We asked Pit Beirer about the 18 year old MXGP sensation, Lucas Coenen, as the Belgian super-talent hunts an MXGP world championship in his rookie season, and even Beirer is impressed at his performances of amazing maturity and speed!
Pit told us: “Wow. I have no words. I mean, the boys, the family, the commitment from the father, it’s really outstanding. I mean, if you have young boys on that age, on that level, of course, there must be a father behind who gave everything. Otherwise, you don’t have them there. So he did many things really right, and he made them work hard. So they are committed. They are ready to give everything. But we support them since many years already, but to have these results at this stage was never expected. It’s definitely not. The expectation was never there that Lucas would be in top three this time of his first rookie season in MXGP.
I remember the day when Claudio DeCarli told me, ‘hey, the guys are sitting here, and Lucas wants to move up 450.’ I was a fan of the story from day number one, so I didn’t hesitate at all because I was feeling the potential for that boy. But never like that. We thought, okay, he comes in this year. I was sure he can be top five. I was sure he can put a foot on the podium here or there. But I mean, it’s a level higher than expected and still amazing. Yeah, it’s so nice to see it.
And so now we need to make sure his brother takes a bit of Lucas also to just calm down a little bit, where you see him yesterday again, going three seconds faster than everybody else, the first laps. But then he puts the crashes in. But they are great boys, and it’s so nice to have them in our camp, and we want to give everything to make them successful in the future.
The Coenen’s have long held a desire to go to America, so would Pit be happy to see them there on KTM?
From that discussion, of course, I have always this torn feeling in my body. I love to see them here when I come to Lommel, but of course, if I go to the US, I want to see them also there in the future. So that’s also something I think we can offer to our boys. You speak to the same people, and you start in Europe in our junior program. You ride with us in GPs, and if you want to go to the US, you also can stay with us. So we are totally open.
We really want to, but I don’t want to make these long term plans. They are so young. Who saw that he’s winning MXGP races already this year? But they have a clear target. They want to go to the US, but they want to succeed first in Europe. So let’s succeed them in all quietness. They are so young, and then build up a really base. And I’m pretty sure we’re going to see them in the US very soon also.
Watch our full interview below:
