Yahoo Autos Interview: Triumph MX2 motocross racer Camden McLellan
Since the inception of the Motocross World Championship in 1957, racers from the Republic of South Africa have won five titles. Greg Albertyn earned the first world championship for the nation with the 1992 125cc crown. “Albee” went on to win the 1993 and ’94 250cc titles. Grant Langston took the 125cc championship in 2000 and Tyla Rattray won the FIM MX2 world championship in 2008.
Although South Africa has continued to produce world class motocross talent since then, world titles have remained elusive. That can all change, however, with the rise of 19-year-old Camden McLellan. The Johannesburg native, who won the European championship in 2018 and who competed for JH Honda Racing in the 2023 MX2 world championship, has been drafted onto the new Monster Energy Triumph Racing outfit for the 2024 MX2 season.
“At the moment we are based in the south of Spain with the Triumph team,” explained McLellan after a comprehensive day of Triumph TF 250-X testing and training. “We’ve been doing our winter work here in because the weather in Spain — in European weather terms — they say it’s the best. The sun shined five days out of the seven during the week and the tracks are still in good condition. The tracks weren’t flooded or what-not like they would be in Belgium or the Netherlands. So now we’re based down here for a couple of months just to get in a bunch of work in the off-season on the bike and with all of the physical stuff. I think we’ll move up to Belgium when the season comes around.
But, for now it’s a “bit of the winter grind, let’s call it, you know? This is where you put in the long hours on and off the bike,” he said. “We are now riding and cycling and it is now where you build your base and get really, really fit for the long season to come.”
Although he ran a somewhat abbreviated schedule due to an early season injury, McLellan placed 13th overall in the MX2 championship, consistently hovering around the top 10. In November, McLellan learned he would be joining traditional British brand Triumph for 2024 — a full-on dream come true for the South African rider.
“Oh yeah,” smiled McLellan of his new lot in factory racing life. “I can remember those days in South Africa like they were yesterday. When I was six or seven years old I used to wear Monster Energy caps with Ryan Villopoto printed on them that you could buy at the gas station and now wearing Monster Energy caps and shirts from Monster Energy themselves. That’s really something big to me. And obviously Triumph is a brand-new outfit, so it’s history in the making and it’s really, really cool to be a part of it. As my first factory signing, it’s a really, really big one, so it’s been nothing short of special, for sure.”
Were aforementioned champion South African racers Albertyn, Langston and Rattray an influence on McLellan and his future as an MXGP challenger?
“Very influential,” he affirmed. “I would say even more influential on my dad. He was a big, big motocross fan. He rode a little bit himself, but just for fun. He would go watch all of the racing when Greg Albertyn and everyone was still racing back in South Africa. He had been following all of them for a really, really long time. I was very young when those guys were racing, so I wasn’t into it all as much as him. The racing was always a big thing for him with the South Africans coming through.
“What brought me overseas was my dad’s passion for motorsport and a South African racer had not come through in a while, so he thought we’d give it a shot. And as you can see now, it’s not turned out bad at all. Those guys definitely inspired my dad, and I’ve become a big fan of all of them as of late. As you get older, you start to learn and hear all of the stories and really put it into context what they had done coming from South Africa.
“It has been done by a lot of South Africans. Swanie [Gareth Swanepoel] did it and I think with the Lawrence brothers from Australia and the South African racers that have been successful, it’s just the way you’re brought up. You’re kind of always on the back foot coming from South Africa or Australia with not a lot of money. It’s like an extra motivation to kick up the ass to go out there and do your best every time and at 100 percent.”
Lending a hand to McLellan along the way in his quest to become a championship caliber racer in motocross was 1993 500cc world champion and JM Honda Racing Team mastermind Jacky Martens.
