The latest episode of the ‘Torq Moto’ podcast show, driven by Talon welcomes former 125cc and 250cc World Champion Sebastien Tortelli to flight case sofas to chat with hosts ‘Jeffro’ Perrett and Rob ‘DocWob’ Walters about his illustrious racing career and where he finds himself now as Stark Future’s race director.
Words by Torq Moto
Torq Moto grabbed Seb in his busy schedule for a catch up during the Arenacross UK tour and the trio dived straight into the thick of it to look back on Tortelli’s career and find out more on his new role at Stark Future. Tortelli looks back fondly on how it all started for him on his parents’ farm in the south of France and how he was driven to be win from a young age. He also speaks affectionally on how the French MX Federation helped him to achieve his goals and supported him in those early days along with his mentor, Jacky Vimond. The conversation leads on to those epic battles in GP motocross in the 125cc class with the likes of Paul Malin before the heady days of the titanic battles he had in the 250cc class and with Stefan Everts for the 1998 world title, where Tortelli recalls not only the battle out on the track but also the mental games during one of the tightest fought world championship battles in history.
Of course, Jeffro and Wobs couldn’t let him leave the sofa without talking about his time racing in America and his incredible debut in AMA Supercross, winning in L.A Coliseum and lapping most of the established American stars in the rain. Tortelli also explains his reasons for going stateside after winning the 1998 World 250cc championship and not defending his title and going at it again with Everts and Co and what it was like to dominate the opening round of the AMA motocross series at Glen Helen. He also opens up on some regrets and why his time in America didn’t go as well as he would’ve liked and how he was close to walking away from the sport until a call out of the blue saw him ending up being Start Future’s race director.
No doubt about it, Seb Tortelli is one of the coolest of cats in world motocross and you can hear his take on his career, the future plans for Stark Racing, modern day riders and where he feels the sport is at.
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