RASMUS JORGENSEN INTERVIEW: "WE GO IN WITH THE SAME MENTALITY AND WE ARE VERY AWARE THAT IT RESETS EVERY YEAR"
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RASMUS JORGENSEN INTERVIEW: “WE GO IN WITH THE SAME MENTALITY AND WE ARE VERY AWARE THAT IT RESETS EVERY YEAR”
Despite many wins in the past few years, Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing’s 2024 was certainly a standout year. The team not only won the mx2 championship with Kay Dewolf, his primary challenger, but teammate Lucas Coenen finished a close second. This was a huge achievement for team manager Rasmus Jorgensen, one of the youngest team managers in the GP paddock. We were able to catch up with Rasmus, who hails from Denmark, now relocated to Belgium near his team race shop. We were able to ask Rasmus about his beginnings, his relationship with his riders, and his relationship with team owner Kay Hennekens.
BY JIM KIMBALL
RASMUS, YOU HAVE BEEN THE HUSQVARNA MX2 TEAM MANAGER SINCE 2020; WHAT DID YOU DO PRIOR TO THAT? It is a long story. At the time, I was twenty-seven, when I was given the chance to become Team Manager, so in a normal world, that is too young because you are still racing yourself. Now I am thirty-three.
YOU RACED RIGHT? But back then I was racing and had a very promising career ahead of me. I did my first GP when I was seventeen for Factory Suzuki at Lommel, five minutes from where the workshop is now, and finished sixth overall. I had two-hole shots and did well in my debut at the time. I was teammates with Ken Roczen for three years in the Junior Suzuki times, me and Ken were basically growing up, and racing together. He was exceptional at the time, and we were going to be the future of the Suzuki program in Europe. So, things went well at my debut for the Factory Suzuki team at 17 years old, then unfortunately that same year, I was involved in a traffic accident that basically stopped everything. I destroyed the brachial plexus, it is where the nerves all come together to control my arm, so my left arm was completely paralyzed for a good year. Then I did not recover enough to get back to that level. That was basically it, and it was very dark times. At the worst possible time in a young man’s career, as I just finally made the factory status, and then that happened. I had no choice but to go back to school.
Rasmus soaking in an MX2 victory.
THAT MUST HAVE BEEN A DIFFICULT TIME. I was very angry at the sport and did not speak to anyone for a year. After a while, I slowly found my way back into it and started coaching. I was the trainer for Factory Husky for three years before the team switched owners, and that is when I got the opportunity to become Team Manager. It is a long, long story, but this is a very short version.
I WAS GOING TO BRING THIS UP, YOU ARE YOUNG FOR A FACTORY TEAM MANAGER. Yes, I agree. It is funny because when it happened, I was obviously very young. It was now five years ago and at the time, I felt like there were a lot of eyes on me, in terms of my colleagues that have been in the paddock since I was a baby. I felt the pressure of being the first new generation in a way of trying to manage and build a team from scratch. I felt a lot of pressure in succeeding in that. Strangely enough, a few years later, it started a shift, especially here in Europe. Looking at all my colleagues now, I am not even the youngest anymore. There is a new generation of riders and a new generation of team managers. It is not a bad thing though, as we maybe have a closer understanding with the riders as to their thinking and operating. This is something different in the GP scene.
During the covid pandemic personnel were required to wear masks.
AS FAR AS THE PAST YEAR, WHAT A FANTASTIC SEASON FOR YOU AND THE TEAM. OF COURSE YOU HAVE HAD SUCCESS IN THE PAST, BUT YOU HAD TWO RIDERS BATTLING FOR THE MX2 CHAMPIONSHIP! As you said, we have had great results. In the last five years, we have always won GP’s, but we have never achieved to be there throughout the whole season, consistently, due to injuries or bad luck. So, suddenly, just be there, and then with the two guys in the class dominating and fighting were definitely a big difference, and an unbelievable year in so many ways. When I look back at it now, sixteen GP wins out of twenty, with two guys fighting for the title is something special.
