Interview: Jason Meara reflects on his 2024 season, his future, ambitions on racing an AMA National and more

Images: Nigel McKinstry | Interview: Andy McKinstry

The 2024 season was a very successful one for Irish talent, Jason Meara contesting all around the UK and the Scottish Championship. For the 2025 season, Meara will become a full time Motocross rider during the season that’ll allow hm to fully focus on the sport – hopefully leading to improved results.

We caught up with Meara to discuss a range of topics and more…

GateDrop: Jason, just before we get into the 2025 stuff, let’s go back to last year and reflect up your season. You might not agree with me, but I think it was probably your best season yet in the sport. Just how would you reflect on it when you look back at what you’ve done last year?

Meara: Yeah, the 2024 season was 100% the best year I’ve ever had. Coming off a rough year in, 2022 I think it was, I was almost ready to walk away. I decided to do things my own way, pick what sort of bike I wanted etc and then I picked up a bit of good help. So just building and building over the past couple of years and things have started to come together. It’s just naturally coming without having to force anything, so it’s been really good.

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GateDrop: Since the Motocross des Nations, what have you been up to? Did you take much time off? I see lately there you were in America; I think you were there for a week doing a bit of riding and went to see A1 again. So how was all that over there and just what have you been up to since the Nations?

Meara: Yeah, since the Nations I took a lot of time off, actually… Just to recharge the batteries and get geared up for next season again. I jumped back on the bike probably the end of November, maybe early December. I have just been riding, having a bit of fun with it and getting my hands and stuff bed in again. I headed out to America, like you said, on the 5th of January. I went out for a week, done five days riding out there. That was just like a bucket list thing I’ve always wanted to do from when I was a child. I got that done and then ticked A1 off the box again. I then got back home and then actually had to go to my friend’s stag, it was in Andorra skiing for a week, so I’ve been busy. It’s been a busy start to the new year but I’m finally back home now, back into routine, training and stuff. I am excited to get going next season.

GateDrop: Just on the trip in America, the time you spent riding, was that all Motocross or did you do any Supercross riding? Obviously, it probably wouldn’t have been a full blown Supercross track but was there any like basic Supercross tracks or was it all Motocross?

Meara: No, it was just fully Motocross. There was a Supercross track out at Fox Raceway but to be honest it didn’t even interest me to go and have a spin on it. Maybe if there was nobody else there or something I might have thought about it but not with other ones around you.

GateDrop: So, for 2025, I believe you’re going to be staying with the same setup with the MotoCycle GasGas guys but for the first time in your career you’re going to be a full time Motocross rider so no job on the side. Can you just talk me through your plans and how it all came together?

Meara: Yeah, it all actually started off at the end of last year at the Motocross des Nations. I sat down with Team Ireland team manager Mark Mooney and had a serious chat with him. He’s been very good to me over the years but this year he sort of stepped it up a bit. With Mooney’s Hyundai they’re putting a package together for me that I’m able to pack in my day job from February to October at least anyway. I must also mention Auto Buy IE and the continued support from the small team of dedicated people at MotoCycle, Start Solar and Magilligan MX for the ability to train on their all-weather facility any day of the week. Also a big thank you for the extra support that CCM Racing is giving me this year. It means that through the race season and I can really focus on my riding, training and racing. I’m looking forward to that

GateDrop: Obviously you’ve been chasing this pretty much the last three or four years I would say, trying to earn a full-time ride. Now you’re going to be staying with the same setup but how much of a difference do you think this will make? You won’t have to worry about your job during the season anyway so I mean it should make things a lot easier in terms of whenever you want to go ride and things like that and you’ll be able to actually put the work in whenever you want, work won’t be there to hold you back…

Meara: Yeah, I think this is the last piece of the puzzle for me. If things go right this year then you’re going to get the best version of me that you’ve ever seen. I’m all in with the work ethic and stuff like that. It’s just going to be a massive difference. If people actually understood what my weekly schedule looked like, they would actually be blown away. But without going into that too much, just being able to set the tools down, having a bit of time to recover after the weekends, racing and stuff. After the driving, let alone the racing, the driving takes its toll on you as well. So, no, I think it’s going to be a massive difference and you’re going to see a different animal next year.

