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He is a hobby racer with money, if the chance comes, you take it.. but not really the track to debut at.
Not everything in life is measured by a laptome.
The Shop
Eric retired from full-time pro racing and is probably racing it for fun. What an experience! Wouldn't you if you had the chance?
I haven't talked with Eric for a few years but I've known him since he was a little kid. Despite growing up with money he's a great guy and very down to earth. Yes his Dad gave him an incredible opportunity to persue his moto dream
but he came up short of his goals. But he's still a better rider than 99% of us Vital members ever were.
Maybe there are other reasons Eric is racing the GP...
Alias will be making a comeback soon so maybe he's making business connections and promoting the brand.
Maybe MG wants to have a USGP at Southwick some day so Eric's making connections and he's seeing how the GP's operate from a racers perspective.
Maybe it's just a moto vacation. As long as he leaves everything out on the track, doesn't get hurt,
has fun, meets new people and experiences new things then good for him.
Pit Row
Can i do better? Now.. no.. have i in the past ? Yes.
As far as I'm concerned MX2 and MXGP should be the best in the World not the 32 with enough money to get there.
The shock a rider would have at a Sand Fest ( the only saving grace of Assen) that they'd suddenly face would be pretty bloody big.
A bit like turning up at a SX for a rider who'd not done it before. You know, that weird offshoot of MX held on vicious, shitty, laughable ( when you think of MX) little tracks plonked down in stadiums.
But, perhaps your rejoinder is a deliberate mirroring of the twonkers who always bring up SX as being the measure of a rider, nowadays? Fair enough, if that's so.
It does though, as you say , show the difference of levels , and also the severity of the sand in Assen.
But personally I think it sucks that they’re taking the MXdN - the crown jewel of motocross racing to a circuit like that. It’s artificial, a novelty, too narrow and short. The MXdN deserves better. And the difficulty of the terrain is going to result in vast differences in lap times when the nations takes place - even more than on a ‘normal’ track.
And, as someone has already said, who wants to sit in a plastic seat a hundred meters away rather than standing and cheering by the fence? Do you go watch your favorite band and ask to sit right at the back?
He's hoping for the type of crowd MotoGP gets (there), and probably seriously 'upping' his percentage of gate takings he gets through his contract with Assen.
He's a f**king Cancer and a Vampire on our sport.
Too narrow? Yet still has more passing opportunities than most tracks.
Short? Less than 10% shorter than good old Ernee.
Difficulty/vast differences in lap times? Should we outlaw sand based MXdN's?
Who wants too sit in a plastic seat? Clearly thousands, just look at today - it's well attended. It'll be double, maybe three times that come MXdN!
It wouldn’t be like riding a GP at Indonesia where you’d expect to be quicker than most of the locals.. these guys that ride the sand locally are No Joke and then all the GP guys are twice as fast.. if he bridges the gap to under 10 seconds a lap slower he will be doing well. Great job EG !
And for everyone else who has no clue about me and my life. I stopped racing full time after supercross in 2017. I work for alias mx now and I’ve just been riding for fun. I raced southwick national for fun and qualified 23rd in the 450 class. But I don’t train anymore so I didn’t have the stamina to hold pace in the motos. I don’t get to ride half as much as I used too anymore. I also haven’t rode a 250 in over a year. I’m not making excuses for how much of a struggle this was for me just letting you guys in on everything. I have always wanted to race a GP and the opportunity came about a month ago so I said yeah I’d love too. So I flew over rode the race bike for one moto on Wednesday and headed to Assen.
You guys have no clue how tough a track that was to ride coming from the states. We have nothing half as deep as that track was. And these guys over here... definitely a faster pace at the back than at any national I’ve raced. And I’ve raced 10+ nationals. It was a lot to overcome in two short days but I finally felt somewhat comfortable in the second moto until I ran out of steam and then crashed.
Thanks to the people who stuck up for me and didn’t assume the worst ?
And thank you to the people who made this possible. Im forever thankful to have been given this opportunity.
Eric how much in total did the whole thing cost you?
What was the reason you didn't go into EMX?
Post a reply to: Eric Grondahl in the MX2 class at the Assen MXGP