In the supermoto World Championship Husqvarna is the holder of the World Championship Title. In the season 2008 they came also in the motocross FIM MX3 World Championship. Before the season many of people were curious what Husqvarna can do in motocross.
They won already the first MX3 event and then the whole story has begun. Husqvarna Factory is a young Italian team, with its main headquarters in Varese Schirana, Italy.
Two former motocross riders are the heads of the team - Andrea Bartolini as the team manager and Gualtiero Scaltritti as the technical advisor. They have two French riders, Christophe Martin and Thomas Allier, with the support of five mechanics: Gentile Luigi, Tony Ligny, Samuel Pittraye, Bonetti Giovanni and Emanuele Giuseppe.
Mr. Gualtiero Scaltritti told us something about the season and about their future plans.
Gualtiero: »It is true, we are Italian team with two French riders. In my career I have been working with many riders, who had different nationalities and mentalities. So it is not the problem for me. We are a good team.«
A: »You are a very young team and since the first event your riders are already on the top. Did you expect these results?«
G: »Last year we had been established the new team Husqvarna. In the season 2008 we started to compete in the FIM MX3 World Championship. At the beginning we were not sure about the results. We did not know much about our new riders.
Results came immediately after the first race, when Thomas Allier won, Christophe Martin finished fourth. In the Championship Classification at the moment they are on the third and fourth position. We did not expect something like this.«
A: »Are you satisfied with the motocross Husqvarna bikes? Will you need to improve many things for the next season?«
G: »In this moment our bikes are good, but we will still have to improve many things so that in the season 2009 everything will work as we want. After each race we are searching for the new improvements. We are testing a lot. In the team we are discussing about every detail, our riders are important for the testing and improvements.
At the beginning of the season we had some problems with bikes, because we have been testing many things. The plans of our factory were, that we start only in the season 2009, but good results came before as it was planned and the factory gave us bigger support already this year.«
A: »Can you compare Husqvarna motocross bikes with the Husqvarna bikes for the supermoto?«
G: »From my experience I can say, that Husqvarna bikes for motocross are very good, but for supermoto and enduro they are perfect. In supermoto we have World Champions.«
A: »In the MX3 World Championship your rider Christophe Martin can still compete for the first position. Which rider do you think has the biggest chance to become the World Champion?«
G: »I think all of the first three riders Sven Breugelmans, Cristian Beggi and our Christophe Martin are quite similar. At the moment there are not big differences between them and their bikes. At the last two events one bad start can change everything.«
Christophe Martin
A: »Do you feel some tension in the team?«
G: »No, we work for every single race. We do not want to push riders to win the Championship. It can be too dangerous for riders and mechanics. If you are pushing, mistakes can happen in preparations of the bike or injury of the rider, because of the nervousness. Of course we wish to win the Title, but we will see. There are two more events.«
A: »Both of your riders are close together. Is there any jealousy between them?«
G: »Allier and Martin are the same for me. We never treated someone better than the other. The most important is, that Husqvarna is close to the top.«
A: »What do you think about the competition for the FIM MX3 World Championship?«
G: »I think that the rivalry is very good. At least first five riders we can compare with the MX1GP. We can see the difference from the previous years. Now the MX3 World Championship is in the big progress. With the new sistem more riders and the quality of the MX3 can come closer to the quality of the MX1 GP. The event in Chile was a big and good move. We had the great support.
I can say our chances for the good work were 110%. The organization of the event was perfect. For us it was very important that Allier won in the first race. It was good for the team.«
A: »What are your plans for the next season?«
G: »The team will stay the same, with Allier and Martin. If you are working well and successfully, it is not wise to change too many things. We will have one more rider in the EMX2 European Championship. For the bigger comfort we will buy a bigger truck.«
Information, photos and results are online at http://www.motocrossMX1.com, the official website of the FIM Motocross World Championships.
Youthstream is the company that manages the exclusive television, marketing and promotional world wide rights of the FIM Motocross World Championship, the FIM Motocross of Nations, the FIM SuperMoto World Championship, the FIM SuperMoto of Nations, the FIM Snowcross World Championship, the UEM Motocross European Championship and the UEM SuperMoto European Championship.
www.MotocrossMX1.com
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