This is Jan Pancar TEM JP253 KTM Racing Team. Behind him is the current MXGP championship leader Romain Febvre. If by any chance after the MXGP of Czech Republic you still don’t know who Jan Pancar is, let us help you!
Jan is a privateer in the MXGP world championship. He races against the best riders in the world and in his team – only him, his father, his mother and his girlfriend.
Besides training, racing on the highest possible level, he also takes care of the logistics and all the other aspects needed to even attend an MXGP race, while his father takes care of his bike.
And this weekend he achieved something extraordinary.
At the MXGP of Loket, race 1. He made a great start, almost took the FOX holeshot but Lucas Coenen snatched it from him by a narrow margin.
Everyone in this world expected Romain Febvre to pass Jan Pancar in a couple and then continue to fight with Coenen.
But Jan had different plans. He stayed calm, he held his composure and didn’t look back.
Febvre was attacking, searching for ways where he could make a pass, but always when he got close, Jan made a great sector making it impossible to get in the front.
Just to be clear, the only rider that was in the front of Jan Pancar was RedBull KTM Factory Rider Lucas Coenen. All the other factory riders were also behind the privateer from Slovenia.
Usually when a privateer makes a good starts, he slowly starts to fade as some time gets by. Jan was defending the second place for 30 minutes (mxgp race is 30min + 2laps).
Only after 30 minutes, he made a mistake in a turn, leaving the line open and Febvre took the chance. Soon after also Ruben Fernandez.
Also Glenn Coldenhoff was trying to get past Jan, but no success.
In the last lap, Febvre made a mistake and Jan got back to 3rd.
He also finished the race in third place.
The world took notice, big names from motocross and even his rivals congratulated him on his social media on his achievement.
He has shown on many occasions he has the speed to fight with the fastest riders in the world, also beating factory riders more times this year.
Can he finally get a factory ride next year? And if so, which?
You can also listen to this story here: