Team Venum Bud Racing Kawasaki’s Francisco Garcia clinched his fourth consecutive podium in the penultimate round of the European EMX250 Motocross Championship at Arnhem in The Netherlands to confirm his medal placing in the series.
Competitors faced heavy wet sand for their second race of the weekend after the promoter had watered extensively overnight in preparation for a glorious late summer day. The Spaniard was content to stay out of the roost in third through the early laps before switching into attack mode on lap seven to sweep into second. The leader was already several seconds down the track but the Kawasaki rider had successfully reversed a similar situation in the closing stages of race one so he remained confident of success until a single slip on lap eleven as the front wheel washed out leaving a loose turn. The incident cost twelve seconds and demoted Garcia to fourth in the moto but second overall was still secure. The Bud Kawasaki teamster is now confirmed to end the season as a medalist; currently third in the series standings, he is one hundred and thirty-six points clear of fourth and still has an outside chance of the silver medal as he is just thirty-three points shy of second with fifty points still available from
Francisco Garcia: “It was like a different track this morning; I prefer a bumpy track but it was much flatter after they had graded and watered overnight. I fell one time when I made a mistake and lost the front; I managed to come back a little but my rhythm was not as good as yesterday and I had to settle for second overall.”
Bud teammate Jake Cannon again railed the outside of turn one at the start to hold down eleventh through the early laps. He made two solid passes on lap eight to advance to ninth but a couple of laps later was demoted back to tenth by a sand expert. The Australian stayed tenth until three corners from the finish when he was forced out of the race by a damaged radiator. He remains ninth in the series standings but is just three points from eighth and has every possibility to advance higher at the final round of the series in two weeks’ time.
Stéphane Dassé (Bud Kawasaki team owner): « It was again a good weekend for us with yet another podium for Francisco. Yesterday he dominated the first race and for sure it would have been perfect if he had won this round but anyway we are very happy with him; he is consistent and never gives up! It’s his fourth podium in a row; sometimes he wants too much and we need to calm him down, but we are really happy with both riders.”
