Dylan Walsh has remarkable resilience of character, not only on the race-track but off pursuing career in competing at World MX Championship level. Having embarked on career racing New Zealand’s MX scene, Dylan turned his attention to learn everything possible in USA followed by Europe.
2019 was quite exceptional year for the Kiwi having gained race-ride under then, Revo Husqvarna UK competing in ACU British MX Championship along with MX2 in World MX Championship.
Fully determined to develop his standing on British soil while same time racing MX2 in Europe, Dylan fought hard to sustain focus, maintain fitness, quiet-down pressure valve when challenges presented themselves across 8 Rounds in UK and 16 Rounds in MX2.
Surrounded by great Team, Revo Husqvarna UK, it was fitting tribute that all Dylan’s hard work paid off at Britain’s Final Round at Landrake ‘019 taking double victory going 1-1 sealing the MX2 Championship win.
Amidst the glory of winning came negotiations of racing the following year, which all-in-all proved difficult and Dylan returned back home to NZ. Taking up race-time competing in NZ’s MX Nationals early in 2020, Walsh then grabbed all he had, flew to USA intent on pushing out the odds of securing a ride on American soil. Then, lucky break appeared with MSR Redline Honda offering Dylan ride competing back on British MX circuit.
If that wasn’t enough of whirl-wind by August happenings in MXGP race Team JM Honda Racing owned by Jacky Martens led to surprise call-up and exceptional opportunity for Dylan to replace retiring rider- Justin Leiber. With great support from Dylan’s British Team, the all-focused-Kiwi took the next step racing the World’s premier MX1 class.
MXLink spoke with FIM 500cc World MX Champion, 1993 and owner of JM Honda Racing Jacky Martens on his thoughts of taking on board Dylan along with guiding the premier class rookie through next learning curves in his career.
Jacky Martens: “There were many different reasons to choose Dylan. The fact that he already showed good potential on the Honda 450 bike was of course one of them. And on the 250 he proved that he has good speed and strong bike skills’.
‘I have a good relationship with Mark Yates from Revo Only (sponsor to Dylan’s MSR Redline Honda team in the UK) who worked with Walsh last year so this gave me some background information on what kind of person he is. He has a no-fuss attitude like most riders from down-under and he’s hungry to improve! That’s something I like a lot, riders who want to work and who are prepared to listen’.
‘Last but not least it helps that Walsh is quite light and a good starter. I knew that would be the perfect match for the JM Honda CRF450R. Everyone knows how important a great start is in MXGP and Dylan already showed he can get out of the gate with the best.”
Having embarked on stiff upward learning curve racing MXGP against the best MX1 riders in the world, Dylan’s determination to adjust riding technique on the 450, improve potential each and every race proved worthy in results posting his best position of 11th in Race 2 at MXGP of Mantova last weekend.
Jacky: “Adapting his riding style to get the most out of a 450cc motorcycle will be key focus. Especially on Wednesday in Mantova we started to see how he’s starting to ride the bike more as it’s intended to be’.
‘In MXGP you need to conserve your energy as much as possible- if you don’t and you attack like you would on a 250 the bike will wear you out so much quicker. So when and how to shift, the lines you take and body positioning are all crucial’.
‘Like you say we have a very intense race schedule which makes it harder to take in information and make adjustments but we’re heading in the right direction. The other challenge is to further improve his fitness but that is very, very difficult to do with so many races one after the other during the season’.
With only 6 MXGP Rounds raced to gain valuable know-how for improved performance, race-craft and sheer knowledge of judging how to race MX1, Dylan has enough life experiences on facing challenges head on to dig deep when needed.
Jacky: “Literally everything he has done before and the speed at which he can adapt. MXGP is the pinnacle of motocross racing in the world so the bar is really high’.
‘But like you say Dylan is determined and all of the experience before will be a piece of the puzzle to some extent. On the other hand everyone is starting all over again once they move to the 450 class. Not everyone who was fast on the 250 succeeds and some riders are more successful on the bigger bike than they were before!
‘Also every series has differences as far as the tracks and levels of riding go, the race schedule and so on. From racing in the MX2 World Championship before he’s already familiar with that, I think that’s definitely an advantage for him'”.
Special thanks to Jacky for his time. Header Photo Credit: CDSimages
MXGP Round 12 MXGP of Spain 11th October
Words: Sharon Cox.
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