She recently just turned sixteen years old but she certainly doesn’t ride like one. Watching Lotte van Drunen in the Dutch sand is something very very special and she looks like a total veteran in those deep and rough conditions. At Arnhem she simply give the rest of the field a riding lesson to go 1-1 and take her first WMX overall win in front of her home crowd – surely the first overall win of many.
As Van Drunen gains strength and more experience she is going to be very hard to beat in WMX and her future looks very very exciting.
We caught up with the Dutch talent which you can listen to or read below:
GateDrop: Lotte, I believe that was your first WMX in front of your home crowd here in the Netherlands, you must be really happy with how your weekend went?
Van Drunen: Yeah, I am happy. Yesterday I was fastest all day and I was able to win with a really bad start. Today, to get the holeshot and win in front of my home crowd with a forty second lead, it is absolutely amazing. To win my first overall makes it even more special and I will never forget this one.
GateDrop: What was it like racing in front of your home crowd? You obviously race here quite a lot but not for the World Championship so it must have felt great to win in front of them?
Van Drunen: It felt amazing. Especially the last lap, I slowed down a little bit and just really enjoyed the last lap so I could see a little bit the crowd. They were absolutely amazing.
GateDrop: Just on the track, the first time running a World Championship event, did you enjoy the track? It was deeper than what a lot of people expected!
Van Drunen: Well, I used to train here a lot because it is my favourite here in the Netherlands. They ripped it pretty deep and changed the layout a little bit but I really enjoyed it. I really like the sand so I was really able to enjoy my riding.
GateDrop: I mean what you did there especially in the second it was special, you were going 4-5-6 seconds a lap quicker than everyone else at times. It just shows how good you are in these conditions…
Van Drunen: Yeah, like I said I am really good in the sand. I have trained a lot the last three months and I already saw last week during the training that I was a lot faster. I just had to make it happen on the weekend and we did it. It was an amazing seeing how much the lead got bigger every lap.
GateDrop: I mean in the second moto when you were dominating – you maybe could have gone even faster?
Van Drunen: Well, the last few laps when I saw how big the gap was I slowed down a little bit because I didn’t want to crash. I probably could have went faster some laps but for today it was a great day.
GateDrop: In your rookie season in WMX, you’ve had the red plate, you’ve won an overall, I think you can be content with how it has gone?
Van Drunen: Absolutely, my goal was to finish in the top five at the end of the year. To have three race wins already and have the red plate, a lot of first places in timed practice. This makes it really special for me and absolutely unbelievable.
GateDrop: I think the next step is to improve a little in the hard pack but that should probably happen naturally as you get stronger, is the goal for the winter to do a lot of hard pack riding?
Van Drunen: Well, we used to go to Spain or France in the winter but this year I will ride every more days that I am used too. This means even more at the hard pack tracks, I hope to improve a lot for next year. Maybe I can go undefeated.
GateDrop: And you still go to school I believe?
Van Drunen: Yes, I go to school five days a week. But when I have to go training I skip days in school.
GateDrop: How many more years have you got left of school?
Van Drunen: 2 more years.
GateDrop: So after that you will do this full time, which is quite scary considering you are already this good!
Van Drunen: Yeah, well the more time I get for training, the more better I will get.
GateDrop: You have a private setup at the moment, what is it like having this setup? Is it tricky with a lot of miles on the road?
Van Drunen: Of course it is a really expensive sport so it is a lot of money. But a day like today when I get my first overall win… to do this with just my family, it is unbelievable.
GateDrop: Plans for next year – the same setup or is it still up in the air?
Van Drunen: Well, we don’t know yet. I will definitely be riding WMX but we will see for the rest.
Images: Danny Relouw
Interview: Andy McKinstry
