Suzuki Motocross Teams fly Stateside for new USGP

Arminas Jasikonis, Kevin Strijbos, Jeremy Seewer and Hunter Lawrence all have vast differences in experience in terms of visiting America, but all four riders are extremely excited to be heading stateside for round 17 of the 2017 World Motocross Championships.

For Jasikonis, it’s a first time in the state and he’s obviously excited to be showing the USA supporters how fast he can be: “I’ve ridden the bike four times since Sweden, and did some trail riding the last weekend. Just doing something different and having some fun. I’m really excited for the USA though. I haven’t really seen too much of the track, just one video and it looked a bit sandy. Everyone has said it’ll be a bit sandy so that’s cool and I’m really looking forward to going there. It’s a pity that we are going for such a short period of time, but I’m excited nonetheless. I can’t wait!”

Strijbos is also looking forward to making the trip, in what has become regular visit for the Belgian: “It was a bit difficult to do too much directly after Sweden as I hurt my ankle in the first moto there and it was too painful to really do any training. I didn’t ride the whole week but I did a race in Belgium at Orp just to get myself racing again and see how the injury was. The ankle is feeling better now after a couple of days of training, but I still have to be careful with it. I travel to the US on Wednesday morning and then I’m sure we’ll check out the track. I haven’t seen too many pictures; I saw a video a few weeks ago and I think the track looks good. Hopefully it’ll be a proper US-style track, with lots of grip, lots of lines, fast and flowing with wide corners. I’m really excited to go back to America as I’ve made some good friends over there and it’ll be nice to see them again. I’m not putting any expectations on myself so we’ll just try and have fun and see how it goes.”

After his overall MX2 victory at the last round, Seewer has taken the opportunity to have a little break before the final three rounds: “Since Sweden I’ve tried to recover; I’ve had some riding days but not too many as it’s late in the season and I wanted to focus more on staying fresh for these last few rounds. This week we will fly out on Wednesday but I won’t get any bike time in before the race itself on the Saturday and Sunday. I haven’t seen the track yet but I’ve heard that it’s like a soft dirt, typical Florida, but probably not like the sand tracks we ride here. I think it’ll be exciting to race the Americans and I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve only ever been to California so this is something new for me, I’m going to see a new part of America. I’m looking forward to getting out of the plane and checking everything out. It’s nice to go there and the weekend should be really good.”

Meanwhile Lawrence was actually the first Suzuki rider to head across the pond, using this time to acclimatise himself to the heat by getting in some practice on the west coast: “I flew to America pretty quickly after Sweden and stayed with my manager in California. It’s been a bit of a ride-holiday, I’m still training out here and it’s been really cool so far. I fly to Florida on Thursday and meet up with the rest of the Suzuki World team there. I haven’t seen any track videos but it’s my first time in America and I’m really excited and happy to be here. Hopefully the big storm doesn’t hit but we’ll make the best out of it either way; good weather or bad weather.”

Despite the last-minute change in venue, WW Motocross Park should provide a real test for all the riders, but with the loose surface, there is a real chance that the Suzuki World MXGP team will all perform extremely well this coming weekend.

For more stories about Kevin Strijbos, Click Here. For photos, Click Here.
For more stories about Jeremy Seewer, Click Here. For photos, Click Here.
For more stories about Arminas Jasikonis, Click Here. For photos, Click Here.
For more stories about Hunter Lawrence , Click Here. For photos, Click Here.