Interview: Cas Valk on turning it around in Lommel and fighting for the EMX250 title

Images: Nigel McKinstry | Interview: Andy McKinstry

After a bad start in the first EMX250 moto in Lommel, Valk was able to fight back through the field to fourth position. The second moto was a different story though, as he got a good start and quickly got himself right to the front. Valk then showed his true level in the deep sand and dominated winning by nearly 20 seconds.

Valk now sits 13 points off championship leader, Mathis Valin with four rounds to go so it’s all to play for. We caught up with the SS24 KTM rider after Lommel which you can read, watch or listen to below:

GateDrop: Cas, probably a little bit disappointed with yesterday, but the real Cas Valk showed up today and that was utter domination out there… It must be amazing to end your weekend on such a high…

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Valk: Yeah, for sure. Yesterday was a difficult day, the whole day really difficult. Today we managed to turn it around, I managed to turn it around, and show what I really can do in the sand. I had a really good race actually, really good start, was directly there, how it should be always, so I was there, made some quick and nice passes in the beginning, and then managed a small gap the whole race…

I didn’t want to take too much risk, because the track was quite sketchy, I didn’t really have the best flow, but it was okay, I was feeling good on the track, but the flow is not easy to get on the track, so I was really happy to win this second race, it means actually a lot to me and to the team, so I’m already looking forward to Sweden right now.

Image: Nigel McKinstry

GateDrop: Just on yesterday, you ended up doing okay, but I still don’t think you rode the same way you did today, what would you put that down to? The track wasn’t normal, rough for Lommel, in my opinion…

Valk: Yeah, true, we made a small change with the team for today, to make myself more happy on the bike and feeling better, so this was a big thing… and it was the main thing, I think, to succeed today, and yeah, I’m really happy we did it, and we can move forward now, and have our eyes on the championship. We still have four races left, so eight motos, so yeah, a lot of things can still happen, so it’s never over until it’s over.

GateDrop: The second moto, it did feel like normal as we know it, yesterday I thought the track was pretty weird, different types of sand, and the bumps weren’t as big as normal, but today it did feel like proper Lommel…

Valk: Yeah, the bumps are definitely more big today, but the track is still quite a bit strange, like even if you watch the MXGP class, you see still they struggle on some parts, where there normally is like Jeffrey for example, that goes around this track, it looks so smooth, and yesterday it was really not that smooth, the whole track, so yeah, let’s see what they do later on, maybe they fix it for the GP guys, but I don’t think, so yeah, it will be interesting to see.

Image: Nigel McKinstry

GateDrop: You’ve also been racing the British Championship, have you enjoyed racing the British Championship this season, and racing outside the Netherlands?

Valk: Yeah, it’s really nice actually, the tracks I’ve been really enjoying, like really nice tracks there in England, like super nice, the organisation is good, it’s good racing with some old GP riders, so it’s really nice the MX2 class in England, really nice.

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Image: Nigel McKinstry

GateDrop: Plans for the rest of this season, obviously you’ve got EMX250, will you still be doing a few MX2 GP’s?

Valk: Yeah, probably Arnhem in the Netherlands, so probably I will race this one, and more opportunities there are not, because I’m not going to China for example, so no, one MX2 race and then four EMX races.

GateDrop: Plans for next year, I think you’ll probably want to be racing MX2 full time next year?

Valk: Yeah, for sure MX2 next year, and more I cannot say at the moment yet.