Yahoo Autos Interview: Mikkel Haarup’s fresh start in MX2 motocross
Monster Energy Triumph Racing team manager Vincent Bereni was brimming with enthusiasm about bringing MX2 motocross racer Mikkel Haarup into the team’s fold for 2024.
“We are excited to welcome Mikkel Haarup to the Monster Energy Triumph Racing team,” said Bereni. “Together, we will begin a historic season competing with Triumph in the FIM Motocross World Championship. Mikkel is a very experienced rider in the MX2 class and this is very important to Triumph. He has already shown impressive skill and speed on the bike, and with his motivation, combined with our team’s work ethic and experience, we will work hard to achieve our goals.”
After finishing seventh in the 2022 MX2 standings, 2023 was positioned to be a breakout year for Haarup; however the Dane’s campaign got off to a wobbly start. After placing 13th in the season opener atop a Kawasaki, he parted ways with DRT Racing. Picked up by Walderman Zichanowisch’s WZ KTM organization, Haarup competed in eight grands prix for the KTM team before suffering an arm injury at June’s round in Indonesia.
Ultimately placing 18th in the final points, Haarup is thrilled to be with the new Triumph race effort and has been hammering away on the 2024 Triumph TF 250-X.
“I’m in Spain right now,” said Haarup. “Our 2024 season starts late February, the beginning of March. At the moment we’re doing a little bit of preseason preparation. It’s not anything that intense as we still have Christmas coming up where we will have a couple of days off. We’ve started to get into it and putting in some hours.
“We’ve been testing quite a few things on the bike, just to know more about it. And the reason that we chose Spain to test and train is because like California, it’s one of the better places with weather which allows you to do a whole lot of work without having to worry about the track conditions, or having to worry about getting sick because it’s too cold. So that’s basically what we are up to right now.”
Joining Haarup on the Triumph team for the 2024 MX season will be new teammate Camden McLellan, who said of the TF 250-X, “I was very, very, very blown away, in a great way, when I first hopped on the bike. There is no doubt about it that it is a race-winning bike.
Haarup agrees.
“I’m very impressed,” he said. It’s a positive surprise. When you hear about a new brand coming into the sport, you’re very nervous that it might not be very legitimate. You see all of these brands coming in at times, especially in Europe, and they just never really make it because for some reason or another, they don’t have either the financial support to back it up, or they struggle with just building a bike that will last.
“What surprised me when I tested the bike the first time was how prepared the guys were, and as far as I know, if you come in prepared you will have a lot less issues. I could feel the bike was strong. It had great power and handling. It’s a great-looking bike, as well.
“All in all, you can feel that the package is good. I mean, obviously mistakes happen, but even when mistakes happen, they’ve got the engineers to back it up. Everything comes together and they are quickly able to turn things around and move forward so that we learn from it. That’s pretty cool. It’s been a great experience. As soon as I realized that was how the team was going to be built and that’s how they work, I was so pleased. It has been an awesome first couple months with the team and I’m very impressed.
“I know they knew me already,” he continued. “I’ve been in MX2 and in the sport for quite a while. I’ve been professional since I was 14 years old. I’ve been at it all quite a while already. I’ve been through a couple of teams, and in the last couple of teams there have been some ups and downs. The season was going along and I didn’t have a manager at the time and I was looking for one, because of the trouble that I’ve had with the previous teams. It wasn’t from my side. They were not holding up to their end of the deal.
“I ended up with a manager and shortly after that, he contacted me regarding Triumph. He threw it at me and told me, ‘You know, this could be an option if you’re lucky. Let’s try the bike.’ So I tried the bike out and I was very, very surprised. Things moved on and we got a deal on the table and I took it.”
The team’s approach to maximizing performance has also impressed the Dane.
“Yeah, they do have an amazing work ethic,” said Haarup. “The majority of the people involved in this are only thinking about winning, and that’s what I want. It’s a positive feeling all around, because when everybody is working towards the same goal and putting in all the work and effort, it’s going to be crazy and the results that we bring in will hopefully be as a great as the effort we’re putting in.”
The 2024 season of the FIM Motocross World Championship will launch on March 10 in Argentina. With 20 events over 29 weeks, the campaign will visit 15 different nations along the way. Haarup and Triumph are ready to leave their mark.
“It’s going to be interesting to see,” he said. “I think I’ll have a better picture when I’ve done a couple of preseason races. I’m planning on coming in confident and well prepared with great speed and good starts. I believe that I’ll be racing for the win. That’s pretty much the mindset: See where we stack up and see what sort of improvements we need to make and come out swinging for the first GP in Argentina.”
