RJ [Hampshire] said that the track looked a little bit different than he thought it might look from videos and stuff. How does it actually look from your perspective though?
Yeah, I think I've watched hundreds of videos of this from [Motocross of Nations at this track from] ‘05 and ‘15 to last year's GP. So like I knew every turn. I'm like, oh, here's this corner, here's this jump. There's a triple step up. So I'm like, it feels like I've been here after watching so many videos. But, you know, you stand on top of that triple step down. It all kind of sinks in right there. You're going to see a bunch of people on that hillside and man, I get goose bumps just thinking about it. So all I can do is just put my head down and try to put in a good result for the team

Does it lift a little weight off the shoulders, drawing six gate pick today for tomorrow?
Yeah, we were walking the track and I was watching it on my phone and I'm like, all right, here we go. We got lucky with that one. I know in recent years we've had some bad gate picks, but it is only for a qualifying race, but we'll take it and bring some confidence for tomorrow.

Is this one where the inside gate pick you feel is quite favorable?
Yeah, I was just standing on the start straight and it gets pretty narrow down there. So I think it's going to favor the inside gate, but I have been working on a lot of starts. So either way, wherever we line up, I plan to come out up front.

#2 RJ Hampshire | Team USA

Racer X: RJ Hampshire, we are finally here. The 2023 Motocross of Nations, Friday. Just kind of take me through the initial feeling and vibes that you get from being here, man.
RJ Hampshire: It's awesome. It's almost more than what you expect. The set ups here [press room] and the MXGP side. It's unreal, even just the Scott set up behind you. It cool to see. Then you take a look at the track, man. That's awesome. The hillside actually looks, it's a lot steeper here than what it looks like on the videos. The track is a bit tighter than we expected also. But man, I'm excited to see the bike, see my helmet, like all the cool stuff to get it goes into the race. I think that's, that's almost the best part of it.

You guys ended up drawing gate six in that ballot just now. Is that a little bit extra confidence going in tomorrow, right?
Yeah, I could use any help possible with my starts recently. [Laughs] So, I'm stoked on that. Like I said, we're, we're ready to go. It's been a fun trip already. Like just, you know, experience Paris a bit, then drive down and just the atmosphere, man, it's, it's super cool.

Looking at the track, like you said, so far what are some of the things that are exciting, and what do you least like about the track from what you've seen?
I mean, the dirt honestly it's really good. They pretty much just went out and grew some grass, it’s almost like a natural feel to it. The hills are very steep, more steep than I expected. But man, it's cool. I'm excited, the track actually looks fun like it's more like a flowy kind of race track and it's not so high speed like the tracks in America. Like, dude you think about it, every single track is just wide open over there, where this is gonna be tight, it's going to be technical. Dirt looks awesome. So, yeah, looks good.

What's this week been like for you traveling and getting prepped for this?
Man. It's been awesome. It's so cool. I have my whole family here and made a trip out of it. We flew in early to Paris, showed up Tuesday morning and have just been exploring. Walked way too many miles the last couple of days. Learned the train system, that side of it was cool. I enjoy that stuff. But yeah, most importantly, it's cool to have my family here and get to experience a new culture. Food has been amazing. We're getting to go back for a couple of days after the race. Looking forward to it.

#8 Hunter Lawrence | Team Austrailia

Racer X: Hunter Lawrence, Motocross of Nations, Team Australia. Good vibes coming into this weekend. Think everything's going good, right?
Hunter Lawrence: Yeah, absolutely. It's cool. We've been looking forward to this trip for a while, so it's cool, man. Get to have a little reunion with all our friends here. So yeah, it's been fun. It's been really cool.

Not exactly the ideal gate selection for you guys, but you've been through this over the years. How do you kind of deal with that going into Saturday?
We're 13. So, I mean, we're above average. So, I mean, it's not like terrible, terrible. We've dealt with bad gate picks before. So we just go out and try to manage it as best as we can and get a good gate pick [for the Sunday motos]. You know, Saturday doesn't matter a whole great deal because anything can happen. Like really anything can happen tomorrow. You see the motos, and the teams in the leading orders are changing after every single moto, and then whatever’s happening going into the last moto, you think Oh, okay, this is how it's gonna turn out. Then it'll be completely different. So, yeah.

You've done some GPs here, right? So, how much of this have you leaned on some experience in the past going into this weekend?
Not, not much really. I've raced here once before, back in 2017. But yeah, it's sick. Track's awesome. Can't wait. Track looks incredible. Dude, just happy to go ride a cool track, honestly.