Remy Gardner recently won his last Moto2 race of the season in Portimao. Last weekend, his father, Wayne Gardner, former 500cc world champion, spoke in an interview with Australian KTM Summer Grill about his son’s victory and a MotoGP show that he turned down earlier this year.
The life of a Grand Prix driver isn’t always easy, and Remy Gardner is no exception. Despite the fact that the Australian recently managed to win his first Grand Prix victory in Portimao, the road to it was not always smooth sailing.
As the eldest son of the former 500 cc world champion, Gardner made his first encounter with a road racing machine at the age of 10, having already been active on a motocross machine and Enduro before then. In 2010, he was invited by Honda Australia to represent the brand in the NS100F International Cup and made his debut in the 1st MRRDA Nippers Championship, a championship for drivers under the age of 13.
The following year he left Australia to settle in Spain. From 2013 he participated in FIM CEV Repsol with Team Calvo / LaGlisse. In 2015, Gardner made his Grand Prix driver debut with the French CIP team riding a Mahindra in the Moto3 class. In 2016, it switched to the Moto2 category. In his first season in this category, he was part of Team Tasca Racing. In 2017, the Australian switched to Tech 3 Racing where he was active for two seasons and was a teammate of Dutch Bo Bendsneyder in the second season.
After the team announced before the 2018 season that it would withdraw from the class after that season, Gardner faced major setbacks during the season. Lack of development wasn’t the only thing, as a training accident in which the Australian had broken legs, among other things, caused him to miss part of the season. Despite these setbacks, he scored fifth in the final race of the season in Valencia, his best performance in his class so far.
Switching to the Onexox TKKR SAG Team in 2019 turned out to be successful, although no regularity yet. But with first place on the podium in the class (second in Argentina) and first place during the Dutch TT race in Assen created optimism. The upward trend continued last season with two places first (Austria and Portugal), second place (Austria and Valencia), and second place in France, and winning the last major prize of the season at Portimao, Gardner closed his second season. In the service of the Spanish national team with 135 points in the World Cup, and finishing sixth in the final standings of the tournament.
Next season, Gardner will transfer to Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 while his former teammate Bendsneyder will start with the Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team next season.
According to father Wayne Gardner, we’re only now seeing the true potential of his son, a possibility that he hasn’t really been able to show yet due to the setbacks he’s faced in recent years. In fact, had it not been for these setbacks, his son would have been active in the royal class now. The 1987 500cc world champion broadcast his heart last weekend in an interview with the Australian KTM Summer Grill.
Wayne Gardner: “Last year, Remy signed the Stop and Go Racing team, but when he signed, he got promises of many things that were never fulfilled. For example, he will have access to 2020 materials, but these promises have not been fulfilled. Never… Two years ago there were a lot of problems, problems that no one had seen before. Remy wasn’t meant to win the last race of the season with a bike in 2019, but he did. Now everyone sees their potential. ”
But even before Gardner could claim his first win, he received an offer to move to the first division next season, first from KTM and then from his former employer, Herve Poncharal, who was awarded Red Bull KTM Tech 3.
Wayne Gardner: “At the time, Remy thought he wasn’t ready yet. He didn’t want to go there and then he couldn’t get results. You have to choose the right time, and also the right team.”
Despite the fact that Gardner will not start in First Division next season, he will become part of the KTM family, having received an offer from the Austrian motorcycle manufacturer a few months ago and accepted for the Red Bull KTM in 2021. The Ajo Moto2 Team to come out.
At the time Gardner signed, the plans for SAG were not yet known and it was not yet clear that the Spanish team’s problems would be resolved by breaking up with Malaysian team TKKR and title sponsor Onexox and entering into a new partnership to find a new, more reliable title sponsor with the Indonesian team Mandalika Racing. And in Pertamina.
Below the KTM Summer Grill Wayne Gardner’s speech was broadcast.
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