Kawasaki Racing Team MX2’s Mathis Valin showed tenacity as he raced to a moto fifth and eighth overall in the French round of the FIM World MX2 Motocross Championship at Ernée.
The teenager gated superbly in the first moto but was eased back to eighth after he wheelied momentarily on the charge to turn one. Responding admirably he advanced into the top-six on lap four and, with a series of consistent error-free laps, he ran down the rider ahead to move into his eventual fifth four laps from the finish before saluting the home fans who had cheered him. Hopes of the podium were dented at the start of race two as he was sandwiched in turn one to emerge ninth and, despite another fine ride, could only gain one position before the finish in a fast-moving leaderboard. His twenty-nine point haul was just four short of the podium in a tightly-knit leaderboard as he leaps to seventeenth in the series points-standings despite missing three GPs earlier in the season.
Mathis Valin: “I made a good start from the outside in the first moto and found a good rhythm to finish P5. The second moto was a little more difficult as I was stuck behind another guy for too long but once I got past him I again found a good rhythm and had some nice battles all the way to the end. I am coming back to speed little-by-little and was pushing a lot in both motos; the GPs are much more intense than the European Championship, particularly at the beginning of the races. Now we will continue to train and work; see you in Teutschenthal !”
It was a frustrating day for Team Venum Bud Racing Kawasaki in the European EMX250 Motocross Championship. Francisco Garcia was making good headway in the second moto of the weekend as he charged from an eleventh-placed start to take fifth with a clever inside pass at the final corner of lap six but was forced out on the following lap. Teammate Jake Cannon again had no luck through the unpredictable first turn and a slight error on the opening lap left him languishing in eighteenth before a superb recovery to ninth which, together with his first moto eighth, earnt a deserved sixth overall; it was the Australian teenager’s best result to date in his rookie European season. Despite the disappointment of his race two DNF Garcia remains third in the series standings, while Cannon has now advanced to sixteenth.
Jake Cannon: “We’re heading in the right direction with top-ten in both motos. I still have a lot of things to iron out and put together but we’re getting there. This was a proper race track where you had to be smart and be patient because things could happen quickly. And the public were crazy; there was a hillside there but all I could see were people and you could hear them all moto!”
Photocredits Full Spectrum Media
