Five-time Motocross World Champion Tim Gajser will enter the 2024 MXGP season with maybe more motivation than ever. The Slovenian, who spent a lot of 2023 on the sidelines with his horrible injury from the Italian preseason race is looking at winning his sixth MXGP championship, to join Joel Robert as the third most winningest rider in the sport’s history.
Gajser, with 45 GP wins is also just five GP wins off Robert’s 50, which for 40 years was the record for most GP wins in the sport’s history, until Stefan Everts broke that record 20 years ago, and since then Joel Smets, Antonio Cairoli, and Jeffrey Herlings have also passed the great Belgian’s tally. It would really be something if the HRC factory rider could reach those imposing tallies of Robert, this season.
Always the perfect gentleman, Gajser remains one of the most popular people in the GP paddock and his friendly, happy nature has without question brought a lot of people a lot of joy in the series. Behind that big smile though is a man who is more driven than most on the Grand Prix start-line, and his record over the last ten years is better than anyone’s in the sport. Four MXGP championships and an MX2 championship, not to mention those 45 GP victories.
Geoff Meyer of MXLarge caught up with Gajser as he was preparing for the season opener in Italy in two weeks’ time. Just starting his preparation in Sardinia, he is fresh and ready to challenge Jorge Prado, Romain Febvre, Jeffrey Herlings, Jeremy Seewer, Maxime Renaux, and many others for the MXGP championship of 2024.
Racer X: It is obviously your off-season, although you have started preparing for 2024 and you have some races in a couple of weeks there in Italy, but have you been watching AMA Supercross?
Tim Gajser: Yes, I have watched both the first two rounds. I think it was nice racing. First round was like a normal supercross and the second was a bit muddier, it was more like an enduro race let’s say. The start was really the key in the second one. For all the European riders, I think it is nice and I really enjoy following because Jorge is there. He is doing well, so, yes, it’s good.
You have done the Monster Energy Cup a couple of times and really enjoyed that, but watching Jorge and his results, does it give you any desire to maybe do the same thing, or even move there full-time to race in America?
To really move there, like a whole season, I am too old for that, and I see myself here in GPs, but like, there is still something inside me and I really like supercross. I don’t know, I mean, maybe, I would never say no. We will see. I would like to try some supercross, and the Monster Energy Cup was a really nice race, I did it twice, because it was at the end of the season, and everything was done here in Europe. We went there a little earlier and we could do some testing. Now it is like, supercross starts really early, beginning of January, so, if you do the first three races there like Prado is doing and then he is coming back, and you still have time to prepare yourself. The only thing, you don’t have so much time, you don’t have time off in the off-season. When the GPs and the Nationals are finished, you would need to go there, training and testing, and then it is way busier and you don’t really get an off-season, but, why not? We will see.
Last year was a horrible year for you with the preseason injury. We also had Jeffrey [Herlings] out for a long period, and it really took a lot out of the series, as you two have been the most successful from the last 10 years. You are now 100 percent. How has your winter been?
The winter so far went really well. I took some time off after we finished testing at the end of October. We have a new bike for this year and now I am in Sardinia, preparing myself. So far, so good. We still have nearly two months before the season starts, but I will do the two races in Italy, and that starts in a couple of weeks, first one in Riola and then a week later in Mantova. I think racing will be soon and then also the GPs start pretty soon as well.
We have China back on the calendar, I don’t know it you enjoyed it, but I really enjoyed the experience and I think a lot of people did. How do you feel about China being back?
I think it is good. We were there in 2019 and the track was really nice, so really looking forward to going back there. We race World championships, so I think we maybe can add some more. I am really missing Brazil or Mexico, or even one in America—Glen Helen was really nice. Hopefully Infront can do some deals with these types of tracks, you know, maybe Australia, I have never raced there, but I would like to go there, they have good tracks in Australia.
There are a lot of major sporting events heading to Abu Dhabi now—boxing, World Supercross, and some big football players signed to play there. It would be really cool to go there if Infront can organize that.
Yes, I like it when we went to Qatar, that was really nice, like the beginning of the season and racing at night under the lights. I think it would be nice for the sport to go to that region.
You mentioned you have a new bike; can you tell us anything about the changes on the bike?
I can’t talk too much about the bike, but Honda did a good job, so yes, I am happy with the new bike, and we usually do the testing here in Sardinia. But overall, I feel really comfortable on the new bike.
There is a bit of a transition period in the GPs at the moment. Jorge talking about going to America, Jeffrey [Herlings] probably only has a year or two left, or maybe even less, because he has had so many injuries of late. We have some good talent in MX2, but some of them, like the Coenen brothers talk about also going to America. We had the era with yourself, Cairoli, Herlings, and Prado and that is sort of coming to an end. What do you think of this, or do you even think about it?
I don’t really think about, I try and focus on myself, but every year we get young guys from MX2 coming up and I don’t think we don’t need to be afraid of that not happening. Even if Jorge goes to the US, which are the rumors I am hearing, or these things, we will still have great racing. We have many great riders, and we don’t need to be afraid of not having good battles, there are enough good riders.
You have never been the guy looking at records, or how many GPs you win, or titles you get, but you have been the most successful when it comes to winning titles in the last decade. After last year and the disappointments of losing your title due to injury, how is the motivation for coming back with full fitness in 2024?
I am really motivated for this year, really a lot, after coming from last year and the difficult season. It was tough for me and toward the end I was starting to feel really good on the bike [Gajser won the final round in England], and I was starting to be close to 100 percent. Off season the motivation is high, and I am so hungry to win the title and I feel good on the bike and there are things we can improve, and we do that in the off-season. We are trying new things on the bike, and I am very motivated for this year.