YES, IT WAS EXCITING TO WATCH! Just an unbelievable season, looking back now, it is so great what we achieved. But when you are in it, you are just going from weekend to weekend. It is super tough also in a situation of managing the team, the mechanics, the riders, the families and all of that when you are fighting within the team. It is not an easy task.
LET’S HEAR MORE. I think it was obvious that our guys were on a good level. You always see that during the wintertime. I already pulled them aside, both Kay and Lucas, in the beginning of the year before the first GP, in Argentina on a Friday and said, “Look guys, you are both healthy and we are in a great situation. We have had a great winter, and I truly believe you can both fight for podiums every weekend, but I expect fair racing from both of you. I want to keep it clean and let’s try to break the rest as a team, and then see where the racing goes during the season.“ I just had that talk and then the first race of the season, the first gate drop was the day after, and it was the closest racing they did all year! The first qualifying race of the year where they just went at it, and I thought “oh are we in for a tough year.” I have to say that after that it was clean. Obviously, you create a rivalry and that is impossible not to.
Riders Liam Everts (26) Rasmus Jorgensen and Kay DeWolf (1) preparing for 2025.
THAT IS NORMAL. It was a healthy competition, you know? They were not best friends off the track, but they respected each other on the track and that was for me the most important. The rest you can manage, and there was never any dirty racing. There were also no hugs after the races. I think everybody saw that, but that is normal and if we are on that page, and we are not doing dirty things on the track and off the track. We can manage the rest and that was something that I am very proud of. As a team we were able to stick together and win as a team – whether it was Lucas or Kay.
We have a small group of passionate, good people, I believe and to keep it within the four walls here, to give both guys the exact same tools to go and perform. We did what we believed in, and it was great to see the outcome on paper.
In the end, we have not changed our way of operating, and we never wavered. We always believed in the way we were doing things, but ultimately you need to have a mission. We need to have the right guys at the right moment and not have any injuries and bad luck. For it to all to come together was incredible.
YOU HAVE BEEN AND MX2 ONLY TEAM, BUT THIS YEAR YOU SIGNED MATTIA GUADADINI TO RACE MXGP. Ultimately, Mattia was given the opportunity to come our way, and he decided to do so. That was a great challenge for us. He has a lot of potential and is very young. He had a difficult 2023. He had some good results but then he got injured. He also ended the previous year injured. He came into our structure and our team not fully healthy still. We had to get him fully fit, but then he was injured in the beginning again. He tried to come back, and we worked so hard with him. He did everything he could, but it just never came together. Whether it was bad starts or then finally getting a good start he would just have small things all the time not coming together.
It was super frustrating for him and obviously being in the team where you have two MX2 boys fighting for the title made it more difficult. It was five or six GPs he missed, and coming in it was not an easy situation. Ultimately, he is still very young, and I really hope the best for him. We ended on great terms, and I am happy to see that he has found a new place (Monster Energy Ducati) in the paddock. I wish him all the best and we are still in contact so there is absolutely nothing bad. He loved being here and was happy about the whole structure and how we did things. Unfortunately, we were just not able to make the results that he is capable of due to many circumstances that happened, especially with injuries. It is a bummer for sure.
The Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing celebrating Kay DeWolfs win in 2024.
MATTIA IS YOUNG, AND WAS MOVED UP TO MXGP VERY QUICKLY; WAS IT TOO SOON? He was competitive on the 250. I think he was even leading in his rookie season in MX2 for a while there. Then, for one or another reason they moved him up during his second season in MX2. Making that move, I have not seen anyone going back to MX2 even though he could do it next year. He is twenty-three next year, so he could do another year in MX2. His size and his weight are not an advantage on the 250 and now he has done a few years on the 450, so going back would be a big challenge. People easily forget he is that young because you can always race MX2 but once you enter the MXGP class, nobody cares about your age anymore, you are in the big boy class, and you need to perform.
