Jalek Swoll had a tall task at hand entering 2024. Joining the newly founded Triumph Racing team to compete on their first ever dirt bike—the Triumph TF 250-X—Swoll was set for a season of learning an all-new machine in a pivotal season early in his professional career.
Add in the fact that his one teammate Joey Savatgy, was training elsewhere, and his second teammate Evan Ferry split from the team after making just one main event, left Swoll as the sole team rider at the test track. Added pressure? Absolutely. Still, Swoll pushed on.
“Riding alone is pretty tough for the most part,” Swoll said. “Now you got some certain individuals that can do it, but I made everything out of what I had. I had a really good track; my guy Raymond that does the tracks was doing a great job. I mean, everything for me was just staying the course, grinding it out.”
Swoll put in arguably his best professional season to date. He got on a brand-new bike and was better than he was on a Husqvarna platform he knew well. Plus, people forget Swoll missed all of supercross the season prior after a bad broken left arm in late January 2023 kept him out until the AMA Pro Motocross Championship.
Coming back into supercross is no easy feat, brand-new bike or not. Still, Swoll pushed through all the adversity, winning a heat race and finishing inside the top ten seven times in his nine starts. Throw in a career-best seventh in the 250 Pro Motocross Championship and 277 points on the season—56 points better than his previous best—and a podium at the Unadilla National and it was a strong year.
Unfortunately, the season came to a screeching halt at the first SMX Playoff round in North Carolina. Merely seconds into the race, his front wheel caught the edge of the track and caused a hard slam, resulting in a concussion. Year one for Swoll and Triumph was in the books.
Last week, Swoll said the early end to the season was a “blessing in disguise” so he could take some time off. Although he did add, “Obviously, I don't wanna get knocked out again.”
Now, Swoll and Triumph are ramping up for the 2025 season. Personally, there not many changes from Swoll's program from last year to this year. He is hoping to hit the ground running, saying the team made a lot of gain over the course of 2024. Three new teammates now join the fray in Stilez Robertson, Jordon Smith, and Austin Forkner.
“Yeah, it's nice to be around people and get that extra little push, but honestly, with it being brand new, it was almost better for me to be alone and just kind of learn,” Swoll said on last year riding solo vs now having four teammates. “Focused on myself every day and the bike and what I can make better on the bike. So, on that aspect, it was almost a blessing in disguise to kind of be alone. But now that I have teammates here and I'm transitioning into my second year here and I'm more comfortable, it's been awesome. Being able to ride with obviously with Smitty, Stilez, Forkner. I’ve got some good pace, and I know that because of the guys I’m around. So, it's been awesome and yeah, we've been plugging away.”
And they have some data to build off of. Last year, Triumph started at ground zero.
“I mean, we started from literally nothing,” Swoll stated. “So those guys get to come in and kind of experience most of what I've been able to kind of cut out that wasn't working. So, they had a pretty good platform to start on. But, I mean, the bike was awesome for me as soon as I got on it, I was pretty comfortable. Obviously when you go racing and in different track conditions and make things break down. Obviously, we had to learn like there's tons of rounds where I wasn't as comfortable as I thought I could be. And that was just traveling there with the new bike. But with the new guys coming in it's cool to see these guys come in from really good teams and bikes that can bring like some different input other than just me coming from where I was at. So, that's helped me a lot actually, seeing those guys be able to kind of find little things that I didn't necessarily know wasn't the best and then bring in some of their knowledge and fix some of those things. Then I got to come along and try some of those things that they thought were better in other places. And it's been really good for me to kind of build off of the knowledge that they're bringing in other places. That's cool.”
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“Who doesn't wanna be first?” he said. “It's all an individual sport at the end of the day. But if end up East, I probably won't get the opportunity to be first anyway. So, it is what it is. I mean, it's a team at the end of the day, I want the team to do good. And these guys, I see them bust their ass every day. So, it's like, I want these guys to get a win no matter what. And honestly, I don't even really care who if someone gets a win before me or not. I know my timing is coming and, yeah, I feel good. I'm confident, I don't feel like I'm gonna be discouraged or feel pissed off if somebody gets something before me. I'm plenty capable where I'm at and I'm just waiting for my time to come.”
And after just one season, Triumph announced in late November that they had mutually parted ways with team principal Bobby Hewitt. Swoll had praise for Hewitt for Bobby’s long-time support all the way back to their Husqvarna days.
“I think when I do get some success, it'll half still be to him,” Swoll stated on Hewitt. “He was the one that signed me, him and Scuba, to Triumph. So, I have a lot of love for Bobby and, yeah, wish him the best.”
