One of the most exciting aspects of the 2024 MXGP season will be the involvement of the two new brands, Ducati and Triumph. No doubt, the complete involvement of Ducati next year is still unknown, but the Monster Energy Triumph Racing team are already in heavy training and testing for their assault on the MX2 World Championship.
Camden McLellan and Mikkel Haarup are both riders who have shown immense confidence and are two riders with huge potential in the sport. Having worked hard in Spain, preparing the new bike for the season, both McLellan and Haarup know that the next 12 months will be exciting as they’ll show what they are capable of.
“In 2022,” McLellan said. “I had a pretty good season in the European Championship. I was on a privateer team at the time and going up against certain teams with much bigger budgets and better bikes and I was doing really well — consistently on the podium and fighting from the back a lot of the time. I stood out to the current Triumph team manager, Vincent Bereni, and I had one really, really good race where I came from far, far back and ended up third. Since then, he knew that I had a fire under my ass, and I was always on his radar from that point. Last season on the Honda with Jacky Martens, I started doing really well around midway through the season. I was getting some top fives and was knocking on the door for podiums. Vincent saw all of those races and I think what was the closing or deciding factor with him regarding me was just that I was doing well in the world championship on a private Honda team, and he could see the potential in me with a factory ride and a whole factory behind me.”
Haarup, who has more Grand Prix experience than the South African is really looking forward to showing his skills on the all-new bike in their testing in Spain.
“We’ve been testing quite a few things on the bike,” Haarup said. “Just to know more about it. And the reason that we chose Spain to test and train, is because like California, it’s one of the best places with the weather which allows you to do a whole lot of work without having to worry about the track conditions or having to worry about getting sick because it’s too cold. So that’s basically what we are up to right now. I’m very impressed. It’s a positive surprise. When you hear about a new brand coming into the sport, you’re very nervous that it might not be very legitimate. You see all of these brands coming in at times, especially in Europe, and they just never really make it because for some reason or another, they don’t have either the financial support to back it up, or they struggle with just building a bike that will last. What surprised me when I tested the bike the first time was how prepared the guys were, and as far as I know, if you come in prepared you will have a lot less issues. I could feel the bike was strong. It had great power and handling. It’s a great-looking bike, as well.”
Now as the pre-season races get closer and closer, you just know that the Triumph men are digging deep and finding out the best settings for what will be a really exciting time for the sport. No doubt, many fans will want to see this team succeed and success will without question bring more eyes to the sport.
Photo Credit: Triumph
