Indonesia – Different Dreams

While we all enjoy watching the best motocross riders in the World battling for victory, there are so many stories around a Grand Prix weekend. Some are the very best, such as Monster Energy Yamaha Factory rider Jeremy Seewer and some are involved for the experience to race with the likes of Seewer. In the end though, the experiences of racing for fun and enjoying between the races is always something special about these races outside of Europe.

“Honestly,” Seewer said. “The days between were nice. We ended up on a beautiful place (Kuta). Racing here is tough, super tough, especially Sumbawa, where it is the end of the world. It was very hot; you need to drink so much. You try to be ready for the humidity, but the days in between, I enjoyed a lot, to recharge my batteries. I went surfing one day, just to move a bit. It was a really nice place Kuta. Not too busy, a few tourists, a small city centre and enjoyable. We had some good times with the team, with the guys from Monster Energy too. I really enjoyed a lot, but then you come back here, back to work and those weekends are tough. You bring your body and your mind to the limit. Also because of our diets and many things around.”

One thing we all enjoy from the overseas Grand Prix round are the new faces in the paddock, be it Argentinian riders racing in Argentina, or Indonesian riders racing in Indonesia, but in the two rounds in Sumbawa and Lombok, one of the faces in the paddock, wasn’t so new and wasn’t even Indonesian, but from France.

Lionel Kerhoas from the Team Djienem MX team in Jakarta, is from France and is living in Bali. Having raced the Indonesian championship now for a number of years, he decided to give the MXGP rounds a go, and while his speed was down on the elite MXGP riders, his enjoyment level was as high as anyone in the paddock.

“I came to Bali for a holiday 13 years ago and I fell in love with the country,” Kerhoas said. “Three years later, I decided to come and live in Bali. I started racing straight away, in an international race, just one week after I arrived, then the next year I started racing local races with a modified kind of motocross bike. It was local style. Since MXGP arrived in Indonesia, the quality of the race tracks is better quality for local races.  People build tracks now in Indonesia that are wider, longer and more technical. As for being involved with the Indonesian rounds of the MXGP championship, it didn’t actually start with racing, but with just enjoying as a fan, but that quickly changed as he saw an opportunity to race the best motocross riders on the planet.

“So the first time I went to the first on in Pangkal Pinang in 2017 and I was just a spectator. I also met many people during the trip. The next year in Palembang and Semarang, I saw we had a local race, as a support to the Grand Prix, a national race, on the same track, so at this time I decided to register. That was in 2018 and the next year in 2019 I decided to do the same and then 2022, last year, they had no national race, so I decided to do MXGP, and I could do it. It went well and was a dream come true for me, so I decided to do it again this year, in both Sumbawa and Lombok.”

So, while we have the likes of Jeremy Seewer coming to Indonesia to win the Grand Prix, but also enjoy the experience of racing in the overseas races, we also have guys like Lionel Kerhoas, racing for fun and living his dream. Both, completely different goals, but joined together in what are always interesting stories and that is what our sport is all about. 

Photo Credit: Geoff Meyer