“Jacky and JM Honda Racing was the first team that I rode the world championship for this last season,” McLellan noted. “Coming from any class to the world championship is a big, big step. Jacky himself is a world champion, so he knows exactly what it takes and what you’ve got to do to be at the top of motocross. Jack offered a lot of insight to me and really worked his ass off on the bike to get it competitive and to put me out there with the fast guys this past season.”
Team manager Vincent Bereni wanted McLellan involved in Triumph’s new and revolutionary MXGP racing program in 2024. “He not only impressed us during the 2023 season, but I feel like the whole paddock was impressed by his speed and consistency,” he said of McLellan. “We are very fortunate and very excited to have Camden on the team and I strongly believe that we can take his ability to the next level in 2024.”
McLellan talked about the genesis of the Monster Energy Triumph Racing relationship and how he ultimately found himself a member of the historical new effort.
“In 2022, I had a pretty good season in the European championship,” he related. “I was on a privateer team at the time and going up against certain teams with much bigger budgets and better bikes and I was doing really well — consistently on the podium and fighting from the back a lot of the time. I stood out to the current Triumph team manager, Vincent Bereni, and I had one really, really good race where I came from far, far back and ended up third. Since then, he knew that I had a fire under my ass and I was always on his radar from that point.
“Last season on the Honda with Jacky Martens, I started doing really well around midway through the season. I was getting some top fives and was knocking on the door for podiums. Vincent saw all of those races and I think what was the closing or deciding factor with him regarding me was just that I was doing well in the world championship on a private Honda team and he could see the potential in me with a factory ride and a whole factory behind me.”
Still, he acknowledges that it’s a significant jump to make.
“Yes, it is a very big ask,” McLellan said. “I enjoy riding my bike so much but at the same time, I’m very grateful and very fortunate that I’ve found myself and my purpose so early in my life. It has definitely been a big ask and there have been moments where it has been very tough and confusing at times, but I’ve learned a lot throughout the years. I’ve learned that if you give it everything, it all plays out how it should.”
There has been a lot of chatter about the striking new Triumph TF 250-X that will grace the starting gates starting with the MXGP of Patagonia-Argentina on March 10. What’s McLellan’s take on the single-cylinder 4-stroke DOHC-motivated and KYB suspended motocross bike?
“That’s everyone’s question! I’m a very honest guy and when something is not working, I will say it. I was very, very, very blown away, in a good way, when I first hopped onto the bike. There is no doubt about it that it is a race-winning bike. And Vince and the whole crew around it, they’ve been in the motorsports industry and motocross for so long and they know what it takes to build a race-winning bike.
“Even more important, they know how to get me to be at my maximum. They’ve provided great guidance. And everyone back at the Triumph factory in England, they have the bike absolutely dialed on the track to the engine and everything. It handles like a dream. It’s the most powerful bike that I’ve ever stepped on. Clement Desalle, the test rider, he’s been helping me a lot on the bike. He’s a former grand prix winner. Great guy and he’s been very, very helpful on the bike for me.”
A high-profile effort pulled together by a fraternity of motorcycle industry and motorcycle racing industry veterans, a lot is riding on the Triumph effort and McLellan is fully aware of the magnitude of all. All this withstanding, what does he hope to achieve come the clank of the starting gate into the Argentinian dirt?
“Winning makes me happy,” said McLellan. “Winning makes me the most happy, let’s say. Obviously, now being on a race-winning machine, there’s not much else on my mind. The team is very good at keeping me grounded. They told me not to go too crazy and not to expect to win everything. They just want me to come in nice and steady and just build myself up every race, and I have no doubt once I’m confident and I’ve found my feet, I think I’ll be fighting for podiums very often.
“This whole thing has been a childhood dream, for sure. In the first year in 2024, I want to win. There’s no doubt about that. If I’m top five in the beginning of the year and then at the end of the championship I’m around the top three and knocking on the door for more, I’ll be more than happy. In the second year, it will no doubt be a title fight year for me. I want to be out there and be fighting for the title and putting the Triumph where it belongs.”
