Bud Racing Kawasaki’s Mathis Valin maintained his thirteen-point lead in the FIM European EMX250 Championship after recording his sixth podium of the season in the Swedish round of the series at Uddevalla
The French teenager made an excellent start in the second moto of the weekend to hold down an immediate third place and already on lap two he made a decisive pass to move into second. He was then the sandwich in a three-rider breakaway at the head of the pack; time-and-again he would close down the leader but the hard-pack track had become very one-line and attempts to pass were becoming ever more frustrating. The action became increasingly hectic as they got caught up with lappers during the closing stages and Valin’s chaser took advantage to slip past momentarily three laps from the end before the Kawasaki rider responded decisively. Further attempts to grab the lead again fell fractionally short and at the final corner of the penultimate lap he left an opening for his chaser to slip past and he again finished a frustrated third. The move cost two championship points but it did not lose the overall podium and, more significantly, the twenty-point haul cancelled out Saturday’s points-loss against his closest chaser in the championship so that he leaves Sweden with his thirteen-point series advantage intact.
Mathis Valin: “Yesterday I was not really happy with my performance as I was fighting the track, but today the feeling was much better. I got the same result as yesterday – a third position – but it was really close throughout the entire moto with Lata and van Erp; it was very intense! The start is really important, especially on a high-speed track like this one where it’s difficult to pass. Perhaps I could have scored a couple more points this weekend, but we kept the red plate and I only lost one point to Lata. I knew in advance that this track is not really my favourite and in two weeks it will be different as I really like Frauenfeld!”
Benjamin Garib made it two Bud Kawasakis in the first six on the opening lap and the Chilean rode another solid race, advancing to fifth on lap three and maintaining his leaderboard position to the chequered flag to earn fifth overall – his best result of the campaign – over the weekend and advance to eleventh in the points-standings.
Benjamin Garib: “I felt great all weekend for 5-5 motos and fifth overall. I got another good start and just rode my own race. The track was a little muddy in places today but I stayed focused and put all the pieces together for my best-ever EMX result. I want to thank all of the team for their help and confidence in me; now we keep training and focused to produce more good results in the races to come.”
Bike It Kawasaki MX2 Racing Team’s Billy Askew rode another strong race on his return from injury, moving forward consequently from seventeenth on lap one to thirteenth at the finish to earn fourteenth overall. The English teenager is twenty-second in the series standings despite only being able to contest four of the eight rounds to date.
Billy Askew: “I came out of gate well today but I ran wide at turn one. I was happy with my riding to come back to thirteenth but I got a bit tired after 15 minutes; that wasn’t surprising as I’ve been away from racing for so long. The intensity out there is madness but that’s another race ticked off and hopefully by the end of season I’ll be back to where I was before I got hurt. So now we go home, practice long motos and get back to race fitness to achieve that.”
Photocredits – Fullspectrum Media
