Suzuki Racing ready for Loket
By Team TMX on 21st Jul 16
MXGP swings back into action this weekend with round 13 of 18 in the 2016 FIM Motocross World Championship and Team Suzuki World MXGP and MX2 teams primed for the slippery and fast hard-pack terrain of Loket for the Grand Prix of Czech Republic.
After recovering from his left wrist injury and successfully coming through the fifth round of the ADAC MX Masters German series at Tensfeld last weekend, Kevin Strijbos is again ready to steer the works RM-Z450 in the premier class at a venue where he scored the motorcycle's (and his) first GP victory in 2005. The Belgian will be partnered on the factory machinery by 18-year-old Lithuanian newcomer Arminas Jasikonis; the youngster drafted into the team to replace Ben Townley, who will miss the rest of the season due to internal injuries suffered in a testing crash three weeks ago.
Loket has been a regular site on the Grand Prix trail. The picturesque layout close to the spa town of Karlovy Vary and near the German border deep in the west of the country is splayed over a steep hillside adjacent to the small hamlet. What Loket lacks in technical demands in terms of bumps and ruts it usually makes up for with a fine, hard and slick soil that pushes throttle control and traction to the fore. Several big step-ups and step-down leaps are also part of the circuit complimented by a long start-straight drag race to an uphill left-hand turn.
MXGP has endured a three-week pause in the calendar and now begins a rush to a season-ending ‘double' in the USA in early September. The respite was enough to allow Strijbos to recover from the damaged capsule in his wrist - that caused him to miss GPs in France, Britain and Italy - and get back on the bike in time to run motos in Germany. While the 30-year-old is happy to be racing once more, he is cautious over his possibilities for the weekend and is also mindful of his home event the following week in the sand of Lommel that should be the hardest physical Grand Prix of the season.
"I'm happy with how my wrist felt last weekend," said Strijbos, who turns 31 next month. "I still need to get it taped but everything healed well and it came through the races in Germany OK. I'm still not 100% and my race fitness will also be off after missing three GPs. I want to see how I can manage two motos at the weekend. I will do my best and see where I finish. It is not the best track to be able to prepare for Lommel! I can't change the fact that I'm missing sand time for my home GP in a week and it will be hard work, for sure."
Jasikonis has been handed a fantastic opportunity to show his talent and potential at the highest level. The eastern European had been competing in the ADAC series but was available to make his Grand Prix bow in MXGP with Townley's vacant RM-Z and has been using the last two weeks to get accustomed to the Suzuki and feel comfortable in the team for his run of six events to finish the international 2016 term.
"I haven't raced at Loket before and I think it might be a tricky type of soil for me but my feeling on the Suzuki is pretty good and I will try to make the best of it," the youngster said.
In the MX2 class Jeremy Seewer comes to Loket eager to reignite what is the best season of his career so far. The Swiss has stood on the podium at more than half of the 12 events so far but is keen to drink champagne for the first time since the Grand Prix of France three races ago. At Loket last year he was unfortunate to clip eventual champion Tim Gajser and crash in the first moto and classified seventh in the second outing. Seewer has kept busy in the break by contesting two dates in the ADAC series on his RM-Z250. With MX2 World Championship leader and winner of all Grands Prix in 2016, Jeffrey Herlings, allegedly out of the running at Loket - or at least struggling for full fitness in the wake of a recent collarbone break - the meeting this weekend represents a great chance for ‘91' to get back in the top three and even a sniff at that milestone first world championship race victory.
"I've had a really good few weeks," he said. "I had a couple of days in Switzerland as a break but then did two rounds of the ADAC - one on the sand and another on hard-pack - where I was happy with my riding and faced quite a few of the MXGP guys on 450s. We start the GPs again now and my focus is the same; to concentrate on my job and make the best speed and results that I can. We are second in the championship, which is really good, but I don't really care where Pauls [Jonass, third in the standings] is or what he is doing. We have six rounds to go and I know I need to look at myself first. Even if Jeffrey is not in good shape or maybe not even in Loket, I want to keep a consistent approach.
"Loket is a nice track," he added. "The dirt is quite special and there are not too many really technical parts but there are many up and downhill sections and it is nice to ride."
Seewer will be backed for just the third time this season by team-mate Brian Hsu who is rapidly gaining race mileage and confidence after suffering a badly broken wrist in the winter.
