Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Kay de Wolf managed to piece the complete puzzle together on his way to earning the 2024 MX2 World Championship, sealing the title in his fourth full season at last weekend’s final round in the MXGP of Castilla la Mancha. With seven victories to his credit, the 20-year-old answers Five Questions on his success achieved this year.

You had the red plate from race one and you started extremely strong in the season with three race wins in a row, but it still came down to the last race for you winning the title. How did you feel at the start gate, were you a little bit nervous or how did you handle the pressure?

Yeah, before the first moto, I wasn’t nervous at all, I was really confident. Yeah, I think I showed all season long that top four was quite realistic. Even if I was still halfway the moto or something outside the top 10 or outside the good positions, I showed that in the last 10 minutes I would still get up to P3 or P4, so I was pretty confident to get in the top four. And then on Saturday also, I didn’t ride really good, so I expected myself to be in the top four, but then I just had a bad start. And they watered so much, so I stayed really careful in the opening lap because I didn’t want to throw it away. And then, yeah, I couldn’t pass, it was just really one line which was dry, so as soon as you went out of the line, you had no choice to pass. And yeah, then the second moto, I was a little bit more nervous. Of course, it’s a mechanical sport, so still everything can happen, but I think after Sunday night I found out that the bikes won’t blow up so fast, so I don’t have to worry about that anymore [laughs].

Looking back at the season, what would you say are some of the top highlights, the memories have been for you when you look back on the season as a whole?

I think for sure the first three were really cool, going three in a row. The first three, we didn’t really expect… Of course we expected to go for a world title, but not to win the first three and straightaway make a really comfortable points cap. And I think that’s what made me really comfortable throughout the whole season with the points gap – I’ve been hovering around 60 points. I think in the beginning it was a bit less, of course, after those first three, but at one point it got around 40-50 points, so yeah, I was quite in a comfortable spot. And I felt really safe in that place, so I never really was scared for my championship, let’s say.

You are so fast in the sand, but looking in this season, you improved a lot on the hard pack. Did you change something in your preparation during the winter time?

This has already been a project for the last few years. I think almost in the winter I spent more time in France than I spent it at home – at one point we went twice a week up and down to France to go practice on the hard pack. So, it’s been basically two winters where we really been practicing. Last year I showed in France already in qualifying that I had great speed on the hard pack and that from there on I kept showing good speed on the hard pack I think, so yeah, we’ve been working really hard on this and a lot of hours, but it finally paid off.

Will we see you in the US in the future?

Will you ever see me in the US? That’s a good question, but for sure not in the next few years, so maybe somewhere up in the future… not the next few years.

Can you describe what it takes as a team, the whole package in a sense with the bike and everybody around you, just how important that is to come together to reach that end result of winning the world championship?

Yeah, it’s actually, so we got this new team in 2020, I joined the Husqvarna Factory Racing Team in 2019, and then we actually built a new Nestaan team in 2020. And actually all my mechanics been there since day one, so they’ve been working super-hard. And yeah, it’s a great team atmosphere, it really feels like a family. So that’s also what’s given me a lot of safety and security, that it’s really a family. Every time I walk into the workshop it feels like a safe place. I think that’s a really good background to have behind you.