Directly from Austria, Maximilian Kofler was one of the few foreign riders of CIV to achieve a podium this year, in the moto3 class in this case, one of the most competitive class of the Italian Championship.
A van, a tent, a bike and a lot of kilometers run by the very young austrian riders, to ride in Italian circuits for a “shadow adventure”, without knowing anything about Italy, starting from language. However this has been a wonderful journey from Kofler, who tell us about his first real year in Moto3 in this interesting interview, with a lot of advances about his present and his future…
Who’s Maximilian Kofler? Let us know something about you, your career, how did you start riding a motorbike and so on.
“Maximilian Kofler is a boy from Austria. I’m 17 years old and I run my first race at 7 with SuperMoto. Then I raced 10 years with this kind of bike and I became vice European Champion in 85cc class. And then I grew up to speed on track with Moto3…”
You’re from Austria, why did you decide to partecipate at CIV? How’s been your first year here riding in Italy? Have you been in trouble with new circuits, new people, new rivals, new language?
“I decided to partecipate to CIV because in Austria we don’t have a Championship. Italy and CIV were the best choice, but sometimes I had some troubles becuase the most italians don’t speak english. And 50% of the tracks were new. The people are great but it has also been difficult to be the only rider not from italy, even if people had welcome me very well”
For you, has it been difficult to be the only austrian rider in the CIV’s paddock? Are there some people, as rider, rivals, mechanic and so on, with which you find well and you’ve tied up more?
“Yes, sometimes it has been difficult beacuse I always had to go alone, I didn’t know anybody so it was hard to be always alone, but for sure there were some people. For example, Kevin (Sabatucci, ndr) was one of the first who rote me and we became friends. Also RMUVR46RA’s crew helped us a lot. At the end, I can say all the Moto3 riders welcomed me in the Paddock”
You achived a podium, some good results, and an eighth final place? What were the targets before starting the year? Have you reached them? Are you happy with your season?
“This season was great because it was my first one on the roadracing bike. Our target at the beginning of the season was to make some points and maybe go in Top15. But at the end we wanted to be the best not Italien racer and be in top10 so we are more than happy with this result”
In this year you’ve also experienced a wild card in the world championship at home. How’s been? How difficult is the WC? How did you feel in that weekend?
“That was a weekend which I will never forget. It was great. I am very happy to have finished the race not at the last position because Pulkkinen was behind me. It means a lot for me, because I was in my first WC race.
The World Championship is very hard because in the Qualifying I was only 2,1 seconds behind the poleman but I was on P31″
Now you’re going to Valencia for the last race of the CEV. What’s your target for the race? Is CEV your next year’s application? Tell us your 2018 targets…
“Yes, I’m coming to Valencia for the last CEV race. My target is first of all to qualify for the races. And than I want to finish the races as better as I can without making mistakes and crashing.
Next year I will go to the Junior World Championship (CEV) for all the season with a KTM, this is sure. And I also want to make more Wildcard races in the World Championship, it would be great!”
Saying a big thanks to Maximilian for the great disposability he had for us, we want to wish him good luck for the Junior World Championship race in Valencia and for the next season in Spain!