Just days after winning their first ever MX2 Grand Prix, Tim Gajser and the Honda Gariboldi Racing crew will be back in action this weekend at the Valkenswaard track in the Netherlands.
Whilst the terrain will change from the hard-pack of Italy to deep sand, the team is riding high on the success of last weekend in Trentino and hungry for more after tasting victory.
The change of terrain will bring about a new challenge for the first ever Slovenian MX2 winner, but as he continues his meteoric rise in the series, the 18 year-old has now proven himself as the only rider to have beaten an uninjured Jeffrey Herlings in a straight fight in the MX2 class.
With Jorge Zaragoza planning his return to the no.211 Honda CRF250RW for the MXGP of Spain, this weekend sees the Honda Gariboldi Racing team running the lone no.243 machine of Gajser.
Track action commences with free practice at 1015hrs local time on Saturday 25 April, and you can follow all the action here:
Giacomo Gariboldi, Team Principal
“The result last weekend was just fantastic. We’ve been waiting for it since 2010 when we started in MX2. Everybody is there to win and when you do it, it’s so unbelievable. It was great to see Tim riding so well and really believing he could do it this time, and I think this could well be the click in his head now that he has beaten Jeffrey [Herlings] in a straight battle. Of course, this weekend Jeffrey will be very strong because he is in his home, but the result from last weekend lifts everyone in the team, at Honda and HRC, so we go to Valkenswaard feeling strong and we’ll see what we can do there.”
Tim Gajser, no.243
“You know, the win in Italy gives me a lot of motivation. We go directly from Italy to Netherlands and we will train in Belgium, at tracks like Honda Park to be prepared for the sand. It’s everything different so we need to be prepared. We tested last week in Ottobiano where the conditions are not so different to Valkenswaard, and I was feeling also good over there. We made some different settings in suspension so I’m really looking forward to it. For sure Jeffrey will be fast as it’s his home, but I will do my best again!”