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Image: Nigel McKinstry

GateDrop: Because of work you’ve had to spend most of your time at home, especially during the week… Maybe you get annual leave here or there but most of the time you’re home. Do you know yet where you’re going to be based mainly in 2025? Will you spend more time in England, riding out there or maybe even over in Europe if you get a chance?

Meara: Yeah, well I don’t have any plans. My plan is just to go where it’s going to benefit me the most. I mean it doesn’t matter if I’m in Europe, if I’m in the UK or if I’m back home. It doesn’t really matter to me. I don’t have to be anywhere for work so I can really just be where I want to be or where I need to be. So, that’s going to be another good thing. Hopefully I can get riding with the faster riders week in, week out and that’ll definitely benefit me as well come the weekend.

GateDrop: Exactly because I mean obviously at home we’ve got Magilligan in terms of a facility which is fantastic but you know you probably know that place like the back of your hand now so I think it would be quite good for you to spend more time in England at maybe different tracks during the week and maybe rougher more technical practice tracks than what we have apart from Magilligan?

Meara: Yeah, you’re right there too. You know we’re quite fortunate to have Magilligan especially this time of year because there’s really nowhere else to ride. I mean this year I think the weather has been a bit better that some of the other tracks have been open but generally this time of year everywhere is usually underwater with the weather in this country, so we are lucky to have that. But unless you’re up there during the week it’s levelled on the weekends for the majority of the riders that ride there. It would definitely be nice to get the rougher tracks out in Europe and out to ride with some of the GP riders on a weekly basis.

GateDrop: And just on the British Championship, Paul Irwin and the ACU, they are taking it over and we’ll see one main British Championship next year, which I think is really positive. Before that I think there’s been too many championships and not enough riders at the main one etc so just what’s your thoughts on that and what are your goals for the British Championship this year?

Meara: To be honest I haven’t really thought too much into it. They put the event on, I go and race the event. It doesn’t really matter who’s putting it on but seeing what Paul done with the MX Nationals and stuff he run a fairly tight ship. It was always a very enjoyable series so I’ve no doubt that he’ll run a fantastic series next year with the British Championship as well.

GateDrop: Just in terms of what your goals or expectations are for next season, is there anything you’d like to achieve? I mean you weren’t far away from a podium last year and Jeffrey Herlings was at every round so I don’t think he’s going to be doing it so that’s one less rider to worry about…

Meara: A podium would be nice but look I don’t like to set the expectations too high because that’s when everything ends up going tits up. I’ll just put the work in during the off-season and show up at the first round like I did last year. I’ll go in quietly and go out and hopefully surprise a few people.

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Image: Nigel McKinstry

GateDrop: The main goal is going to be that British Championship but I believe also on your schedule is going to be the full Scottish Championship and then one round of MXGP at Matterley Basin, the EMX Open again at Lommel which you done last year and it was good to see you there in the rough stand… then one AMA National possibly is on the calendar for you so that’ll be really exciting if it all comes off…

Meara: The main goal obviously is the British Championship. The Scottish Championship I done it last year and really enjoyed the series, the tracks were fantastic, good competition and a good bit of cash to take home for it.

Like you said, Matterley Basin is definitely on the radar this year, I rode there twice now so just to get another MXGP in and all of that is looking towards the Motocross des Nations next year if we send a team and hopefully I’m in the running for that again.

The EMX Open at Lommel, we’ll go for that again, this year I’d like to do a bit more preparation because I basically went there in cold turkey. I didn’t know the track, I hadn’t really been riding much sand leading up to it or anything like that and then it was stupid warm. I definitely struggled last year but I made a promise after last year that I would make a point of going back and trying to redeem myself.

