After a season of increasing momentum in the EMX250 European Championship, Australian teenager Liam Owens achieved a career-first podium in the division this past weekend at the MXGP of the Netherlands thanks to a 4-2 scorecard. In addition, the Queenslander has re-signed with the Cat Moto Bauerschmidt Husqvarna program for 2026, with this Five Questions feature detailing the developments.

Image: Supplied.

Liam, congratulations on your overall EMX250 podium result this last weekend. Take me through the event and how it all unfolded.

Yeah, thank you! So it started on Saturday – EMX races are split across the two days – and sometimes that makes it harder than MX2 because if you’re having a good day, you want to keep that flow going, but if you go into Saturday night, you kind of think about it that little bit more. If you have a good first race, I’ve had the problem of riding the high of it too much, where I felt this weekend I stayed locked in through Saturday night and leading into Sunday, which helped a lot. Overall, it was a solid weekend for me, we made gains which we have been doing all season, and I’m stoked on the result.

Racing-wise, you notched a 4-2 scorecard across each moto. Did you gel with the track from the get-go? As I understand it, Arnhem is pretty sandy, right?

Yes, it was, it was a typical Dutch track – very sandy, although it did have a bit of a harder base than what I expected – I expected it to be a little bit more like Lommel, but there was a hard base and the track was quite choppy and pretty similar to Coolum, actually. Things happened well for me across the weekend and I’m really happy with how my sand riding has progressed, it’s improved a lot over the last two years, especially when compared to the first time. I tested the bike for the team, and I almost didn’t get the ride, I was that slow in the sand (laughs). This was a big step in the right direction, and I’m happy to keep on making these strides.

Does riding these different tracks and surfaces help diversify your skillset as a rider, would you say?

I think so – we ride so many different tracks over here, especially before our races, and the biggest thing is the lack of prep work done on them, too. In Australia we’re pretty spoiled with how they maintain our practice tracks, because they’re so gnarly over here. In Germany, France, where they don’t have much rain in the summer, they will just leave the tracks, it’ll be hard-baked concrete and blue groove everywhere. But when you go to the Netherlands, they’ll groom them a little more as that’s where all the factory riders base themselves out of, pretty much. I would say I do all my learning – or most of it – during the winter months here. As much as I’d love to go back to Australia and be in a warmer climate, I think I make most of my gains by being here and grinding it out because the tracks are so gnarly. They have long ruts, ones that go through upramps full of bumps, and only two sand tracks can handle the amount of water we get here in the winter, so I think that also has something to do with it.

Image: Supplied.

Back to the race weekend, P2 in moto two is super solid, were your starts on throughout the event?

I did get good starts, yes. That was the biggest thing I was happy about over the whole weekend. I was just finally in good form with my starts and notched two in a row which had me in the top five. My speed hasn’t been an issue this year, my qualifying has been good along with my race pace. It’s just when you start 15th, it makes your job a lot harder. So I think I found some things that work better for me off the start this weekend, and then I just worked my way forward in the second race. Towards the end, the others faded a little bit, and I was able to make some time up there, but I was a bit upset that I wasn’t able to get the win in the end because I was feeling really good, but ultimately, I just ran out of time.

Nice to hear, mate, starts are always super important! Lastly, the news arrived that you’ve re-signed with the Cat Moto Bauerschmidt Husqvarna program for 2026. How important is that, with them showing their belief in you as well as having some continuity there?

Yep, so I have signed back with the team for next year, which is something that I am really excited about. They might not be the fanciest team – we’re not factory, but it is the next closest thing, and they provide me with every reason to win an EMX championship – there are no excuses here. Everything that is supplied is what it takes to win, and for me personally, having that stability is really nice. All I have to worry about is racing and going for it – I think sometimes you can get halfway through a season – I’ve had a few zero-point scores, even with stuff that wasn’t my fault, and then you start freaking out like, ‘Oh, I haven’t got anything now,’ which you start stressing about. Then you don’t take the chances, an example is that if you start P5, all you think about is banking a result. But when you’re locked in for the following year, all that you’re concerned about is getting the best result possible, which is a massive weight off your shoulders. We’re in a good spot currently, and I’m excited to progressively grow my career here and become a consistent podium guy next year.