TALKING ABOUT THE NEW MX2 CHAMP KAY DE WOLF, HE RECENTLY CAME TO CALIFORNIA TO TRY SUPERCROSS. AS HIS TEAM MANAGER, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON HIM CONSIDERING A MOVE TO AMERICA? I am a little bit in between. I completely understand the dream of Supercross. I had it myself when I was young. I think if all the bad stuff had not happened to me, I would have probably ultimately also ended up in America because I really loved Supercross. I loved that whole dream of riding under the lights in a big stadium and all of that.
So, I completely understand the dreaming side from the riders and completely get it. On the other hand, we have been writing this story with Kay now since he was fourteen. We won a title together now, and he has two more years where he will be staying with us – which is great. If he ultimately decides to head overseas to America because that is what his heart wants to do, that is what he feels is the right thing to do, I am not going to stand in his way. These are his dreams. I will just take it one year at a time and try to maximize our results together.
Then if that is what he wants to do, that is what he wants to do. I think the Coenens have been quite open and verbal about it for a few years that this is where they want to go.
Kay has been talking about it and talking about it for years, but I have said no to it. But, after this year, winning the title, we also as a team wanted to reward him and say, “look, we will support you in trying it out to see if you like and are capable.” But I think we all knew that he was capable.
He loved riding Supercross but to love to do it and to make the decision to finally go and leave your family, leave your friends, and leave everything you know is a lot, because Kay has lived by his family his whole life. He has never had to leave or move to a different country or anything like that. There is a big difference in making that commitment to move to the United States.
Like I said, obviously I want the best possible riders and to make the best possible results for the team, but we are talking about 2027 and ultimately, we don’t know where we are in 2027 either. You can only take one year at a time in this industry and try to do the best you can.
HAVE YOU EVER ENTERTAINED RELOCATING TO AMERICA TO MANAGE A MOTOCROSS TEAM? The thought has popped into my mind, yes. I would like if that were the case, but I also have a great boss here. The owner of the team (Kay Hennekens) has treated me extremely well and this whole team, we have built this up together. Ultimately, we are really working well together and have a great team. I have sacrificed a lot leaving my home country and relocated here with my wife for one year now. We have a boy, who is three years old, and have built our life here. It is impossible to say about America, because I don’t have an offer in front of me, you know? It is something that is difficult to really answer, but I said it before, my dream as a rider was always to come to the U.S. and never say never. It would all depend on the situation we are in here as a team and if there would be an opportunity. I would never say directly no, but it would have to be the right timing and the right offer and all those things. It is a very good question. I have for sure thought about it, but it is a tricky one to answer because I don’t have anything concrete or any scenario really. It is just speculation.
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON ALL THE MEDIA NEW ABOUT THE PIERER MOBILITY GROUP’S FINANCIAL PROBLEMS? Yesterday I was in Austria the whole day. I was at the factory, and with all the stuff going around, I was curious to see how it would be, and how things were going. Ultimately, the core of this company is racing, and we were there because we are committed to next year as a team. We were there doing our yearly meeting for what is in the pipeline, making the planning with the factory on the testing and photoshoot – and just preparing everything for the season. All those meetings went well. For us, we are so committed to racing, and the company is so committed to racing. Let me put it this way, I have not felt anything bad. You hear things, but we are fully operating, and we are making plans and going ahead. That is all I can really say. I am not sitting in the management team of that company. the motorsport department of the company is the racing department and to be able to sell bikes, you need to go race and you need to go and try to win races, right? So, that is ultimately what we are trying to do and achieve, and until we hear anything else, that is what we are planning to do.
LET’S HEAR A LITTLE BIT ABOUT 2025. I am super excited. We are coming off our best year ever, and we are very aware that it is going to be very difficult to even get close to matching that, I would say in a very humble way. I think going in with the expectation to do the same would be a recipe for disappointment, but with that being said, we go in with the same mentality and we are very aware that it resets every year. We need to go to a solid wintertime program. Liam needs to get over his injury and Kay needs to deal with the fact that he is the defending champ, and he needs to try to back it up. There are a lot of things in this sport that need to go right, and I can only come back to the fact that it is exciting, and we need to keep pushing.
