After dislocating his hip during a solid supercross debut, Max Vohland has been focusing on his outdoor AMA pro debut and feels his experience of racing the EMX125 class during a GP weekend on a difficult Matterley Basin circuit could help him as he hits the US outdoor series. See what Vohland had to say to the media ahead of his his much anticipated first appearance in a US National for Red Bull KTM
Monster Energy Supercross, you didn’t get all the races in due to a hip injury. Are you in recovery mode or are you 100 percent ready for motocross?
Honestly, the injury wasn’t that bad. It sounds bad on paper, but I was up and walking within two weeks and riding in three, so I’ve had some extra time to get ready and I feel 100 percent ready for the season. I’ve been pretty fast when I’ve been riding recently. The team is stoked, and my dad is stoked, and I’m stoked, so we’re shooting probably around the top five. That would be a great goal and it would be better if we’re even above that. Of course, top ten if that doesn’t happen.
How much more confident are you going into this series compared to supercross six months ago?
Yeah, supercross, I had the time, but I was also just getting onto the 250 [Vohland raced a 125 as an amateur in 2020] so I was still getting used to the bike, even. I was still a little behind the 8 ball when it came to that. Motocross, that’s what I grew up doing, and of course my dad has so much experience racing it, and also in the GPs and all that. And I’ve had more time to get used to the bike. I feel great, I’m riding awesome. We will see how it goes.
You had the chance to race some EMX125 in Europe last year. That’s something most of your competitors didn’t get to do. What kind of experience did you get from doing that you can relate to your professional motocross debut?
Yeah of course it ended up being a mudder, Matterley Basin in March, but it was gnarly. All of the practice tracks we rode over there were gnarly. Extremely gnarly. I still haven’t found a [practice] track here that’s as gnarly as anything I’ve seen over there yet. Hopefully, that will give me a bit of a bar for how the tracks will shape up in the races here. Of course, being part of the GPs, it’s pretty high-level racing over there. They really take care of the riders well, and in that [EMX125] program you have all the fans there, so it felt pretty much like being in a national, pretty much. I was getting my feet wet, so I think I know better what to expect to come starting this weekend.
I was out at Glen Helen a few weeks ago and saw Cooper Webb kind of pushing you around a little bit, and you two were playing cat and mouse a bit. Talk about riding with Cooper and what it will be like to have him as a teammate this season.
(Laughs) Yeah, of course I had all the motocross prep, and he took some extra time off after supercross before outdoor season. So, he was kind of throwing me out there so he could chase me around, but just riding with a champion and being around a champion, you learn so much without even having to ask him. Of course, he’s a good rider and he doesn’t give up, that’s for sure! I’d push hard, and I would think I was on the verge of breaking him, and he would come back, two laps later! I learned that these guys definitely don’t quit.
Image: Cudby