Honda Gariboldi’s Tim Gajser and Jorge Zaragoza return to action this weekend for round four of the FIM Motocross World Championship in Argentina.
Making the long journey to Neuquen near the Chilean border of Patagonia as part of a South American back-to-back pairing, the squad will field Gajser on the CRF450RW and Zaragoza on the CRF250RW, with David Herbreteau sitting out these next two flyaways as was always planned.
Gajser is in the form of his life having stepped up to MXGP this year, with the reigning MX2 World Champion taking a double victory in Qatar, standing on the podium in Thailand, and just missing out on another overall victory in the Netherlands last time out.
The fast and flowing nature of the Neuquen track will suit the Slovenian well, and he’ll certainly be looking to better his fifth place overall there in 2015. Twelve months ago, this race represented something of a turnaround point for Gajser’s MX2 championship campaign, as he followed this event with his career-first MX2 victory, and although it wasn’t entirely plain sailing from there on, it cemented him as a title-contender.
Remaining in MX2 this season, it will be Jorge Zaragoza’s first visit to the MXGP of Patagonia Argentina.
Track action starts with the MX2 category on Saturday 9 April at 1045hrs local time. The gate drops on race one on Sunday at 1215hrs, followed by MXGP race one at 1315hrs.
Tim Gajser, no.243
“I raced the European Championships last weekend and won both motos which was good preparation! I’m really looking forward to this weekend in Argentina as I really like the area and the track. It’s very fast with some big jumps and it’s also technical. The ground is strange as we don’t ride this type of surface too much – it’s not sand and it’s not hard-pack, but something in-between. Last year I expected too much of myself there but this year we do like we have for the first three races. Of course I want to do well, but I put no pressure on myself.”
Jorge Zaragoza, no.101
“I’m feeling very good. I like a lot what I’ve seen of the track and I can’t wait to be there and ride it. I watched all the races from last year and the track looks very good – big speed and a lot of nice jumps so I think I will like it. Since Valkenswaard we’ve been testing a lot with suspension in Spain because I felt I had some problems in that weekend, and I want to be better for this weekend. I’ve been making good starts and I feel I have the speed to be in the front, but I’m making some mistakes that send be back so my main goal now is to keep that speed for longer. I’ve changed some things in my training to try and help me keep my speed until the end of the moto with no mistakes.”
Giacomo Gariboldi, Team Principal
“We have had a very good start to the year so the team is looking forward to Argentina. It was an important race for Tim last year, but this year we expect the situation to be very different because he is in really strong form at the start of this season. After the last three races, we have seen he can be very fast on every surface so we are targeting another podium from this weekend. Jorge also likes the fast and flowing tracks, so although this is his first visit to Argentina with us, I think he can continue the good progress he’s been making in these last races.”