Arnaud Tonus made his Lucas Oil Pro Motocross debut at Washougal count. Photo by: Hoppenworld
The biggest mystery heading into the 2015 was Arnaud Tonus. The Monster/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki squad is known for bringing MX2 stars to the U.S., but picking up the Swiss rider for 2015 came as a surprise to some. The reason some were surprised was, unless you are an avid follower of the MX2 World Championship, you might not know too much about the 24-year-old from Switzerland.
Arnaud joined the MX2 World Championship series at seventeen years old in 2009, and while he was immediately a top-ten guy, it took him until the final round of 2012 to score his first ever MX2 podium. It wasn’t until 2014 that the #200 scored his first and only GP win at the MXGP of Brazil. Arnaud was injured for the better part of ’12 and ’13, and soon after his win at Beto Carrero in ’14, he was injured again. That injury was the end of his 2014 MX2 World Championship run, and with the twenty-three year age limit for MX2 riders and Arnaud’s twenty-third birthday falling soon after, it was also the end of his MX2 career in Europe.
Not being able to build on his success of 2014 in the 250 class, Arnaud turned down some great deals on factory MXGP teams to sign with the most successful 250 team in AMA history: Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki.The big hurdle for the Europeans, though, is always Supercross. With every contract in the U.S. including a 250SX Regional Championship, can they succeed at or even survive a Supercross season uninjured becomes the prevailing question for the riders and the teams. Arnaud had once finished 2nd at the Geneva SX, but that’s a stretch from the big stadiums in the U.S.
Obviously Mitch Payton—the Monster/PC/Kawasaki team owner—thought that wouldn’t be an issue with Arnaud, and the unknown three-digit went out in qualifying and immediately jumped to the top of the leaderboard in timed qualifying at his Arlington SX debut. Marvin Musquin was able to knock his fellow GP alumni down to second in both qualifiers, but the question of raw Supercross speed was quickly erased. In the main events, Arnaud was not able to replicate that immediate success, but he was able to finish inside the top ten with an eighth in Arlington, a tenth at Atlanta 1 and a seventh at Atlanta 2 in his only three 250SX main events. After the second Atlanta, Arnaud pulled out the series with the Epstein Bar virus.
From February until recently, Arnaud has been resting on the couch trying to outlast the virus, but last weekend he finally made his Lucas Oil Pro Motocross debut at Washougal. Just like at the Arlington SX, Arnaud once again had fans asking who the #200 is when he was battling with the leaders for the first half of the first moto. In the end, Musquin and Cooper Webb got away at the front, but Arnaud hung on to finish third in his first AMA moto. In moto two, a bad start and a run in with Justin Hill pushed him back to finish 20th, but overall it was a confidence builder for the Swiss rider.
After his debut, we caught up with Arnaud in the pits to talk about his Washougal National debut. You can hear what he had to say in his “Inside Story” interview below.
Arnaud, we’re here at Washougal National for your first American National. You ended up with a 3-20 scorecard. I’m not sure what you got overall, but you have to be pumped on the 3rd in moto 1.
I think it was ten overall. Yeah. It’s been up and down. First moto was really good. Well, my start wasn’t so good, but first few laps were really good, and I put myself in third pretty quick. From there, mostly, I just had fun. It was pretty cool to race like that, and obviously I’m always in trouble with goggles and the helmet’s heavy, but at the end, I can stay out there and third was good. In second moto, it was a lot dryer and I started around seventh or something like that. I feel like I was pretty good, and then I had arm pump really, really bad. (laughs)
Welcome back to racing, right? (laughs)
Yeah. I dropped to around 10 or 11, something like that, and then I crashed with [Justin] Hill, he just smashed into me and we went down. So after that I was pretty far, I think around twentieth. I was cruising with my arms and everything. I wasn’t in the best position. First moto was good. Second moto I know what all I need to work on. I need to put some more laps on the bike and I’ll start feeling like myself a little bit because I was able to practice for a full week and then I hurt my shoulder and I was two weeks off the bike and this week I only rode three times. So I’m not in the best shape but I wanted to come back and race. That happened, so I’m happy.
Nice. Did you surprise yourself with your pace? In the first moto you seemed very comfortable with the pace at the front.
Yeah, the pace is there. I wasn’t so afraid about the pace, it was more about my physical condition because I was four or five months on the couch. You break your wrist and you can keep on training and stuff and this kind of virus you really have to stay down. I have to start back from zero and I knew the pace was going to be there but keeping that intensity, that was hard. We just wanted to be out there racing and do well from that and try to better.
I know it’s been a while since you raced with [Marvin] Musquin in the MX2 World Championships, but was it kind of weird battling with him all the way over in America? Because you were just pacing him in that first moto.
Oh, Marvin. Yeah. Yeah, and even we rode together on 85’s in French Championships. So I know him since really long time and it’s pretty cool. He’s just a nice guy. We also have a good relationship and yeah, it’s cool to see Marvin out there and be able to race all those guys.
You’ve now race both. What would you say the biggest difference between the two series are?
It is more the intensity. Like here everything is on one day. Practice is shorter. It’s more the format of everything that is different. Europe you take your time, you practice, 30 minutes on Saturdays. So it’s more like you have a lot of time to get into it. So for me today was pretty weird, like 10 minute practice and I wasn’t really expecting to go that quick. That was the main thing. For the rest I think the speed of the guys are pretty similar. Maybe here it’s more going back from 5th to 15th, like in GP’s after 6th or 7th there is a gap. Here it seems like it’s everybody is a bit closer until 15th place. That’s a good thing. You have to fight even if you’re in 10th place you can fight with some guys that are able to get on the podium. That’s good.
Did you hear about Jeffrey again today? Injured again, this time at Loket.
I’ve heard he got hurt, but what was wrong?
Injured his hip, but they haven’t gone into details, but man, the kid has had a rough month.
It’s hard. I’ve been experiencing this kind of stuff, so I kind of – it’s part of life. For sure it’s frustrating, especially when it’s a row. That’s the worst thing.
Next time, next week Unadilla. That’s very European track. Have you looked at it? I know you haven’t ridden it.
I’ve looked at all the races. So I know how the track goes and my dad has been riding the des Nations there like 20 years ago or something with Georges Jobé.
Really. I didn’t know your dad was a fast guy back in the day.
He was riding for the Swedish team in Unadilla.
Nice. Good luck next week. I appreciate it. Thanks, Arnaud.
Thank you.
