After some preparation on the best sand tracks that Belgium has to offer, Evotech Stevens KTM made their way to Valkenswaard, the home of the Eurocircuit, and the home to one of the toughest Dutch sand tracks, for the first European round of the motocross world championship. But little did anyone know that this year’s round would be anything but ordinary. With a changed track and frozen dirt, Valkenswaard was unlike any track ridden so far.
Matt Hutchins, team principal, commented: “It’s been a big learning curve for us, this being our first Grand Prix. We struggled a bit with the set-up on the frozen track on Sunday, but we made some good improvements for Monday, which showed in his morning warm-up session. Unfortunately Steven was involved in pile-ups in both races which set us back in the results. The riding’s been good enough and plenty of good practice for the next British round at Lyng. As always, we’d like to thank our sponsors who continue to support our efforts for this year!”
Steven Lenoir (#685): Saturday was really bad, I was off the pace, struggled with everything, the riding and the bike setup. I wasn’t really prepared for the track, it was really slippery. On Monday we made some changes so it was better. In the first race someone crashed in front of me and I couldn’t avoid them. It’s a shame because I had a good pace to maybe get a top twenty, but this is the way it goes. In the second race I didn’t get a good start and couldn’t avoid the crash at the beginning. I gave everything I had but it wasn’t good enough. I leave Valkenswaard not very happy but I look forward to improve and get more comfortable. Hopefully I can race another GP and it’ll be different from this weekend, because twenty-two or twenty-six is not where I want to be.