Frustration for Billy Bolt at Silver Kings Hard Enduro

Husqvarna Factory Racing ace completes FIM HEWC round two in seventh

It was a weekend of frustration for Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Billy Bolt at the Silver Kings Hard Enduro, finishing round two of the FIM Hard Enduro World Championship in seventh overall.

Heading to the United States for the second round of the FIM Hard Enduro World Championship, Billy was eager to deliver a strong performance, following his runner-up results at both round one of the series and most recently, Red Bull Erzbergrodeo.

A new event for the Husqvarna Factory Racing rider, Silver Kings Hard Enduro in Kellogg, Idaho, staged across three days, featured a SuperEnduro style prologue and two offroad days in the mountains.

Favouring Thursday’s prologue on his TE 300, the five-time SuperEnduro World Champion eased his way through the qualification heats to reach the finals. Despite setting the fastest lap times, Billy unfortunately encountered a technical issue with his machine and was unable to finish.

Regrouping for the first offroad day, Bolt was determined to make amends. With an unfavourable starting position of 15th, he fought hard through the dust to work his way into contention. Catching up to the leading group, he was able to finish in a strong fifth.

With some further setup changes overnight, Billy began the final day of racing once again fighting through the dust on the steep, technical mountain passes. With a strong kick to the final stages of the race, he ended his day in eighth. Completing the event’s final classification in seventh, Billy also finished sixth overall in the FIM HEWC standings on 23 points.

The FIM Hard Enduro World Championship now takes a summer break, returning to action for round three at Abestone in Italy on September 6-7. In the meantime, Husqvarna Factory Racing look forward to the legendary Red Bull Romaniacs on July 22-26 in Romania.

Billy Bolt: “Unfortunately, it’s not been a brilliant weekend. Despite starting well in the prologue, we had a technical issue with my bike on the final lap, which held me back. I never quite found my true rhythm on both offroad days and didn’t ride to the pace I know I’m capable of. On the first offroad day, I started well from 15th position, made some good overtakes, but then made some mistakes during the most difficult part of the race. I lost the gap to the leaders there. We made some improvements to the bike setup for the final day, which helped a lot, but I didn’t have the intensity to challenge the top guys. The pace was super high and when riding mid pack, the dust was really bad. My riding improved during the second half of the race today, but I had already lost the gap to the leaders, so I maintained my position to bring it home safely.”