Dean Wilson will line up for Team Great Britain at this year’s Monster Energy Motocross of Nations and you can be sure he will be one of the leading riders come Sunday night. The Scottish rider, who won an AMA 250 motocross championship in 2011, has had tough times, but at the MXoN he usually shines.

Since his debut year in 2009—when he rode as not only an MXoN rookie—he has scored 6-8-9-27-3-5-6-8 in his past MXoN’s performances, and helped Team GB to fourth place on two occasions.

This year however, Team Great Britain come in as one of the favorites, and with Wilson, Tommy Searle and Max Anstie all big event riders, you can be sure they will rise to the occasion.

We were lucky enough to find Wilson at the Mark Chamberlain workshop where he is preparing for the biggest race of the year.

First tell me, you are back in England. You are Scottish, but from what I can gather you grew up in Canada and now live in America. Does it feel like you are back home?

Yes, it does. It’s nice to be back here. I am going back to Scotland next week and I am looking forward to that, and to see some friends. It’s nice with the cooler weather, because it’s pretty hot in Florida right now. A bit of rain—it’s just nice. It’s also refreshing for me.

Dean Wilson riding a track in England yesterday

I saw a video of you riding on some garden track in England. What is that like, because you probably have a lot of nice facilities to ride at in Florida and here in the UK you are riding on a garden track?

It’s fun, I love riding new tracks, and riding a garden track, it’s still good practice. With the moisture out here, the tracks are pretty good. I am enjoying it and it’s a breath of fresh air for me.

 

You have ridden the MXoN a handful of times, the first time for Canada in 2009, from memory you won the B-Final. How was that first one?

It was pretty insane for me, I had never ridden a pro-race before and I was in shock from how many fans were there and the track. It was pretty cool and a big learning experience for me. The start of my pro-career, and I really enjoyed it.

 

Your first pro-race the motocross of Nations, that’s crazy.

Yep, it is, but it was really enjoyable.

 

I think you have ridden four times and people might forget how good you usually do at this event. You have always been around top five or top ten and it isn’t easy being in those position in that event.

I don’t think I have shown my full potential at this race. I sometimes struggle with the track or whatever. Hopefully this year we can run up front and Team GB gets us on the podium. With a little help from the fans and I am feeling really good on the bike and I am healthy.

Deano started 2017 on a privateer machine and worked his way back into a factory rig.

When you look at the teams, there is talk that Clement Desalle might be out of Team Belgium because he got hurt on the weekend, Team France have problems and are now running with a World Enduro guy in their team. It seems like Great Britain’s chances are getting better and better. Do you think about that at all?

I mean, you never know. I don’t pay attention to who is getting injured or who is in the teams. I am just concentrating on myself, my riding and my training. We all have to race at the des Nations and I can’t worry about what everyone else is doing and just do what we can do and work with my team-mates and help each other. I think we can do well, but we need to concentrate on ourself and not get involved in all the craziness.

 

What has been your stand out des Nations for you?

Colorado wasn’t too bad in 2010. I was on a 250F, so under power, especially on a 250. 2011 was unfortunate, because that was the year I won my championship, but I broke my wrist the last round of the Outdoors and I didn’t know it was broken and rode 2011 (he finished with 9-27). 2014 might be my best in Latvia (went 3-5) and I think we got fourth. We had a podium, but Shaun Simpson snapped his chain.

 

You are having a good year, back on a factory bike, and I can imagine that has made you even hungrier, because you know the other side type of thing. You are in great form; do you feel like you are close to where you can be.

A little bit, but there are still some things I am working on. I feel like it’s a building process and not just riding, but also the mental thing, when you ride up front and you know you belong, that is the bit that is hard to get back, but it’s coming back. I am looking forward to these races coming up and I want to go into next year feeling really good.

Deano and his family are all very proud Scotsman.

Jeffrey Herlings obviously came to the Nationals and did really well, then beat Eli at the USGP. Did you look at him and think the GP guys must be on it, and did that give you more motivation?

No, I think Jeffrey is the best in the world at this moment. He is doing really well and you can tell he has a lot of confidence. Unfortunately, when I raced him I was really sick and could hardly finish the races. I think he is going to back fast at Matterley and one of the ones up front and hopefully I can stay up there with him.

 

Racing the des Nations, is it really important for you as a nationalist? I mean you see some guys not racing, Eli is too tired after a long season. How do you see it?

I think it’s an honour to come to the des Nations, but I understand the fact he is tired, I have races as many races as him. That is why I came to the UK early, because I know the des Nations is being run here, and I have a house in Scotland and I have friends here, so I could come here early and make a really nice trip out of it. I think racing the des Nations is awesome and I love it, I think it’s going to really a lot of fun.

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