Newsletter

The official race report service of Kawasaki Racing Team.

29 March 2019

The second life of Marc De Reuver

Former Grand Prix rider Marc de Reuver has been one of the most successful Dutch Grand Prix rider, winning GPs in all classes, and is now entering another career as coach of the F&H Kawasaki riders.

Thirty-six year old Marc de Reuver started racing when he was five years old and retired in 2015 after twenty-five seasons on the tracks were he earned no less than eight national titles in all classes from 50cc to MX1 during his long career. He raced the GPs for fifteen years as both a privateer and as a factory rider, but never attained the world title he had dreamt of. “I’ve never been world champion; I think I could have been at least three times but many things happen. My mistakes, other people's mistakes, that's life,” he admitted after helping Latvian Pauls Jonass to become MX2 World Champion two years ago.
 
When Marc retired from racing in 2015 he faced some tough moments, as do many riders when they end their career and have to find a new purpose in life. “I felt really depressed when I had to stop racing. I started when I was five years old, and you see when the end is coming. You move from a factory to a private team, then you stop the GPs to do only the national championship; you try to keep on earning as you know the end is coming soon. I had really big problems facing up to that, but now I’m back where I want to be; I can show my full potential and that’s nice. I feel really good in my new job; I can report only good things! Harry and Nathalie Fasé from F&H Kawasaki are great persons. I feel like part of the family in the team and he let me do my thing; he trusts me and you know me, sometimes I can be a little bit crazy outside the track but when I come to work I’m very serious,” he explained, laughing with his usual good humour.
 
In his second season with the F&H Kawasaki team, he knows the staff and had time to prepare the off-season alongside his riders. He knew Adam Sterry already from last year and has learnt two new youngsters this year in Henry Jacobi and Roan van de Moosdijk. “This winter I got to know two new riders; that’s the main problem in my job as all riders are different and you need time to learn about them. If you had three similar riders that would be so much easier! Henry is really strong in his head and very aggressive on the bike; now he just needs to follow a plan as a pro athlete. Roan is very young, he has always been with mom and dad and it’s the first year that he works in a truly professional team; during the week he’s so fast, now he needs to do the same at the weekends and that’s why I want him to do one more year in EMX. It would be a mistake to put him in the GPs too early as he is very young. Adam came a little bit ‘broken’ physically when we started to work together during the season last year, but he is a very strong guy and I think we have a good line-up with these three guys,” is Marc's analysis as the series moves to Valkenswaard this weekend for the ‘home GP’ of the Dutch squad. After an excellent weekend in Great Britain where Henry and Roan each scored a podium result, Marc is expecting many more highlights during the season: “We had a really good winter with Roan, Henry and Adam as everyone could see during the first two GPs. Adam has been unlucky; he made small errors otherwise he would also be top five in some motos. I work full-time with the boys; I live near the team and we are all very close. I follow them on the track but also in their private life; the biggest think is the mental approach and I have a very good connection with them. And if the connection is there we can reach our goals. We face a really long season but I’m confident as we work hard, we have a really good bike and I think we’ll achieve some special things this year.”