Swedish talent Isak Gifting has been one of the standout riders outside the factory teams in 2025, and his performance at this past weekend’s MXGP of the Czech Republic further underlines the JK Racing Yamaha rider’s potential. While his raw speed hasn’t always translated into consistent race results, it’s clear that Gifting has made significant strides toward becoming a genuine top-five threat on any given weekend, whilst operating at a privateer level.

The Swede had some rest in-between Matterley Basin and opted to miss the Finnish GP, which proved to be a great decision from him and the team.

“I have been feeling great this weekend” he reflected. “I had about a month off, I was training though and I have had good days on the bike. I think I was pretty solid all weekend, always every session top-10 and then the start yesterday wasn’t that good but today, two good starts. First Moto, too much mistakes so I lost a couple of guys, lost some ground but it was tight like we were 25 seconds of the lead in the end.”

“The second Moto was just great to be honest, good start, fourth, just rode around there in fourth and stayed with them. I lost a little bit of ground to Lucas and Glenn, but Lucas passed Glenn and I think Glenn was fading a little bit in the end. I felt great, my body was good, I didn’t get tired to be honest I just found a couple places where I could really breath and relax a little bit and gather some energy every lap so, overall a great weekend and the best scoring Yamaha I think.”

Although the JK Racing Yamaha team operates on a much smaller budget compared to the factory outfits, both the team and Gifting are making the most of their resources – making his fifth overall finish all the more impressive. Outperforming a long list of factory-backed riders and finishing as the top Yamaha rider is a testament to why so many love motocross: it’s a sport where determination and talent can close the gap to the front, and success isn’t solely determined by the bike beneath you.

“It’s actually working really well, of course, it can always be better” he affirmed, when asked about comfortability on his bike. “We don’t have the test days like the factory teams have they test every week. I had one test day in preseason – yeah, you can’t compare it so we’re lucky that we got a good setup and I am really happy with it.”

Being the best-performing Yamaha rider is not only a massive achievement for both Gifting and the team – it’s also a source of motivation whenever the opportunity presents itself.

“It motivates me a lot because I know how their setup is with the team and the bike and they have so much more opportunities – it’s not even close to comparable! So when you beat them, it feels very, very good. Of course it motivates me, but sometimes a bit too much [laughs], I go over my head and I end up upside down and stuff, it happens a lot everyone knows that [laughs]! So I need to stay a bit more calm and not think about that like I did in the second moto . But of course, when I see those guys and you get tired, you can push yourself a little bit longer.”

Check out the full interview with Isak from the Cult Moto Post Race podcast show below!