Zach Osborne came back to the UK a bit of a hero at Matterley Basin. The former British champ and Dixon Yamaha rider was a popular figure all weekend long in the paddock as he met old acquaintances, friends and colleagues from his MXGP days.
And the British fans treated the 2017 US 250 supercross and motocross champion as one of their own the with Zach getting huge support all weekend and generating a lot of noise when he won the MX2 moto on Saturday!
We caught up with Zach for a quick chat about his day and his season as the sun came down on the 2017 MXoN weekend.
Yesterday it was looking really good for you, today was a bit tougher with the rain but you put up a good fight on a personal level.
Yeah today was okay. I had a good moto in the heat race. Today in the first race I struggled for rhythm but the second one was a little bit better and I was able to take a third individually in the moto so it was not so bad.
How did you find the track changing from Saturday to Sunday it looked tough with the ruts and sticky mud!
It sucked, because it was such a fun track to ride yesterday so today it was kind of a little bit ruined, but it was still fine.
And it seemed the crowd for the whole weekend and especially yesterday winning that MX2 race – it felt like you were the fourth British rider out there!
For sure it was cool it felt like it was a home GP of sorts for me. I have been here almost three weeks so it has been a really good trip and it has been great to be back!
You story to become supercross and motocross champion in America is pretty incredible from having no rider to racing GPs, being British champ now being a US champ in supercross and motocross.
For sure, it has been an unreal season, a bit of a dream season really. It would have been nice to finish it off with a MXoN win but it is what it is. It is pretty incredible I don’t really know how else to describe it!
What made the difference this year, I know you are training with Aldon but was it also your experience, attitude, what gave you that edge?
Yeah I think it was a bit of experience, confidence mainly just riding with the faster guys and being under the gun every day (at Aldon Baker’s) and the accountability that that brings with it would be the biggest thing I would say.
You rode really smart this year outdoors, you made the best of your bad days and won when you had the opportunity, was that the plan going in?
No, I just felt like my fitness was superior. I knew that sometimes you have to take a third and my goal going into the season was to be top five in every moto and I think I just missed that three times so it was a pretty solid little summer. My average finish was 2.7 or something so it was a really good, easy to manage series really.
And next season I believe you are staying 250 for supercross but 450 outdoor?
Yeah 250 supercross to defend my championship and then 450 outdoors.
You have ridden the 450 before in some British championship races and at the Des Nations, you are good on it, so you must be excited to race that bike in the US?
Yeah I’m excited, I ride it a lot during the week as it is. I’m looking forward to it and getting my feet wet then moving up the following year (in supercross).
Long-term any plans for returning to GPs?
No, that’s a long way off, I am in the states for 2018 and 2019, but we will see after that
