Less than one week after a momentous home race at Lommel, Team Suzuki World MXGP and MX2 will be in action once more with the first Grand Prix of Switzerland to enter the FIM Motocross World Championship since 2001. A new-build circuit at Frauenfeld-Gachnang will welcome the triumphant crew for round 15 of 18 in the 2016 series and will see Jeremy Seewer set to fill a starring role for the very first time in front of GP-starved Swiss public.
Kevin Strijbos drank winner’s champagne and bathed in the glory of a first overall victory in nine years last Sunday in Lommel and Seewer could be in store for the same sensation this weekend. It will be the recently-turned 22-year-old’s maiden taste of competition in front of largely partisan support, particularly as ‘#91’ heralds from the same region of the country (Zurich).
“I have a little bit of an idea what to expect because many Swiss press and fans have already been asking me about it for some time,” Seewer said. “I’m excited, I’ve been looking forward to this for almost a year. I think it will be amazing and I will just need to try and enjoy it because it won’t happen often in my career that I can fight for a win and a championship in front of – almost - my hometown. I hope there will be many spectators and I hear that some nice banking and viewing areas will be in place.
“It is quite a big story for me so far and when talk of a Swiss GP came up again there was a feeling of ‘this will never happen…’,” he continued. “We don't have enough GP ‘appropriate’ tracks, enough places with paddock space or the permissions to run this kind of event, but these people [2016 organisers] have made it happen. This season has been going well for me so it is like a new chapter. I cannot really know what to expect entirely but I think it will be amazing.”
The grassy Frauenfeld ‘stage’ is situated northeast of Zurich and on largely flat ground ensuring decent viewing possibilities for the crowd and a raft of spectators that have seen Swiss motocross surge in potency with the emergence of riders like Seewer, Arnaud Tonus and Valentin Guillod. The new facility will host the first visit by the principal classes of Grand Prix motocross since 2001 and the trip to the scenic setting of Roggenburg.
