Image: Octopi Media.

Saturday’s SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX) Finals at the LA Coliseum marked the ‘bittersweet’ last start in Jalek Swoll’s lengthy stint with Rockstar Energy Husqvarna, expected to soon be announced as part of the Triumph Racing project.

Swoll has been on Husqvarna for nearly 10 years, spending seasons as an amateur with the brand before turning professional full-time with the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna team in 2020.

“It’s bittersweet, because I’ve been with the team, this team, for so long and if I wasn’t fighting it I would tear up right now,” Swoll told MotoOnline. “I mean, I’m excited for the future and I’m excited for you guys to see what I have coming.

“But, I’ve been on Husqvarna since I was 14 years old and I am 22 now. It’s been a super, super long time. I don’t want to say too much, because I can’t really say anything until October. It’s been a long road. It’s a great team, the people around here have been so good to me and I’ll still hang around these pits, so it will be good.”

Swoll was ruled out of the Monster Energy Supercross Championship earlier this year altogether after arm surgery following a practice crash in the pre-season. Los Angeles was the closest to a Supercross layout out of the three post-season events, and Swoll – who ended the night eighth overall with 6-8 results – had nerves in returning to a Supercross setting.

“It was okay,” he added. “I would have loved to have had a good start in that second moto. The first moto I finished sixth, I ran third for a while. Man, if I were to have rode like I did in that second moto, in the first moto, I think I would have ended on the box, but it is what is it.

“My intensity has just got to be a little bit better. Coming from breaking my arm before Supercross, I was kind of a little bit nervous coming back into a Supercross setting. That first moto, it took me that moto to get the jitters out, second moto I was good to go but I just didn’t have the start to match.

“It was a bummer, but we ended off… I felt like we had some highs and some takeaways, so I’m okay with it. We left healthy, and it’s good to finally have an off-season without something broken.”