After winning the 85cc Junior World title in Heerde earlier in the year, Levi Townley was back in Europe to race at Matterley Basin contesting the bLU cRU Cup. This time, Townley was racing the 125cc as he starts a new chapter in his career. Despite not a lot of bike time on the 125cc, you can already see how fast, talented and smooth Townley is. He made it hard work for Jamie Keith before finishing an impressive second.
We caught up with Townley to discuss the event, his future and more…
GateDrop: Levi, I think that was maybe only your second race on the 125cc here in the UK. Did you expect to be that fast already?
Townley: Nah, not really. Obviously Jamie (Keith), the kid that I batted with, he got 6th at the Junior Worlds and is up front in the EMX125 series. So, to be that close and battle the whole entire race with him shows that I’m at a good level on the 125 already, only having about a month or two months on the bike. So yeah, I’m really happy with how my progress has gone on the 125cc.
GateDrop: How did you feel leading out there? I mean, you’d done really well and even when he was behind you, you’d done quite well. Up until maybe the lap he passed you, I noticed you started to look behind you a little bit more. But I still think you’d done really well considering it’s your only second race on the bike…
Townley: Yeah, the crowd was insane. It was the coolest race I’ve ever done with the crowd. It was just the horns, the chainsaws, there were like flags over the fence on the track. It was just insane. Yeah, I probably didn’t make any one major mistake when he was behind me. So I held really good with the pressure and then got a little bit tired because I’m only 14 and I’m pretty small. We crossed the line with one second to go so we ended up doing a 30 minute moto. So I was pretty knackered at the end but I managed to fight through the whole thing. So yeah, I’m pretty happy with it.
GateDrop: How was the track? I’m sure this track you’ve seen on TV before. It’s one of the better MXGP tracks. How was it out there and did you enjoy the track?
Townley: Yeah, I’ve heard many good things about this being the best GP track and I think that’s pretty valid because that track is so awesome. One of the best tracks I’ve ever ridden. Massive thanks to the track crew. Obviously this week they had lots and lots of rain and they’ve done such a good job of prepping. It’s one of the best tracks I’ve ever seen prepped. So the prep job formed the great ruts.
GateDrop: I think you were racing last weekend in New Zealand, is that right? And that looked like a rough sand track. How did that go for you? And was that your first race on the 125cc?
Townley: Yeah, so that was my first race on the 125cc and that was in Australia. I went to the Australian Junior Motocross Championships. It was five days and they didn’t touch the track until the third night. I don’t know if anyone’s seen the videos but it was so rough and because there was lots of little bikes and the bumps were very funny.
They weren’t like normal big sand bumps. They were very square and small. So it was a very tough track. But yeah, just trying to get more and more experience doing these big events and it’s helping me a lot.
GateDrop: What’s your plans now? Will you get a little bit of rest? Or is it just lots more bike time on the 125cc?
Townley: Yeah, so after the Junior Worlds I had a very big break. About four to five weeks off the bike. I did nothing and then now just getting back into it on the 125cc. We’re going to go into Supercross season now. So if anyone’s going to Australia and the Supercross Championship, you’ll see me there. I’ll be racing the 125cc and the MX3 category.
GateDrop: For next year, rumours, it sounds like you’re going to be racing the EMX125. What can you tell me there without getting yourself in trouble?
Townley: Yeah, I’d really like to come race the EMX. That would be sort of the dream for next year is to come and get some experience over here. So if anything opens up or get any opportunities, I think we’ll take it and come over here. So we will just see what happens.
GateDrop: If you do end up coming and racing the EMX, do you know when you’ll be in Europe? Maybe January time to prepare or just have to wait and see?
Townley: Yeah, we’ll have to wait and see because my New Zealand Championship, I’ll be racing the 125 class. So I’m racing for the New Zealand JCR team, So I have to do that until March. So I’ll be racing for that during that season from January to March. After that we’ll see what opens up and what opportunities we can get in the EMX.
GateDrop: Seeing how fast you were this weekend battling with Jamie there. With more bike time on the 125cc, I don’t see why you can’t be a contender. And maybe before the end of next year, if you get to race it, maybe even winning races?
Townley: Yeah, I think I shocked a lot of people, even myself a little bit. Only having a month on the 125cc, there’s a lot more to come. So yeah, pretty excited for the future.
GateDrop: Perfect. Thank you very much for your time and good luck. We hope to see you in Europe next year.