SWISS WATCH: JEREMY SEEWER INTERVIEW

Jeremy Seewer was a long way from home. Some 5974 miles from home! The evening prior, the 2022 Swiss-born MXGP Vice World Champion was holding station at K1 Speed in downtown San Diego, California, and in tandem with Yamaha Motor Corporation teammates Eli Tomac and Dylan Ferrandis (Monster Energy AMA Supercross and AMA Pro Motocross) and Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP), displayed to the motorcycle racing world the all-new global Monster Energy Yamaha race team livery. In downtown San Diego, it’s the eve of the Monster Energy Supercross Series set for that U.S. Navel metropolis.

Yes, second to Team Honda ace, Tim Gajser, in the 2022 FIM Motocross Championship, Jeremy Seewer won five motos and three Grands Prix (France, Czech Republic and Sweden) before the season wound down to the MXGP of Turkey in early September. So, there it was, Saturday afternoon at 35,000-seat Snapdragon Stadium when 1984 AMA Supercross Champion Johnny O’Mara – by the way, winner of the 1982 125cc Grand Prix of Switzerland – walked into the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing team pit area alongside Jeremy Seewer. Friends with the Swiss racer, O’Mara pulled up a few chairs, shoved a box of Jett Lawrence Donuts before us and said, “EJ, I know you want to interview Jeremy. So here you go…” That’s the precise moment when this writer fired-up his trusty and well-worn Olympus digital recorder.

“I’m here just for fun, you know?” started the friendly, well-spoken Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP rider, while considering if he really wanted one of the pink and shiny Jett Lawrence donuts. “I’m here to talk with some friends and to have some good times. I spent two days in an airplane just to come here. Yesterday, Yamaha and Monster Energy announced their new bikes and sponsorship agreement, so that’s why I came to California. Like I said, I travelled more than a day to come here and tomorrow I travel back. It’s a big trip, but it’s worth it. I have many friends over here. It’s nice to be here to talk with them face-to-face and not always by phone. I enjoy all of this even though it’s a tough trip. It’s awesome to be here at supercross. I would also love to come here to do supercross one day, but you’ve got to commit to one or the other and if you commit to being a GP rider, then that is what you have to commit to. If you want to be a supercross racer, you need to come here at the age of 18 at the very latest. After that, it just doesn’t make sense.”

Before we initiated speaking about MXGP Motocross World Championship and all that comes with it, I asked Seewer what he thought of 2021 MotoGP World Champion and Yamaha teammate, Fabio Quartararo, who was busy working the room at K1 Speed before being tapped to climb into a go-kart.

“Yeah, he’s a cool dude,” smiled Seewer. “You know I’d never really met him. Sure, I follow MotoGP and stuff, but the thing with TV is that you don’t see the person. You see them race. That’s a different story. Fabio and I had lunch together yesterday and we talked about normal things. Okay, I asked him things about MotoGP which I am interested in. I asked him about background things. Fabio asked me motocross. You know top athletes, athletes like we are, you just follow all sports. It’s all we do. If I put on my TV I want to know about skiing, MotoGP, Formula 1, supercross and all of these things. I’m very into sports, so I want to know about them. To get to talk to a guy like Fabio is like a big opportunity and you get to share things that other people will never find about. Fabio is very interesting. He’s a cool guy. His feet are on the earth. He’s a good guy to talk to.”

The 67^th annual FIM Motocross World Championship will lift its curtain open on March 12, 2023, in the shape of the Patagonia Argentina Grand Prix. For that date, Jeremy Seewer has applied his absolute focus and was candid about the fact that as soon as he rolled out of San Diego, it was time to get back to Europe and to get to work.

“As you know, our MXGP season starts in March, so January is the month to put in the hard work,” pointed out 10-time Grand Prix winner. “It’s means being in kind of a boot camp for one month in the south of Europe; in Sardinia doing testing and training and cycling and doing a lot of motos and putting a lot of hours on the bike. It can be rainy days and sunny days and it is just putting in laps and getting the bike to work and getting my body to be in top shape. That’s what this January is for. It’s not like I have days to waste. You know what we do is more than a normal job because I cannot stop at 5pm or start at 8am in the morning every day. Monday is no different from Saturday or Sunday for me, you know? I mean it’s a dream that we are living, but a lot comes with it that the people don’t see. Like I said before, there is a lot of hard work. And it is very hard work. You have to go to the absolute limit with your body. And the other thing we deal with is the pressure. Like you said, we got out there and at the end, oaky, we have a whole team and an entire crew behind us and to support us, but when we are behind the start gate it’s me and the bike.”

Something Seewer was completely honest on throughout our conversation in the sunny San Diego paddock was the harsh reality that a world-class racer both lives and dies on their GP results. Bad races keep you up at night. Live and die on results!

“Yeah, it can be tough,” offered Seewer. “100-percent, it can be tough. Racing can give you a feeling that nothing else on the planet can give you. When you win or when you have a successful race, the energy you get from that is irreplaceable with anything else. But the opposite is that when you have a bad day or when you have a few bad races. It nearly kills you from the inside because you are trying to figure out how and why. It’s not a nice feeling. This is the opposite. Still, these feelings make you stronger and make you want to do better the next time.”

As previously mentioned, Jeremy Seewer is quite accustomed to placing runner-up in the FIM World Championship. 2017 saw him place second overall in MX2, while 2019, 2020 and 2022 brought Seewer FIM Silver Medals in the premiere MXGP classification.

“I mean, the first time I became the Vice World Champion, I was proud. I was like, ‘Wow! I’m the Vice World Champion! I got somewhere! Wow!’ And then when I got it three times, it was like, ‘Okay, I want to win now.’ You’re not happy with second anymore. Okay, seeing the whole picture last year, I lost a lot at the beginning of the season. Without that, I think I would have been fighting for the world title. The approach for this 2023 season is that I want to win, you know? I want to go out and be the best. I don’t want to put myself in a spot where I have to win because too much pressure is going in the wrong way. I want to enjoy what I do. I want to win without feeling like I have to. Those are two different things. I’m ready for it. I’m looking forward to it. MXGP is the toughest of the toughest. There are many, many good guys out there. You don’t get any place on the track for free. Yes, this is my goal to win. Okay, I know I can’t win every race, but I want to be up there consistently and getting podiums and fighting for wins. I will see race by race. I don’t look too far ahead. I definitely want to be in the mix and have the goal to win the World Championship.”