Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP’s Romain Febvre and Mathis Valin led France to third in the FIM Motocross of Nations at the Ironman Raceway in Indiana; Valin added third overall in the individual MX2 classification and was awarded the Ricky Carmichael Award on his Nations debut as best young profit.
France lined up the Kawasaki duo in the opening MXGP/MX2 race and both riders performed admirably to see their country equal first in the team standings. Febvre finished fifth despite a fall on lap four as he challenged for third, while Valin pushed forward from an initial sixteenth to ninth overall, just a fifth of a second away from first in the MX2 category. Back in action again after a short half-hour break for the MX2/Open race the teenager again showed tremendous spirit as he pushed forward from twenty-third at the start to finish fourteenth, enough to claim third overall in the MX2 individual classification and keep his country second overall in the team rankings headed into the final moto for MXGP/Open machines. Febvre moved forward from seventh at turn one to make what appeared to be the decisive move to secure second in the team stakes on the penultimate lap as he made a pass for fifth, only to see his efforts negated when his partner on a different marque lost a position on the very last lap to push France back to third on the tie-break.
Romain Febvre: “I gave my best to the very last lap of the final moto but it was a shame about the crash I had in the first moto; I was in a good position and I threw it away when I misjudged a turn which was full of water. I think we all did a good job; it’s been a long season so I’m happy we could finish on the podium even though I’m a little disappointed that we just lost second to the USA.”
Mathis Valin: “It took me some time to get used to the track yesterday as there were so many lines in the corners but I am proud of my performance today. The first moto went really well and I held off Kay almost to the end for first in MX2; I gave it everything in that race and was a little tired for the second moto but I kept pushing. This was my first Nations so my thanks to my teammates and our team manager Gautier Paulin for their advice all weekend.”
Pauls Jonass, the third member of the KRT team at the event, led Latvia to ninth in the Nations classification with a personal seventh overall in the Open class.
Pauls Jonass: “Seventh in class was OK but I can do better; it’s our first time riding here and I never really found the feeling for the track to ride how I know I can. Now we head back to Europe to do some testing so I can come back swinging next year.”