For the AMA National, I would love to do Washougal. I mean that’s early days yet but we are kind of talking between ourselves trying to put something together to get out there. That would be another bucket list thing and we’ll see how it goes, hopefully we get out there.

GateDrop: Fingers crossed for you and just on the EMX Open at Lommel, I mean what is that race like? I mean Lommel there’s nowhere like it in the world really and what was it like for you racing it and as you said yourself you weren’t really prepared for the deep stuff so considering that I thought you’d done not bad, you certainly didn’t put yourself to shame out there because there’s a lot of fast riders in those conditions…

GateDrop: It’s funny because it is just what everyone says it is and describes the place is basically what it is. It’s just a death chamber, just 10 minutes in you’re just hanging on looking for the last lap flag every time. Like you said there’s a lot of fast riders in those conditions but it would quite interesting if they’ve done one round in Lommel and one in say Czech Republic in the rock hard pack. I’d be fairly confident that some of the top five riders wouldn’t even be in the top twenty if they went to the hard pack because there’s a lot of sand specialists at it. But I enjoyed the event last year as a whole and definitely look forward to going back.

GateDrop: Just on the winter preparation, I think the past few years you’ve went to Spain for a week or two. Have you got any plans for your winter preparation and any pre-season races planned? I know you usually do maybe one of the Spanish championships, anything like that planned?

Meara: We’re heading out to Spain on 18th of February and meantime the plan is to spend quite a bit of time down in Magilligan here in the next two/three weeks. To get a good base and good bike fitness and that’s a really good spot for building up the bike fitness down there. For the next three weeks or so I’ll be down there hammering the moto’s in and head out to Spain on the 18th of February for ten days. You always get good quality riding down there so I look forward to that again and then I believe by the time I get back from Spain the following weekend is the first round of the Scottish so I would imagine that will be my first race for 2025.

Image: Nigel McKinstry

GateDrop: Just on Spain, is your wee brother Jack heading out there with you and what’s what’s his plans for next year? He’s got pretty good potential when it comes to the riders in Ireland so are you looking to help improve him as well?

Meara: He’s coming out with us as well. To be fair, I haven’t seen much of him riding this year so far, I’ve just been that busy on my own schedule but I’m hearing some good things from what he’s doing on the bike. We’ll get him out to Spain and we’ll do some sprint work together to try and bring him on a bit more. Hopefully if he’s up to the task we’ll put him out in the British Championship this year but if not we’ll maybe leave it to the following year. He’s still young and he doesn’t need to be rushed into that sort of thing.

GateDrop: The Belfast Arenacross is this weekend, for you it must always be a bit of a scary one because you really want to race in front of your home crowd but at the same time we know what Arenacross racing is like so an injury can always sort of happen but I think it’s worthwhile racing in front of your own crowd while you can so you must be really looking forward to that one in a packed stadium.

Meara: 100%. You know, you only get one run in life so if you’re thinking about getting injured then you’d be better parking the bike in the shed and never getting back on it so I look forward to it. I don’t worry about that side of things at all because if you’re going in thinking something like that is going to happen, it’ll happen. I am really excited to get out in front of the home crowd, there’s always a good buzz and a good atmosphere at it. Looking forward to it and hopefully we can do we can do alright and potentially land a ride for the full series the following year because that’s definitely something I want to be doing.

GateDrop: Obviously the series is a bit different I think whenever you last did it with all the French guys but they changed it last year and this year they’ve changed it a little bit again so the French guys and the international guys are only going to be at four of the rounds… Belfast is only a British round so that’s probably quite good for you that it’s only going to be the British guys there and you know those French guys and the specialists won’t be in Belfast or maybe you want to race with them as well? 

Meara: Well, the last time I did the series it was all British as well but look you’ve Dean Wilson at the round. You know what I mean? An AMA champion so I don’t really think it makes that much of a difference if the French guys are there or not. Again, like I say I’m just out there to ride the track to do the best I can and not worry about who’s around me.

GateDrop: That’s perfect Jason, thank you very much for your time, it is much appreciated.