We need to keep trying to improve in the areas where we feel like we can improve and ultimately go and be very competitive. We will try to win as much as we can and be on the podium as much as we can.
With our two riders, I believe that we are very capable of winning. We need to stay healthy and see where we are going to end up, and that does not change. We always have had the winning mentality here, and with Liam coming in, it is also super exciting. He also won two GPs this season and he is very capable of anything. We have a very strong line-up again and I am looking forward to it. It is just starting now. We did not really take much time off, and it feels like every day is just flying by and before we know it, we are going to be in Argentina, hopefully with two healthy guys that are ready to race. then you still have another sixty gate drops where you need to stay healthy, and things need to go your way, and many scenarios are needed to make it happen again. There is a long way to go.
A unique photo of Kay DeWolf when he clinched the championship.
DO YOU HAVE A GOOD FEELING ABOUT WHAT LIAM NEEDS TO DO TO WIN THE TITLE? That is a difficult question, as I have not really been super involved. I have known Liam, and I have known his family for a long time, but you are so focused on your guys in the season. I do know this year he missed the first round due to an injury. He missed the first one in Argentina and he was already one round down. Later, he did extremely well on the comeback and won a few GPs there.
Then he had a bit of a difficult time.
He is making a change to come here and changing his number and everything. I think it’s ultimately a good step for him. We can bring some great things to him as a team, and it will be like a fresh start in a way. Now the situation obviously changed a little bit, as in China when he had the serious injury. in the sense of preparing for the new season, he still is not on the bike. So, we are fully focused on getting his neck strong and trying to heal properly so he can even have wheels rolling under him.
2025 WILL BE IMPORTANT FOR HIM. Looking at 2025 for Liam, at this stage, we are fully focused on first getting him back on the bike in a good way, a strong way, a safe way and hopefully get him as ready as he can be and then be competitive. I truly believe that he has shown in the past that if he is feeling good on the bike, he is competitive for a podium or win on every kind of soil there is on the MXGP calendar, whether it is mud, sand, hardpack, medium or whatever it is. He has all the ingredients to become a world champion, but you need to put it all together over twenty rounds and you need to minimize your bad days, ultimately. I think that when you see Kay this past year, he really did that. You know on bad days; he could be fourth or fifth. If you are that many times on the podium and you are winning and everything goes well, it is difficult to beat over twenty rounds, so you must bring a lot of consistency. Especially minimize the points loss on your bad days because you will have bad days – it is impossible not to.
WILL THE TEAM HAVE MORE TIME NEXT YEAR TO FOCUS ON KAY AND LIAM BECAUSE NO MXGP GUYS THIS NEXT YEAR, RIGHT? Yes, but I think we were able to spread it out and do the maximum on both sides in 2024 – that was never really an issue. Ultimately, we are more than capable of doing both classes, but now it turned out the way it did and from a team point of view, focusing on one class, it is easier because you don’t have the overlap of the races. You are only focusing on one class. So, in some ways, yes it will be easier for us in 2025. But I think it is more than doable to run both classes. You just have other structural obstacles along the way, where you need to be sharp, and need to have good organization on the race weekends itself. In 2025 we are all going to the track, and we are all going back at the same time. Now we don’t have anybody that needs to stay out for the MXGP class, right?
YES. It is how you look at it and we will just keep working the way we have. I think it shows that we are capable of a lot here, but in the end, we need to do it as a team rider, mechanics, technical guys, and factory and there is a lot of work behind the teams.
Being the red plate holder in any class is no easy feat.
