Courtesy of MXVice.com
The track at the first-ever SMX Riders’ and Manufactuers’ Cup in Germany wasn’t quite a traditional U.S. supercross track, but new MXGP World Champion, Tim Gajser, still showed he has some indoor game by taking the SuperPole qualifying award and then winning the first main event over Ryan Dungey. He was leading again in race two before crashing twice, and ultimately hurting his shoulder. So, not the result he wanted, but, the Slovenian showed he could be a fast study in supercross whenever he gets the chance to go for it in the U.S.
The boys from MX Vice talked to Gajser after the race. You can listen to the audio interview here or read below.
Racer X: Okay Tim, up and down day for you, but you did win one main event so I guess you’re quite happy about that?
Tim Gajser: Overall I’m really quite happy with the speed, and it was a nice experience to ride indoors, and with so many big names from America and from Europe. First moto, yeah, I could not ask for much better. Holeshot, lead the laps, and win that first moto. So I was super pumped about that. Second one another good start, got the holeshot, and I was leading again, but that crash happened so quick. The ground was getting harder and slicker and more rough. I went over the handlebars. The first crash wasn’t so hard, so I could pick up and continue in fourth place. The second one, it wasn’t even a big crash either, but I landed on the shoulder I damaged before, so, it was painful. But I decided to race the third one for Honda, I didn’t feel the best, I didn’t want to have close calls, so I let some guys pass me and finished fifth. It’s good for me, I showed I had speed, first moto and second moto, and SuperPole I had fast lap times. Speed was there I just needed to be more consistent.
Where you surprised how competitive you were, considering you had an injury right before Motocross of Nations?
Actually, I was training a lot in supercross. All of the season, I was training on the track my father built, it’s kind of like supercross and motocross all in one. So I knew I would be okay, but to do this well I didn’t expect it at all.
It has to give you a lot of confidence heading into the Monster Cup?
Well, we’ll see now. I was really looking forward to go, but to not be 100 percent, it’s hard to go there because the racing is going to be more intense, the riding is going to be harder.
So there’s a chance you won’t line up next weekend?
I hate to say that but maybe. [Note: Gajser has elected not to race the MEC this weekend.]
When you’re racing an event like this, and you have someone like Dungey in front of you, is there a little more motivation?
Yeah for sure. The first race, my mechanic was like one second to [Ryan] Dungey. Then it would say 1.5, and I was like [laughs] “Oh, super! I went faster!” It’s hard because we’ve never raced the guy, like Dungey and Marvin [Musquin] and all the guys that came to the event. We only watch them on TV and you can see they’re flying on the supercross track. So for sure, us European guys, we’re giving it our all to show we can go fast in a race indoors. Overall, I think it was good, we learned a lot and it was a good experience. Hopefully we can have more events like that.
Back to that crash in the second moto that hurt your shoulder. Do you think that was the result of getting up from the first crash and maybe pushing too hard?
I was pushing hard. But still, it was small mistake. I used too much rear brake, it was quite slick, and the back tire went over the ruts and it kicked me. Yeah I was risking a little bit after that crash, because, I was leading the race before that crash, and I wasn’t really getting pushed from behind. So yeah, second race, making that first crash was key to making the second one.
First race on the 2017 Honda. Were you struggling with settings at all?
No not really. I was really excited about racing my first race on the 2017, and it went good. You could see the speed was there, feeling was good, scrubbing was good. [Laughs] It was still different from the bike I’ve been racing in the GPs, but in a good way. It was better.
