{"id":41262,"date":"2018-09-01T20:08:29","date_gmt":"2018-09-01T18:08:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.enduro.nl\/?p=41262"},"modified":"2018-09-01T20:08:29","modified_gmt":"2018-09-01T18:08:29","slug":"wess-pr-jonny-walker-interview-wess-championship-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enduro.nl\/wordpress-enduronlnewsite\/41262\/wess-pr-jonny-walker-interview-wess-championship-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"WESS PR – Jonny Walker Interview, WESS Championship Leader"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jonny Walker – \u201cFinishing Second At Red Bull 111 Megawatt Is Not An Option\u201d<\/strong>
\n\"wess-redbull-magawatt-jonny-walker\"<\/a>Wels, Austria – 30 August 2018 \u2014 Leading the World Enduro Super Series, Jonny Walker heads to round five at Poland\u2019s Red Bull 111 Megawatt with his sights set on victory. Already a three-time consecutive winner of the event, he\u2019s hungry to make it a fourth win and extend his advantage at the top of the standings, as the second half of the WESS season hits its stride on September 8\/9.<\/p>\n

Refreshed and recharged following his podium result at round four\u2019s Red Bull Romaniacs, here the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider talks about the importance of winning in Poland and maintaining his advantage in the race to become this year\u2019s ULTIMATE ENDURO CHAMPION\u2026<\/p>\n

Jonny, as a three-time consecutive winner of Red Bull 111 Megawatt are you ready to challenge for a fourth win at round five of WESS?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jonny Walker: \u201cI\u2019ve won Red Bull 111 Megawatt for the last three years, but now more than ever is the most important time to win this race. With it being a part of WESS, a championship I\u2019m leading, I can\u2019t settle for anything less. We\u2019re just beginning the second half of the series too and although I top the standings my advantage isn\u2019t that much. I really need a win here to build a bigger points advantage for the rest of the races to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

With three wins and a 100 per cent podium finishing record, what\u2019s been your favoured moments from the four editions of Red Bull 111 Megawatt?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had a lot of good battles at Red Bull 111 Megawatt but definitely for the last two years the fight between Mario Roman and myself have been some of the best. We both seem to be very close in speed around the coal mine and are always together at the finish line. He\u2019s made me swe at for the win twice now, especially in 2016 when I won by just two seconds. After 90 kilometres of racing, that\u2019s incredibly close.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why do you think the racing is always so close in the PGE coal mine?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it boils down to the nature of the terrain, the coal mine. It\u2019s so big that the course is impossible to learn. There\u2019s no opportunity to walk it beforehand, so on lap one everyone is trying to figure out where it goes. Also, nobody really wants to lead lap one because there\u2019s so many pitfalls and that keeps everyone bunched up. Then about midway around lap two we catch the slower riders from lap one and again it bunches everything up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you find it requires a certain element of race craft to be successful?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYeah it takes a lot of race craft to pull off the win. There are times when you need to be patient and work through traffic and then there\u2019s times when you need to push on. You are always trying to anticipate what\u2019s coming next because the situation changes from lap-to-lap. The track is so physical too, the sand takes a lot of energy to ride fast and if you make a mistake on the climbs you can lose so much time. For me, I feel like I need to be in a strong position starting the final lap and then give 100 per cent to the chequered flag.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second half of season will see the nature of championship change with the inclusion of Cross-Country races and a Beach Race. How are you approaching these rounds?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cEven though we\u2019re four rounds in it feels like things are really only getting started. It\u2019s quite an intense second half to the series as we\u2019ve got four rounds in 10 weeks, so there\u2019s a lot of racing left to give. Red Bull 111 Megawatt is the final Hard Enduro on the calendar but with a Cross-Country feel it also leads into the faster races to come. They are all new to me too and are going to be a challenge to get right, but I\u2019ve been working hard to get ready for them and I\u2019m up for the fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Red Bull 111 Megawatt is your focus now, but round six in Great Britain is a home race for you, are you looking forward to racing at Hawkstone Park?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cTo have a world class Enduro in Britain means a lot and Hawkstone Park is such an iconic venue to do it in. I\u2019m excited to ride there because I don\u2019t get the opportunity to race a lot at home. It\u2019s going to be a memorable event for sure, and really tough. British fans are so passionate about Enduro it\u2019ll be great to race there. Of course, the pressure will be on to deliver a big result, but a win on home turf would be something special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, as the championship leader at the series\u2019 halfway point, what would it mean to become this year\u2019s Ultimate Enduro Champion?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cTo end the year as the ULTIMATE ENDURO CHAMPION would be huge. It would be an amazing achievement because it\u2019s all about being the best all-round Enduro rider. But it\u2019s something I\u2019m trying not to focus on just yet because there is also a lot of racing to come and in a championship like WESS anything can happen. I need to stay focused on each round. Red Bull 111 Megawatt is next on the list and I\u2019ll be giving it 100 per cent to win in Poland. Finishing second is not an option\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Round five of the World Enduro Super Series takes place at Red Bull 111 Megawatt in Poland on September 8\/9.<\/p>\n

