Tim Gajser today added another chapter to the motocross legacy he started writing last year when he clinched his first MX2 World Championship crown just twelve days after his 19th birthday.
Now, remarkably, less than a year on, GT243 has done the double and taken his first MXGP crown in dominant fashion. Whereas he clinched the MX2 title in the last round of the season, before his 19th year was run Gajser sealed the MXGP crown with three motos remaining, underlying the powerhouse he has been in his maiden season aboard the Honda CRF450RW.
Tim’s 2016 season aboard the CRF450RW:
– An unrivalled seven Grand Prix victories
– Fifteen moto wins and seventeen fastest laps
– An unprecedented fourteen GP podiums from fifteen races
– Lead 242 laps = 43 per cent of the whole season
In taking his back-to-back MXGP title, Gajser becomes the first big-class World Champion for Honda in 16 years, since Fred Bolley triumphed in 2000. He joins an elite of nine riders who have claimed back-to-back motocross world titles on Honda machinery, and an even more elite group of those who have graduated to a bigger class and still been victorious in consecutive years (those in bold).
Honda’s back-to-back champions:
– Andre Malherbe – 1980, 1981 (500cc)
– Dave Thorpe – 1985, 1986 (500cc)
– Eric Geboers – 1987 (250cc), 1988 (500cc)
– Jean Michel Bayle – 1988 (125cc), 1989 (250cc)
– Georges Jobe – 1991, 1992 (500cc)
– Greg Albertyn – 1992 (125cc), 1993 (250cc)
– Stefan Everts – 1996, 1997 (250cc)
– Fred Bolley – 1999, 2000 (250cc)
– Tim Gajser – 2015 (MX2), 2016 (MXGP)
Gajser becomes Honda’s second-youngest big-class World Champion, just behind Greg Albertyn who won the 250cc category in 1993. Although they were both 19, Albertyn was just 61 days younger.
How old were they when they took their first title?
– Graham Noyce – born 1955. 1979 (500cc) = 24 years of age
– Andre Malherbe – b.1956. 1980 (500cc) = 24
– Dave Thorpe – b.1962. 1985 (500cc) = 23
– Georges Jobe – b.1961. 1987 (500cc) = 26
– Eric Geboers – b. 1962. 1987 (250cc) = 25. 1988 (500cc) = 26
– Marcus Hansson – b.1969. 1994 (500cc) = 25
– Jean Michel Bayle – b.1 April 1969. 1988 (125cc) = 19. 1989 (250cc) = 20
– Trampas Parker – b.1967. 1991 (250cc) = 24
– Greg Albertyn – b.13 October 1973. 1992 (125cc) = 18 (23 August, Suzuka). 1993 (250cc) = 19 (8 August, Finland)
– Alessandro Puzar – b.1968. 1995 (125cc) = 27
– Stefan Everts – b.1972. 1996 (250cc) = 24
– Fred Bolley – b.1974. 1999 (250cc) = 25
– Tim Gajser – b.8 September 1996. 2015 (MX2) = 19 (20 September, Glen Helen). 2016 (MXGP) = 19 (3 September, Charlotte)
It’s hard to believe that Gajser’s MXGP crown comes just ten years after he started leaving his mark on the sport with the 65cc European Championship title in 2007, at the tender age of just ten.
A history of Tim’s Championship titles:
2016 – MXGP World Champion
2015 – MX2 World Champion
2014 – Joined Honda Gariboldi with an HRC contract
2012 – First Slovenian 125cc European and World Champion. GP debut
2009 – EMX85cc European Champion
2007 – EMX65cc European Champion
Since the end of 2013 when GT243 was picked up by Honda and Giacomo Gariboldi’s eponymous outfit, the resurgence of Gajser since has been meteoric. His flamboyant style mixed with his otherworldly ability to scrub has won him fans and fame across the world, from his native Slovenia where he’s a national celebrity, to the USA where they can’t wait to see him to do a ‘JMB’ and take his exceptional talent to supercross and the Monster Energy Cup.
Tim Gajser, the Honda CRF450RW and the Gariboldi Honda Racing team have blazed a dominant trail in MXGP after this season.