It’s always in the best interest of the FIM Motocross World Championship to increase awareness of our great sport. We want to go to all corners of the globe and grace them with the action and excitement that MXGP brings. While Russia doesn’t have a round of MXGP on the 2015 FIM Motocross World Championship calendar, the country is still well represented and recognized with riders such as Team HRC’s Evgeny Bobryshev and Wilvo Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Aleksandr Tonkov. While Bobby and Tonkov are the ‘factory’ Russian representatives, this year we’ve also welcomed a new team, Russian based with Russian riders.
Belogorie Russia Racing is made up of Artem Guryev and Ekaterina Guryeva. Both riders are on KTM with Guryev in the FIM MX2 World Championship and Guryeva in the FIM WMX World Championship. Over the past week we caught up with the team manager Irina Golotova to familiarize ourselves with the new team and get to know how their first MXGP experience went.
Qatar was the first time your team has entered the FIM Motocross World Championship. Can you describe the feeling you had when you arrived there? Were you nervous, or excited?
Yes, we are still so impressed by the high level of event organization and of the riders speed. Of course, we were excited and nervous a little bit but we managed it and are happy.
As it is your first year as an official team of the FIM Motocross and WMX World Championships, what are your expectations?
We are the only Russian team racing the FIM MX2 and WMX World Championships. We know Russian riders are constant participants in the FIM Motocross World Championship but they all live in other countries and ride on other teams. We feel a great responsibility as a number of our fans have increased; they support us and wait for our wins. We feel we have made our first steps and we want to keep moving forward.
You have a rider in MX2, how was his first experience? What is your view on the speed of the MX2 guys?
Yes, in Qatar our rider Artem Guryev took part in MX2 for his first time and got on the score sheet. It is a good result as not all the riders can reach top 20 in their first world championship race. The MX2 riders are very fast, almost the same as the MXGP riders. Certainly it takes time to get used to it, but we are sure Artem will adapt and become one of the fastest riders in the FIM MX2 World Championship.
What are Ekaterina’s goals in the WMX this season?
After the first two rounds of WMX Ekaterina noticed that she has not enough technical skills to perform some elements, which she will need to improve during next training sessions. She has a goal of being inside the top 10.
After racing at both MXGP of Qatar and MXGP of Thailand, what did you learn?
First of all our riders were inspired by the atmosphere, they felt the spirit and level of other riders. It will help them to improve their results during the next GPs.
What did you like most about being in the paddock at these grand prix?
We liked being among world champions and the factory teams. When you are around them, you feel that you can also become a champion!
Are you looking forward to Argentina? What will your riders do in the break between Thailand and then, how will you prepare?
Yes, it will be Artem’s first GP on a soft track and it’s his favourite soil type. He wants to improve his result.
After the GP in Thailand the team went back home. Both riders are doing physical training and are riding on tracks similar to Argentina.
By Youthstream