View a preview of the 2018 Red Bull 111 Megawatt here on RedBull.tv<\/p>\n

Red Bull 111 Megawatt Fast Facts<\/strong><\/p>\n

2.59: Jonny Walker\u2019s winning margin in seconds over Mario Roman in 2016
\n3: Jonny Walker has claimed a hat trick of wins (2015, 2016, 2017)
\n10.85: Walker\u2019s winning margin in seconds over Roman in 2017
\n111: The race starts at exactly 1:11pm in honour of Taddy Blazusiak,111 being his race number
\n1000: Number of competitors entered
\n2014: Blazusiak won the first edition of the race<\/p>\n

Red Bull 111 Megawatt 2017 Podium<\/p>\n

1. Jonny Walker (KTM); 2. Mario Roman (Sherco); 3. Graham Jarvis (Husqvarna)
\nRed Bull 111 Megawatt Past Winners<\/p>\n

2017: Jonny Walker (KTM)
\n2016: Jonny Walker (KTM)
\n2015: Jonny Walker (KTM)
\n2014: Taddy Blazusiak (KTM)<\/p>\n

Red Bull 111 Megawatt Schedule<\/p>\n

Saturday, 8 September:
\nQualifications
\n10:00-14:00 \u2014 Round 1
\n14:30-18:30 \u2014 Round 2<\/p>\n

Sunday, 9 September:
\n9:45 \u2013 Final B (qualifiers 501-750)
\n1:11pm \u2013 Final Race (qualifiers 1-500)<\/p>\n

Red Bull 111 Megawatt Event Information<\/p>\n

Website: www.redbull.pl\/111megawatt
\nFacebook Event: Red Bull 111 Megawatt
\nFacebook Group: Megawattocy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jonny Walker – \u201cFinishing Second At Red Bull 111 Megawatt Is Not An Option\u201d Wels, Austria – 30 August 2018 \u2014 Leading the World Enduro Super Series, Jonny Walker heads to round five at Poland\u2019s Red Bull 111 Megawatt with his sights set on victory. Already a three-time consecutive winner of the event, he\u2019s hungry…<\/p>\n

Lees meer “WESS PR – Jonny Walker Interview, WESS Championship Leader”<\/span> »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-persberichten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/enduro.nl\/wordpress-enduronlnewsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/enduro.nl\/wordpress-enduronlnewsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/enduro.nl\/wordpress-enduronlnewsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enduro.nl\/wordpress-enduronlnewsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enduro.nl\/wordpress-enduronlnewsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/enduro.nl\/wordpress-enduronlnewsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41262\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/enduro.nl\/wordpress-enduronlnewsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enduro.nl\/wordpress-enduronlnewsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enduro.nl\/wordpress-enduronlnewsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}