
I’m going to fight for it—that’s for sure. Like I said, this is kind of a learning year, too. If the results come, then for sure I will fight for that title. At the moment, though, I will do the best I can and we’ll see how the season will come together.
All the pre-World Championship international races have now started up. Having you been keeping an eye on what’s been playing out in Europe?
Yes, I’m really good friends with Gautier [Paulin] and it’s been nice to see him do good. I think it’s going to be a cool year in Europe with Ryan [Villopoto] racing there and all the competition. It will be a nice championship and I’ll keep an eye on it.
You’ve wanted to race supercross in America since you were a little kid. You’ve made the move over here and have done all the training and testing and riding… How stoked are you for Saturday night?
Yeah, everything comes together now. I’m excited but I’m also nervous. You kind of have the fear of the unknown, you know? It’s cool because you learn a lot about yourself. It’ll make me a better rider and it will also make me a better human, I think, because this is what I always wanted to do, and to be here and making it happen is a dream come true. I’m going to try and enjoy it!
