After the extremely successful round eight of the 2017 MXGP World Championships in Germany, the Suzuki World MXGP squad of Arminas Jasikonis, Jeremy Seewer, Hunter Lawrence and Bas Vaessen are excited to repeat their efforts at the next round in Ernee, France this weekend.

With Jasikonis’ third place moto result in Latvia, followed on by the historic Suzuki one-two by Seewer and Lawrence in Germany, the whole team is buzzing with excitement and raring to get to the next MXGP.

“I like Ernee quite a lot” said Seewer, “I’ve raced there twice in my career and I have good memories there. It’s the kind of track I like with it being on a hill, good dirt and similar to Teutschenthal actually. I like the natural tracks, it is real motocross and I’m looking forward to the weekend. Obviously after Germany, I can’t wait to go out there on my RM-Z250 and try and do it again. It was such a great feeling to win in Germany and have Hunter standing next to me there, both for us and for the whole team that work so hard for everything.”

While it will be a new experience for Lawrence, he’s obviously excited to go racing again after his first ever MX2 podium performance in Germany. “I haven’t raced the track but I’ve seen the track on TV when they held the Motocross of Nations there in 2016 and it looks good. Hopefully it gets good ruts like we had at Teutschenthal because I believe that’s a strength of mine and the Suzuki RM-Z250. Every time we go to a new track, it’s always cool so I’m excited, it should be fun. And I’ve heard the French GPs are pretty crazy with the fans, so that’s another thing to look forward to. Even after a result like I had in Germany, I will always keep working to try and be better than I was yesterday. It’ll be hard to match what happened; getting second behind Jeremy, but that’s what I need to be achieving each weekend and doing it once has given me the confidence to try and go out and do it again.”

Vaessen has slightly different expectations as he is still on the comeback trail from his collarbone injury but good progress has been made since he returned in Latvia, and he hopes to continue that in France. “I have no idea what to expect from Ernee as I’ve never been there, but I have heard it’s a little bit like St Jean D’Angely and that’s a beautiful track so I’m looking forward to racing there. I’m still improving and I’m still not 100% after my collarbone injury so if I can go twice inside the top 10 on a hard pack track, I’ll come away pretty happy with the weekend.”

Jasikonis wasn’t quite able to keep up his level of performance after his third in Latvia, but it is a sign of how far the Lithuanian rider has progressed, that he can be disappointed with a ninth overall. However Ernee is a new race, with another chance for AJ to put the RM-Z450WS inside the top five. “I rode the Motocross of Nations at the track in 2016 and it’s a really nice track. It has some big hills and some technical features; it’s another interesting track and it’ll certainly be tough to race on but we shall see how I get on. I am going to work all week to improve and to make sure my confidence is high heading into the weekend.”

Ernee will also play host to the fourth round of the EMX250 class but unfortunately Zach Pichon won’t be able to ride in front of his home crowd, as he’s still recovering from the collarbone injury he sustained in Latvia three weeks ago. It is a big blow to young Frenchman as Ernee is one of the Suzuki rider’s favourite tracks.

Also missing is Kevin Strijbos who had another medical appointment this week where he received the following news about his elbow injury: “The doctors said everything looked good, but I still need some time. It’s a tendon and I need to make sure the blood-flow is back to normal which can take a while. I have another appointment scheduled in three weeks which will hopefully give me some good news and that I can resume motocross riding. At the moment I can do anything in regards to fitness, as long as it doesn’t get painful, so I’ve been cycling, running, swimming and doing things like that to stay fit. The doctor also said I can now start to work on the elbow muscle itself now, to get that stronger in preparation for the return to riding, so that’s positive too.”

So while there will be two absentees in France, the four riders who are in attendance are all in good form and looking to continue this great run of success that the Suzuki World MXGP team is currently going through.

Original Source[ Suzuki ]

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