Isak Gifting discusses making the move up to the MX2 World Championship

Iask Gifting up until last year had been a privateer his whole career but finally he got the chance to race the MX2 World Championship with a Factory Diga-Procross GasGas bike. Gifting impressed a lot and even earned the ride for the 2021 season as well. 

Josef Gažúr caught up with the Swedish talent to discuss his career and more.. 

Moving from EMX250 to the MX2 World Championship… 

This was amazing actually. I think I was in Italy and I was training for Mantova because I had three EMX250 races there. One and a half weeks before, I got the call from Diga-Procross GasGas saying they needed a fill in rider. They said I would be a good fit and that if I wanted to come and ride for us for the rest of the season that I could go tomorrow. I was like, “shit, I need to call around the sponsors” and see what I could do, we packed the van and went from Italy straight to Germany. I got on the bike and rode for three or four days on the bike and then went to Mantova for my first GP. It’s a crazy story actually!

The difference between EMX250 and MX2… 

For sure, there’s a difference. I mean EMX250 is really tough at the top, the top five or top three riders and especially last year, they were really good but also now as well. When you are at the top of the EMX250 class you can go to the GP’s but it’s different. When you ride in twenty-fifth or twentieth it’s like riding tenth in the EMX250 series. The MX2 class is so stacked now and when you look at the timed qualifying, there’s usually only two seconds between first and twentieth. It’s really tight so making a really good position is difficult and if you don’t get the start, you are f***ed. 

On doing well in MX2 last year… 

I mean I came in with no expectations let’s say. I just wanted to show myself as this was such a big opportunity. It was a little bit make or break it because I had the factory bike. I knew if I did good I had a chance to ride factory and that’s what I wanted to do so I just went for it and everything was working really well. I got some very good results last year and better than now. It just worked out well, I wasn’t thinking so much and just went for it. 

You can see the full interview below – it’s well worth a listen!

Pic: Shot by Bavo