After spending the week training in nearby Belgium the team made the short trip across the border into Holland for the GP of Valkenswaard.?Pre-qualifying practice ended with Karro with 19th pick of the gate for the afternoon qualifying race, with Parker in 30th.
Qualifying Race?Parker rounded the first corner in 22nd with Karro, who had been hampered on the start straight, a few places further back. Both riders moved through he field and after a few laps Parker was up to 16th with Karro looking for a way past in 17th, but after switching lines in an attempt to make the pass Karro got it all wrong, flew over the bars and parked his rear end on a post. Parker was still looking good, but made a mistake of his own, dropping him well down the field, but after initially losing his rhythm he rallied to finish in 30th.
Race1.?Karro & Parker both made good starts from their outside gate picks and came round in 16th & 17th respectively. Parker started to drop back & suddenly pulled into the pits with a clutch malfunction, his race over. Karro was battling with Leok when he missed a rut and went down. After restarting in 21st he settled into a rhythm and pushed right to the end of the race to finish strongly for a hard fought 15th.
Race2.?Not such a good start in race 2 with both riders getting held up on the second corner, leaving Parker in 25th & Karro even further back in 28th but they were soon on the move and Karro in particular on a mission. After moving through to 20th Parker hit the deck with his machine left upside down. After picking it back up again he rejoined only for his bike to seize after losing it’s oil whilst being upside down. Karro, by mid-race was up in the top 15 and was still riding brilliantly and as the race drew to a close he blew past another five competitors to finish in a remarkable 10th for 12th overall.
Nez, “what can I say, just awful. The clutch went in the first race and I crashed in the 2nd and lost the oil and seized the bike. I’m riding well but can’t keep it upright for the full race. The good thing is know I’ m quick enough to finish in the points.”
Matiss” after a disastrous Saturday I still ended up with a great result. I had a little crash in the first one but still got 15th and in the second got top ten which I’m really happy with. My winter training with Kaspers really paid off today and I felt very strong. The bike was great as well.”
Team Manager, Steve Turner “after his crash yesterday and the obvious pain Matiss was in I can’t believe how strong he was today and in the second race he just never stopped moving forward. To catch and pass factory riders like Leok & Boog is no mean feat. Absolutely superb effort from him. Nez definitely has the pace to score points but these weekends are so tough. You have to put everything together to get a result at a GP.”
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