Arminas Jasikonis had been racing the German ADAC championship when he caught the eye of Team Suzuki World MXGP General Manager Stefan Everts, looking for a replacement rider for the injured Ben Townley. Here, the Lithuanian tells his story, from the time his MX career began to his first weeks with the Suzuki factory team.

I started motocross when I was just four years old; actually I got a bike for my birthday that year. The first ride was not such a good one, I was scared of the bike, but after a couple of weeks I was going crazy for it and I just wanted to ride. At that time, I still had training wheels so I could not fall over and of course all I did was ride my bike. It had always been my dad’s dream to race motocross, but we were not a rich family and it was not working for him. So after some time, he made some money and got me a small bike. In 2001, I rode my first race when I was just five years old.

When I was 12, I made the move to Estonia, where I was living and training with Avo Leok. I went to school there for a year to learn Russian, but I always wanted to become a pro motocross rider. So I entered the 85cc European Championship. It was a good first season for me. Unfortunately, at the end of it I broke my leg. However, I still managed to finish third overall that year. Then after two more years of training in Estonia, we moved to Belgium.