Kay de Wolf on 2023 MXoN | Vital MX Interview 1

Kay de Wolf of the Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing squad was one of the stars at the 2023 Monster Energy Motocross of Nations, as he sprinted to third overall in the individual MX2 classification. Individual honors became a priority after his teammate in the Open class, Glenn Coldenhoff, exited the race with an injury. It was impossible for The Netherlands to end higher than nineteenth and yet the athlete who wore '20' did not lack motivation. 

In this interview from the prestigious event, de Wolf tackles topics in a lighthearted manner. It is the point at the bottom of this feature that will be of interest to a majority of readers – he has heavy aspirations to race in the United States as soon as 2026. With de Wolf and the Coenen brothers eyeing a future in North America, expect a wave of European talent to land in Monster Energy Supercross over the next five years.

Vital MX: There were a lot of American people, industry and fans, who messaged me after the first moto to ask if Kay de Wolf is always this aggressive. I said, "No! This is brand new." There was something quite special in that first moto though.

Kay de Wolf: Yeah, you have to be aggressive sometimes! That is exactly what I did. I got pretty close with RJ [Hampshire] yesterday. It was close, but I did not know it was that close. I thought that I gave him a little bit more room, but I did not. We spoke about it – it was all good. We did not quite touch. It was a pretty decent weekend. I had to do some American block passes in that first moto though, yeah.

RJ said that you spoke, and you explained that you are the one who makes aggressive passes in Europe, so he wanted to remind you that he is the man who does that [laughs].

RJ? He did not pass me [laughs].

No, but he said that it was in his plan.

He did not pass me [laughs] but he was chasing me hard in that second moto in those last few laps.

Well, he probably would have killed you [laughs]. 

Yeah, he would! RJ saw an opportunity after I crashed and tried to give it his all. I told him at the signing session this morning that it is hard to get me in the last ten minutes, because I have quite a big body. I have a lot to say in those last ten minutes compared to the other ones! It was a difficult weekend for me. Especially in that first moto, I struggled with my riding a little bit and got really tired behind Pauls [Jonass]. I lost a lot of energy on that. The forty-five-minute break did not really help after that first moto. We normally have almost two hours to relax, but we did not have that today. 

Yeah, that break was crazy fast. This was one of the hottest MXGP races too, which would have made it even harder. You were really feeling that, huh?

Yeah, I am not sure which date it is. It is October 08 and being almost thirty degrees is pretty crazy! It was one of the hottest races this year. I really enjoyed it, and I had a lot of fun on this track. I really enjoy racing here.

Was it hard to get motivated? Glenn Coldenhoff was out and so a team result was not possible, so was it hard to get in the zone?

No! I had two goals before the weekend and that changed to one goal after Saturday. Before, I wanted to get the team on the podium and individual win. I just changed the goal yesterday – there was one left. I wanted to go for the individual win, but Tom [Vialle] was really strong and felt really at home with all of those fans behind him. You could see in his riding from the first lap of practice that he knew this was his place to shine and he was born on these tracks.

If Glenn was racing today and you were going for a team result, would you have been as aggressive in the first moto or played it a little safer whilst thinking about the team?

No, I would have still gone balls to the wall.

You were just full send this weekend, huh?

Yeah! I changed since my back injury. I was a little bit too soft again in Italy, then I did not make any passes on the first lap [of moto one] at Matterley Basin. Ruben [Tureluren] was like, "Get your sh*t together and just make passes in the first few laps, because if you do that then it is so much easier." I went around people in a split second at Matterley – I was ninth on the opening lap and then I went all of the way to first after two laps. I do not know how that happened, because that is not really Kay de Wolf. It was a bit harder to get around 450F riders this weekend, especially Pauls, and that cost me a lot of energy, which f**ked me up a little bit. 

Basically, you have got your sh*t together for next year.

Yeah. I am getting my sh*t together. I am going to train hard and have a good off-season. Hopefully I will be one hundred and ten percent ready at the first round. 

You want to go to the United States one day. RedBud really inspired you last year. Do you have a plan or idea in your head about how you want to do this? 

I still have a contract until the end of 2025. I will not have a chance before the end of 2025 and then we will see what deals are on the table. It is a dream for, I think, eighty percent of the paddock here. We had the team presentation video for this weekend and my mom was like, "Where is this voice from?" I was like, "Have you never seen opening ceremonies from the AMA?" I showed her and she was like, "Woah. I never even knew this." I knew from the videos and stuff that I have watched. It is incredible. I have never been to an actual AMA Supercross – it is difficult for us to go and watch. I am really hoping to be out there one day.