Interview by: Geoff Meyer
Paul Malin knows a little about the sport of motocross. A former junior champion, GP and MXoN winner, world number two, and now working with Youthstream as their commentator for the MXGP series. Malin loves the sport as much as anyone, and he can’t wait to board his flight to Doha, Qatar for the opening round of the FIM Motocross World Championship. We just had to give him a call and ask him about the 2015 season.
Paul, as a fan how much are you looking forward to 2015?
As a fan, I think it’s probably one of the most open seasons we can expect, on paper at least. All teams are well represented. Obviously at the top we have Antonio Cairoli, and he has Ken De Dycker of course, and now Tommy (Searle) who has joined the team. Suzuki have the same team with a rookie joining Clement Desalle and Kevin Strijbos in Glenn Coldenhoff. Jeremy Van Horebeek we know what he can do and now he has Romain Febvre on board at Yamaha. HRC obviously have Gautier Paulin and Evgeny Bobryshevy, and if they can stay healthy they will be a threat. Husqvarna has Max Nagl and Todd Waters, so all the team are well represented with good riders across the board. Let us not forget Kawasaki with Tyla Rattray and Ryan Villopoto.
What is your opinion of how this MXGP championship might turn out?
I don’t know really, but we won’t know too much from the first round, because the winner of the first round the two times we have been there hasn’t won the title. Desalle winning in 2013 and Paulin in 2014. They both didn’t challenge again because they both got injured. I think being consistent in that first round is going to be the key.
The first three rounds are really going to be open for all riders, before they head back to Europe. No real advantage for the GP guys over Villopoto early is it?
Looking at the calendar Villopoto doesn’t know the circuit in Qatar, but then we have Thailand and Argentina and both are circuits we don’t know anything about. Whatever the advantage the riders might think they have over Ryan Villopoto, they won’t have for those early rounds.
Villopoto hasn’t been seen racing for nearly a year. No pre-season races just a lot of practice. Will that help or hurt him?
That Ryan Villopoto didn’t race any of the pre-season races is something a lot of people are talking about, but he never did pre-season races, he just did the Monster Energy Cup and then straight into A1. The only thing he might have to think about is he was injured, he had surgery and he was off the bike a long time, started riding in October of something like that. I mean he’s come back after being off the bike for a long time and won championships. Where is his fitness at, where is his motivation. In American they race a lot less than in the GPs. He will get a race on Saturday, two races on Sunday and a lot of free training, so he will get more than enough bike time during the weekend.
There are so many unknowns aren’t there?
From Ryan Villopoto’s aspects it will be down to him when he comes out of his comfort zone of America. One language, every state is similar with eating, hotels, airports. In Europe it’s often very different. I don’t think anyone will give him a hard time, I think he will be respected and it will all be great. It’s great for MXGP the world championship. I mean everyone has been talking about nothing but Villopoto and it’s a season we will all look forward to and I am the same as everyone else.
We have seen it time and time again the last three years that the American riders struggle when the tracks get rough over in Europe. But we don’t see too many rough tracks in the first six or seven rounds, maybe Valkenswaard and that will be it or not?
There are rough tracks, and there are rough tracks. It goes back to the whole one day racing in USA and two days racing in Europe. They prep them in America and the tracks in America, from what I have seen are pretty fast, wide open circuits. In Europe the circuits are much more compact, we also have more racing on them. With your 40 guys in MXGP and 40 guys in MX2 and all the European championship riders, the women racers, our tracks get really knarly, and we have seen that at the MXoN. The American teams from the last few years have struggled on these circuits. If you look at Latvia, that track got really rough and it wasn’t even a GP weekend, it was just three groups of riders. Only three main races on the Sunday, not five or six like at a GP. We talk about rough tracks and the technical ability of the circuits and it’s something that he just won’t ever have raced on. Last time he came here was 2011 for the MXoN and that track didn’t get rough at all, before that he raced Donington Park and that was also not rough. He hasn’t raced a really rough GP circuit before.
How hard is it going to be to dial in a new track for him?
In your mind as a rider you can dial in a track by just looking at it, he won’t have trouble with the big jumps of course, and he has a lot of time to ride the track and he only need a top ten gate pick from Saturday and that won’t be a problem. We know that he can make good starts and we know he can come through from the back. He will have had four outings on the track before the first moto on Sunday and that will give him more than enough time to get up to speed. It depends how he gets the bike set-up also of course.
I know it’s an impossible question to answer, but if you had to bet your house, how wins the championship?
You know, it’s impossible. First and foremost the championship isn’t just about two riders. There are a lot of guys who will be in there. There are 10 guys who are potential race winners and if those guys are healthy then they will all make it difficult for each other. If the class stays healthy we will have great racing and around rounds three or four we will see how the championship starts taking place. Of course Maggiora will be something else. Last year Cairoli won at Maggiora, the years before Paulin and he battled, it’s a huge GP for the series. If Villopoto can get one over on Antonio there, then we could see an important change in the championship battle. It might be a game changer.
A lot of people think Villopoto will just dominated, win everything. Are you concerned that might happen?
No, not at all. I think a lot of people think he is going to win every race, I don’t think that will happen. There are a lot of guys who will win races. Will he be a contender, of course he will be. Like I said, we can watch gopro video and see he is riding, but we don’t know much from those videos. Nobody is going to be giving anything away. Everyone needs to be consistent and that is something Antonio does really well. The beauty of the 18 round series is it won’t be won in the first round, consistency is always going to be the key and Cairoli has proven time and time again nine times out of ten he is on the podium. Most others don’t make the podium on that amount of times. You need to be on the box in every race to win this championship.
