Julius Frellsen: Struggles in MotoJunior, fresh start on a Supersport

Denmark is a country with very few riders at high-level motorcycle racing. We see Simon Jespersen racing in World Supersport, in the past Alex Schacht scored some valuable results in the European Superstock 1000 and Superstock 600 series, and Robbin Harms raced in the 125cc World Championship and World Supersport, to mention just a few. Apart from Jespersen, a kid who stood out in the last years is Julius Frellsen (o, cognome completo, Ahrenkiel-Frellsen).

18-year-old Frellsen may sound new as a name for many racing fans, but he has actually achieved remarkable results in his still short career, like winning races and finishing 3^rd in the Northern Talent Cup (now Moto4 Northern Cup) in 2023. The last couple of years was tough, due to many challenges in the European Talent Cup, but the young Dane is having a fresh start in the EURO MOTO Supersport, where he has already proved to be a top 10 regular on the Honda of MCA Racing team.

Palmen in Motorradsport decided to interview Julius Frellsen and know more about him and his career.

Julius, what’s your goal for the 2026 season?

I don't like to set myself a specific goal in terms of results, because it’s my first year on a Supersport bike and I don't really know how it will go. I just want to learn and sort of progress throughout the season. So far it's looking quite good, and maybe we can achieve some nice results, or even a couple of podiums this year. But, again, it's difficult to say.

How was the impact with the 600?

Surprisingly I adapted quite quick to the 600cc, and I think my riding style has always fit the bigger bikes a little bit better. I am also quite tall, so it feels better also with my body now. Of course I needed a few trainings to adjust my riding style, but already in the first test I did good lap times and was competing with my teammates (Marvin Siebdrath and Julius Caesar Rörig, ed). It was much easier than expected.

Before talking about your seasons in the Northern Talent Cup and European Talent Cup, let’s go back to the very start of your career. How did it all begin?

My dad always rode motorbikes on the street, and I remember being a kid and sitting on the back of his bike while riding through the Danish roads. Then in 2020 I started racing properly and the first bike I raced was an Ohvale 110cc. I did the first year in the Danish championship when I was almost 12 years old, so quite late compared to many other riders. However, I trained very hard every week, three times a week, so I grew quickly. Already at my second year of racing, I won the Danish Championship in the 190 category. From there, we went to the Northern Talent Cup in 2022.

Straight from the Ohvale? It was a big step!

Yes, it was big and also what many people thought. The first year was very difficult, because I broke my arm just before the season start and so I missed the first rounds. In the end, that year was all about building confidence with the big bike and big circuits: the first test, in Oschersleben, was my first time ever on a big track, on any bike. Still I was in the top 10 at the Red Bull Ring and towards the ned of the season I started being quite competitive.

And how was the 2023 season?

Straight away I was battling for podiums. In Assen, I made a small mistake and missed out on the podium, but I was fighting for the championship all year long. Sadly I lost it at the last round, but the season was great and a big step forward compared to the year before, when I could barely score points. The round we had at Autodrom Most was one of the most special weekends in my career, because I won both races, and another highlight was my first pole position, at Oschersleben.

Then came the move to the European Talent Cup.

I moved up to ETC with a French team, JEG Racing. Honestly, it was a good year. The geometry and the feeling with the bike is different, but I adapted to the Honda NSF250R (different from the KTM RC4R he rode in the NTC, ed) quite quickly. I managed to qualify for the races and fight for the points, we made progress at each round, and for this I would call it a pretty good rookie year, considering that the ETC is a very competitive series with many fast riders.
The year after I move to the GRYD by MLav Racing Team with high expectations, aiming for top 5 or at least for top 10 finishes, but 2025 turned out to be the worst year of my career so far.

What went wrong in that season?

No matter what I did, I just never got the speed. I trained very, very hard, I improved a lot, but the lap times just never showed it. In free practice sessions I was sometimes very fast, even fighting with people who were regularly in the top 5, but then I ended up nowhere in qualifying and races. It was sort of a combination: on one side, I grew up a lot; on the other side, when the results don't come despite all the effort, you lose motivation and think you are not good enough. This is a really bad mentality for racing, because you need to be fully on it. But yeah, it just went that way.

Did you start to work also on the mental side, after the season you had, or were you doing it already before, like with a mental coach?

After I started to struggle, I contacted a mental coach and this helped me a lot. From there I started to be fast at least in FPs. However, I still never carried that speed to the qualifying and the races, for some reason I don't really know. Maybe it came too late, but that mental coach helped me a lot with my mentality and on how to accept that sometimes you can't succeed, and that you can fail.

At this stage, what’s your goal for your career? Would you stay in the “street bikes universe”, or would you like to go to MotoGP?

Every racer's dream is MotoGP, and of course this is still a dream for me. However, I don't like to call it a goal, because in my opinion if you are stuck on only one goal, then you close many other doors for your racing career. Now I just want to take it one year at a time, and see where I end up. When I was in the European Talent Cup, I stuck to it because I wanted to get to Moto3 so bad, despite growing a lot and being too big for those bikes. I forced myself on it, and it was a big mistake. I don’t want to repeat that mistake, so I just want to go with the flow and see where I end up, if it’s EURO MOTO, BSB, World Supersport, Moto2 or any other series. I am open to anything.

Are you fully focused on motorcycle racing, or you're also doing something else away from the racetrack?

I'm fully focused on motorcycle racing and I live in Sabadell, in Spain, to have more opportunities to train. However, I am still studying, because I want something to fall back on in case my career ends. If you have a backup plan, you have way less pressure. If you only focus on one thing and then it goes wrong, then you are fucked up. I don’t want to be in that position.

And if you were not a motorcycle racer, what would you like to do?

I really like cooking, and I've always thought about being a chef. It’s difficult to find a good job in the restaurant industry, I think it's very tough, but I would like to do it in case it doesn’t work out in racing.

You come from Denmark, a country with few riders at high level: Simon Jespersen now, and riders like Alex Schacht or Robbin Harms in the past. Have you ever met any of them?

I met Schacht one time in an airport, but that's it, and I've met Robbin Harms a couple of times when he was coaching a Danish team, but I don't really remember much about it. Who I know a lot is Simon Jespersen: he helped me a lot in the early part of my career. And so did his friend Danny Raavad (a former ESBK rider, ed), who used to be my coach and did a great job in shaping me as a rider.

Is there any other person who helped you a lot as a coach?

Diego Lozano, the riders coach of the Northern Talent Cup. He is the guy who helped me make that big improvement from 2022 to 2023. The main thing he taught to me was looking far and, especially, shorten as much as possible the time between braking and accelerating. We still chat every now and then, when we meet, and I am very thankful to him.

In conclusion, do you want to thank anyone else apart from Diego Lozano?

Of course, my dad. In motorcycle racing, every dad is a sort of hero: he is always the guy who follows the kid and helps. Mine has done a lot for me, and still does. I also thank my mom for letting me race, since I know it’s not easy to let a kid race at minimum 200 km/h, and for letting me move to Spain. Then, I thank Alex Baldolini, who is my coach now and gives me a massive help in training and preparing for the races.

Palmen in Motorradsport thanks Julius Frellsen for his time, and wishes him and MCA Racing team all the best for the next races and seasons.