Gavin Towers Makes His MXGP MX2 Debut

Maggiora, Italy MXGP of ItalyFIM Motocross World Championship

Gavin Towers has had quite a shock to his senses lately. From up-and-coming Futures SX riding for Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing to racing EMX motocross over in the FIM Motocross World Championship (MXGP) series. I wondered how he found himself with this new challenge this past weekend in Italy where Towers was making his MX2 debut where he crashed in the first turn in moto one and secured a point in moto two going 22-20 for 22^nd overall.

Racer X: Here we are in Italy. It’s a new life for you, new deal for you. Last time we saw you, you were doing Supercross Futures for Star, and now here you are. Tell us how you got here.
Gavin Towers: Pretty much got a call a week before Salt Lake. It kind of put things in motion. I was like, let’s just get through one last race and see where we go from there. Then pretty much we talked a little bit right after the race, actually the day of at Salt Lake. Then pretty much the week after we were on a Zoom call with the trainer here at VRT Pella, and Thorsten who is Yamaha of Europe, and also Aaron Nixon at Monster. Then five days later, I was on a plane to Paris. Rode the bike three days. Spent a day in Paris, and then raced in Germany. It’s been cool. You got to see another third country in three weeks, so it’s really cool.

You got a podium the first race out. Last race, not so great. How’s the riding?
So far Germany was really good. The first moto, there was just a lot of nerves and stuff built up. So, just got through it and got a decent result. Then the second moto was really, really solid. Then going into Latvia, it’s like you wanted to do good but still just completely different track and completely different everything. Struggled a little bit. Just crashed in qualifying and then broke my chain the first moto. So, a little bit of a struggle weekend. Then here we are in Italy. The track looks sick. Super pumped for this one. Also, it’s really my first pro race. I did kind of a half of one in Ironman in ’22, but I made it like ten minutes and my ACL was done. So, now here we are.

Courtesy of Yamaha
Courtesy of Yamaha
Courtesy of Yamaha
Courtesy of Yamaha

Are you going to stay here all year? Is this the deal? Are you going to try this thing out?
Yeah. As long as everything goes good when I go back to the U.S. and try to get a long-term visa to help me finish out the year so I can do all the races. I’ll do another MX2 as long as everything goes good in Arnhem, Netherlands. Then the rest will be EMX.

Big decision for you, right? You were on the fast track with Star, doing well, didn’t keep you going but you certainly could have found a U.S. team to do some privateers or whatever. Huge decision. What made you decide to do it and not stay in America?
There was a lot of things going through my head. It’s a massive change. I don’t have my family over here. It’s hard. That’s probably been one of the hardest part, family and friends not being here through the tough days. In my opinion, school, a job, maybe a B team or a privateer team, is kind of always going to be available to me in the States. A deal to come travel the world at 20 years old is not always going to be available. So, I was just going to see where it takes me, and if it takes me to another year here then eventually back to the States, who knows? We’re just going to see how the rest of this season goes.

Have you talked to Jack Chambers a little bit about life over here?
A little bit. He lives in England, so his life is a little different. He messaged me and asked if the rumors were true. I talked to Zach Osborne. I got a phone call with him and asked his opinion, and he was also over there I think, in England. He said it would be hard, but he said if you don’t have a lot of options then go for it.

Your time at Star, certainly some good races. Maybe not-so-good races near the end. Overall, was it a Supercross [Futures] thing? Looking back on it, why were you unable to keep the momentum going? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I felt like you came in really good and then it kind of went downhill.
It was. There wasn’t really one specific reason. It was just tough. I feel I could have been obviously better at the races, but it’s tough if you go from a practice track that’s not really rough at all and then you go to a gnarly, gnarly supercross track. Pretty much they were all really rough the way they had us set up in the time. You go out for practice, and they have pretty much the whole track besides the whoops prepped, and you go for our main event and the track is absolutely hammered. It was just tough. I would rather almost race and do a rough track than get thrown out three hours after a break. I would say the same thing whether I went and won every single one of them or I did what I did.

Overall, what did you learn about your time there and supercross and everything else?
Just how much important bike setup is on supercross. You don’t really realize it until you go to the race. Before the first round, I hardly touched my bike the first race. Then I went there, and I was just like, “Holy crap!” I just learned how important it is. You can kind of get away with it on outdoors. You can kind of just find some sort of flow in 30 minutes. Sometimes not, but in a quick, high heart rate race you’re not finding that flow. So, that was probably the best thing I learned.

This is a cool adventure. You’re going to learn a lot. Good or bad, this is going to be something you’ll always remember.
For sure. This could be a really cool experience to travel the world, so I’m excited for that.

Open Mic: Towering Adversity