HOW DO YOU THINK YOUR FORMER RIDER, LUCAS COENEN WILL DO IN MXGP NEXT YEAR? WILL HE IMMEDIATELY BE A RACE WINNER? That is a good question. I think he will be capable of winning races, yes. I am not sure if he will win in Argentina, and I think that again in this sport, you need to stay healthy. Lucas has made steps ever since the 125 times. He has moved from the 125 to EMX 250 to two years in MX2 and is now going to MXGP – and he has been competitive in every single class that he has been in. This is now a different league, of course. The Premier class is a different league, and he is going to go up against guys that have a lot of experience that are very, very strong mentally, and physically – and he will be eighteen years old. The 450 bike is a beast to handle but I think he can be very, very surprising. If he gets out front, he can ride free. If he gets a good start and he can ride free, up front, I think he will be very surprised.
WITH THE PROMISING MOTOCROSS CAREER YOU HAD, DO YOU FEEL YOU CAN BE MORE VALUABLE AS A TEAM MANAGER? Well, I like to think so. I think you have so many greats of the sport also, working in the industry still and guiding riders that have multiple championships under their name. And they have so much experience and experience that I was never able to gain as a rider myself. I do think I may also have a little bit wider of a perspective though, and in some ways being able to see individually what each rider needs. If you are a racer and you have won a lot of championships, you can also easily carry that and say, “I did it this way and this is my way, and you should do it this way also.”
Do you know what I am trying to say? Like whereas if you don’t have multiple titles on your name or whatever, it is maybe easier to understand the individual, and to have a wider look at the different riders. To have the ability to figure out what each individual rider needs to perform at their best. I think there are some positives and there are also negatives, and I think luckily now after five years, I feel great in my position. But as I said, it was not easy in the beginning. I felt like there was a lot of pressure, and I needed to prove a lot.
Liam Everts is prepared to go racing in 2025.
I FIND IT INTERESTING THAT YOU HAVE HAD SOME VERY GOOD MX2 RIDERS THAT HAVE PODIUMED AND WON RACES LIKE JED BEATON, OR ROAN VAN DE MOOSDIJK, WHO AFTER MOVING UP TO MXGP, HAVE SIMPLY NOT HAD THAT SAME SUCCESS. I find it even difficult to speak about because I am always close with my guys. I always put my whole heart into this sport, team, riders, and all of that, so to see them not having the success that maybe they are capable of, or able to do once they leave here and go into the MXGP class or wherever they go is never nice to see. I do still speak quite often to Jed. It is unfortunate as there was no spot for him in MXGP when he had to move up.
Then he was injured in his first season, but the guy was fifth overall in his first MXGP race of his career, in his rookie year. He was plenty capable but also there was no seat for him anymore. He went back to Australia, and he just had his first year of Supercross there. He has done well, and I am super happy for him. He seems to be happy in Australia, but ultimately it is sad to see when you have had a lot of success and when you see what the guys are capable of, and it not going that well afterward, it is not nice to witness.
LET’S FINISH UP WITH WHAT YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE IN 2025. Well, I think it is obvious that we want to win, but to win, I think there are so many stages that you need to go through for it to happen. Ultimately, we want to keep our feet very, very solid and planted on the ground and keep working the way that we have. We will try to be very competitive from the beginning, be consistent, and stay injury-free with both guys – and try to aim for podiums every single weekend. I think that is a very good foundation to carry into the season, and then put us in a good position for an overall championship – that is ultimately the end goal. The end goal will always remain to win. J Just to say that we need to go and win, is maybe great marketing and sounds great, but I have been through it all. We have been through winning and finishing one, and two. Then the next weekend we had both riders injured and we were not even in the paddock. I have been through it all in the last five years and I know how fast it can go, so ultimately, we need to enjoy moments where it is going well, keep working, and see what we can do in 2025. We are all set and ready for it. Ultimately, I think we have a very strong team, and we need to focus on ourselves and do the maximum. That is what I ask from all the guys here and that is all I can ask.
YOUR FOCUS IS 2025. YOU ARE NOT THINKING ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF LOSING RIDERS TO AMERICA AND SUPERCROSS? Yes, I cannot control what is not in my control, you know. What I can slightly try to control is our situation here right now that we know and the facts that we have today, and we know that Liam and Kay will be racing here for 2025 and that is our focus.
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