Adam Sterry has quietly been putting together a solid season in both the British Championship and the MXGP World Championship. Back racing on home soil with the Chambers KTM squad after several seasons with German-based teams, the experienced Brit is trying to close the gap to the dominant Conrad Mewse in the UK scene. At round two of the British Championship at Canada Heights, Sterry went 2-2 for second overall – a consistent result, but one that still left the former EMX250 champion wanting more. We caught up with Sterry after the motos to discuss his performance, the changes to the Canada Heights circuit, life back in the British paddock, and how he’s finding the full-time MXGP grind again after a few years away from the world stage.
GateDrop: Overall it was a pretty lonely day for you in second in both motos but I mean you can’t be too disappointed, everyone knows Conrad’s on another level and I’m sure you want to close the gap but 2-2 is still pretty solid and to be faster than everyone else…
Sterry: Yeah definitely, I mean at the first round I was disappointed with second and it feels a little bit the same here but second in the British Championship 2-2 you can’t normally not be disappointed with it but like you said I just need to bridge that gap to Conrad. I think the second moto I had the speed to be able to at least follow him but I didn’t have the starts today so we need to work on that. This is one of my least favourite tracks on the British calendar so to come out second in both moto’s is not bad. Now I’ve got a few more GPs which is a few more chances to improve in between and try to bridge that gap a bit.
GateDrop: What’s your thoughts on the track, they obviously made some changes to make it slower which in theory is good but very hard to pass and it didn’t really get that rough to the second half really in moto two, compared to GP tracks anyway…
Sterry: Yeah, exactly. I mean this is one of the best tracks in the UK as in the British calendar, but compared to the GP’s it’s still very tight and twisty. It’s not really like a GP track so I don’t know, the changes 50-50, it’s been a while since I last rode it so it’s hard to compare but it just seemed like today was very fast and then it went to like a stop corner and you had to accelerate again and stop, fast and stop. I think that’s what made it so one lined, if you just held that inside you weren’t going to get past unless someone made a mistake so I don’t know. I would like to think they could do a better layout judging by listening to what everyone else says as well but it’s not my decision, it’s just my opinion so if I would have holeshot I would have had a different opinion (laughs).
GateDrop: The last three or four years you’ve been with German teams, you’re back on a British team with Chambers KTM, how’s all that going?
Sterry: Yeah, really good, I can’t fault the team at all. They’re all working hard and everybody loves the sport, they do it because they love it. Tim, Mike and Greg, everyone’s doing it because they like it and for the good of the sport so all the support that I want. It’s just a really good atmosphere and we’re at GPs too, we’ve got a good bike and we’re trying to deliver this British Championship to them and get good results in GPs, we’re chipping away at that.
GateDrop: Where are you living now? I know the last couple of years it’s been the Netherlands/Belgium, are you still there are you actually back living in the UK?
Sterry: No, I’m still in Belgium.
GateDrop: What’s that like, does that feel like home now and how many years have you been there now?
Sterry: I’ve been there five or six years including two years in Holland and then the rest in Belgium. It kind of feels like home like if you say I’m going home now I would be going back to Belgium but I’m actually going back to my UK family home. I know it feels like home, I feel like for training and riding it’s the best place to be it’s easier to travel around Europe from there and I think the training in the UK you just can’t do it like you can in Belgium. It’s just impossible, it’s too much traveling, too much traffic, tracks not opening tracks and not rough enough tracks. It’s not similar to the GP’s so I feel like Belgium is the place to be and especially if you’re doing GP’s.
GateDrop: I just found out this weekend that Greg Hanson a former GP rider and I remember him in the Vets class in 2009 at Mallory Park, I only found out today he’s your mechanic. What’s it like working out with him and is he a bit more than a mechanic, does he help out with good advice on the track as well?
Sterry: I mean he could but he doesn’t get involved. It’s also like completely different than when he was riding GP’s but it’s great to be working with Greg and the experience that he has. Like you said he was in the Vets back in 2009 so it’s still quite a long time ago but it’s good. We’re working hard and improving together.
GateDrop: Just on the GP series, I feel like you’re getting better and better every week as you’re probably getting more used to the team and more used to the level because it’s been a few years since you’ve been doing all the European rounds of MXGP so just how do you find it’s all going?
Sterry: Definitely I mean people don’t really understand in the UK but if you’re running in the points in GP’s you are going some speed. People don’t look at that, they just see like 20th, 19th or 15th and they think 15th, you’re sh*t but actually the gap between like 10th and 18th is very little, you could be 10th. Look at Geerts last week who got a start and won the qualifying race, I know he went down in the main races but it just goes to show. MXGP is the pinnacle of the sport, it’s the top riders and it shouldn’t be easy, that’s how it should be. It should be the best riders in the world and it’s marginal gains that everyone needs to make, just tenths off seconds. You’re talking three seconds from first to 20th in qualifying so it’s absolutely nothing.
GateDrop: The tracks this year, I mean it’s rained pretty much everywhere you’ve went so they’ve been pretty brutal which must make it even harder but do you enjoy riding those rougher tracks, maybe not the muddy ones but the rougher ones like race two in Lugo – it wasn’t too bad?
Sterry: I prefer it when it’s more technical rather than flat out. I feel like although it took guys it’s getting hurt to finally take away the dirt mounds but I feel like the tracks have been a bit better safety-wise this year apart from Switzerland. It’s good they took the dirt mounds out now, it takes for someone to get hurt for that but that’s a different story. I just want some dry races now, I actually like mud racing but every weekend it’s a bit of a slog. I’m just a bit over the mud races so it’s nice to be here and if you would have said your first real sunny hot race was going to be in the UK at Canada Heights in May, you’d be like no way but here we are.
GateDrop: It’s not too long until your home GP at Matterley Basin, I am sure you are excited for that one – hopefully we get plenty of British wildcards too!
Sterry: I always look forward to my home GP. Like you said hopefully more British riders can do it and hopefully we get the crowd full there and they get behind the British riders. We had a good turnout here today and hopefully they can come to the British GP as well and show that the British fans can be on the level of the French fans etc and get behind the British riders. When the atmosphere is great there, it makes the riders ride extra good and really looking forward to it. It’s one of my favourite GPs of the year.
GateDrop: Actually, sometimes I forget but you haven’t raced the British Championship since you were with Hitachi, what’s it like being back in the British paddock, we’re only two rounds in but how are you finding it all and obviously Paul Irwin’s running it now so it’s a bit different than the previous years…
Sterry: It’s been good, I think how it is at the minute, it is really good. Today we had a lot of spectators, it’s well advertised and with the live stream people can watch it. It’s kind of like the ADAC, that’s what I said when I spoke to Paul before he started this year. I said in my opinion the best domestic championship with how it is run is the ADAC and if you can kind of copy that it would be great. They get good fans, the live stream, good sponsors and more people. That’s inevitably what it is if you get more people watching there comes more sponsors and more money for everybody. That’s how it should be, we want British motocross to be good and we want the British Championship to be more supported to get faster riders here. We want to have a good crowd every round and get a good atmosphere.
