Kawasaki Racing Team MX2’s Mathis Valin raced to his fourth consecutive podium in round eight of the FIM World MX2 Motocross Championship at Kegums in Latvia.
The French teenager nosed in front down the long drag to turn one in the first moto, only to be pushed wide in the corner as a rider from the inside gate turned late, forcing the Kawasaki rider to lose momentum and emerge eighth. He immediately set about revising the situation, making decisive passes almost every lap to reach fourth before half-distance but still with an eight-second gap to third. Slashing the deficit at nore than a second per lap he was ready to pounce with four laps remaining, making a decisive inside pass on the current champion for third and moving into second a lap later to break clear of the chasers with the fastest laps on track through the closing stages. A fourth-placed start in race two was a good basis for another visit to the podium as the leaderboard held station for most of the race in a high-speed train; a tense lap mid-moto proved costly for Valin as he surrendered two positions in a handful of corners but it did not cost him the overall podium, his fourth in-a-row. The forty-four points championship haul over the weekend has taken him to within six points of fifth in the standings.
Mathis Valin: “I gave everything in the first moto to come back strongly for second from a poor start but I paid the penalty and was a little tired in the second. But that’s four podiums in-a-row and I’m getting better every weekend. I always give my best and I’m taking it race-by-race so we will see in the second half of the season where we stand in the championship.”
DRT Kawasaki’s Kay Karssemakers enjoyed a spirited ride to tenth in the first moto. An incident in traffic left the Dutch youngster twelfth at the end of lap one but he was already on the move until another rider fell in his path on lap five and he slipped off too when taking avoiding action. Relegated to fourteenth he dug deep to scythe his way back up the rankings, snatching a deserved tenth three laps from the finish. A superb start in race two saw him run top-six for three laps before he tightened up under pressure from a string of factory riders to be pushed back to eleventh within the space of a lap before regaining his composure and taking advantage of falls by a couple of rivals to regain ninth in moto for eighth overall on the day. The twenty-five point scorecard has moved him solidly into the top-ten of the series standings.
Kay Karssemakers: “It was another consistent weekend with 9-10-9 motos. I was riding pretty good in the first moto until I made a small mistake and fell when another rider crashed in front of me but I came back to tenth, almost to ninth, with good lap times. I took a really good start in the second race but I was riding a little tight and eventually had a small crash but I fought hard again to come back for ninth. We will keep on working hard and hopefully I will be able to stay with the front group soon.”
Venum Bud Racing Kawasaki’s Francisco Garcia extended his lead in the European EMX250 Motocross Championship to a massive fifty-three points at the halfway stage of the season as he put on a master class with his third two-moto sweep of the series. Kawasaki’s advantage in the Manufacturers’ standings was also increased to forty-four points.
The Spaniard was even more dominant in Sunday morning’s second moto of the weekend. He was closed down by his gate neighbours at the first shift but stayed cool to hold a tight line through the first turn to emerge eighth. Carrying outrageous speed through the turns and switching lines at will he was already third at the completion of the first full lap and, lapping a second faster than anybody else, closed down the riders ahead to sweep into the lead at the end of lap three and immediately pull a gap. One anxious moment when he jumped a little short on the uphill triple did not unsettle him and the teenager maintained his concentration to sweep home ten seconds clear of second at the end of the thirty-minute race. It was his ninth moto victory from twelve and his third 1-1 overall of the campaign.
Francisco Garcia: “The track was pretty sketchy and demanded respect. I got a little armpump in both motos but I stayed calm; I didn’t need to pull a bigger gap but I could play with the track for another perfect weekend. I have a big lead in the championship but we cannot relax; we will remain concentrated and keep improving.”
Bud teammate Jake Cannon again started outside the top-twelve but the Australian clearly felt more comfortable on what was to him a strange surface than he had been on day one. By lap three he had advanced to tenth and at mid-moto he had moved into his eventual seventh which earnt seventh overall and, more importantly, consolidated his second place in the series standings, thirteen clear of third.
