TIM GAJSER INTO 2024

Five-time Motocross World Champion Tim Gajser of the Team HRC factory team has started his preparation for the 2024 MXGP championship, a title that he lost due to injuries in the pre-season of 2023. Now down in Sardinia, the Slovenian knows that the next two months will be very important to start his challenge to regain his championship. With two pre-season races also included in his preparation the Honda rider is excited to get started for 2024.

“The winter so far went really well,” Gajser said. “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 as well in early March.”

It isn’t difficult to get motivated after his horrible season last year and while it is clear his desire is always to win; you get the feeling the injuries of 2023 will only make him stronger and hungrier for success.

“I am really motivated for this year. After coming from last year and the difficult season. It was tough for me and towards the end I was starting to feel really good on the bike (Gajser won the final round in Great Britain), and I was starting to be close to 100%. 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. 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.”

Another thing that Gajser knows will challenge him will be the names like Herlings, Febvre, Prado, Seewer and Renaux, but also names like Geerts, Van De Moosdijk and the youngsters coming up from the MX2 class, the rookies.

“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. We have many great riders, and we don’t need to be affraid of not having good battles, there are good enough riders.” 

Of course, Gajser, like many of the leading MXGP riders love the fly-away races and the always smiling former champion would like nothing more than added races in different continents and countries.

“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 do there as they have good tracks in Australia. I like it when we went to Qatar, it 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.”

So now, with his pre-season preparation just beginning, we will all know come the start of March when the MXGP championship of 2024 begins and going by his desire to get a sixth Motocross World Championship, I think we might even see the best Tim Gajser ever.

Photo credit: Bavo Swijgers