Bud Racing Kawasaki’s Mathis Valin maintained his thirteen-point lead in the FIM European EMX250 Championship with his fifth podium of the season in the seventh round of the series at Lommel in the Flanders region of north-eastern Belgium. In the meantime, Anthony Bourdon won the Supercross international of Carpi in Italy.
Mathis had already signalled his intentions as he posted the fastest time in Free Practice and he was only narrowly piped for Pole during Qualifying Practice. Excellent reactions at the start-gate of race one saw the Bud Kawasaki sweep through the opening turn of the first points-scoring moto of the weekend to take the holeshot before he was pushed off the track in a highly aggressive move by his main championship rival at turn three. Regrouping calmly in fourth he was third by the end of the lap, second on lap three and made a smart inside-pass in a deep sandy turn to retake the lead on lap five and win pretty easily this race. The track for race two was even tougher than it had been for race one on Saturday after the track crew had only worked on the faces of the jumps overnight and left the straights and corners at their most rugged. This inevitably favoured the local sand experts but the French teenager showed his maturity as he rode his own race rather than being tempted into duels with the locals, who have ridden such tracks from a young age, to maintain fourth place throughout the moto. This earnt third overall, on the same points as second and just a single point shy of the overall winner, to ensure that he retains the thirteen-point series lead which he held at the start of the weekend.
Teammate Benjamin Garib took a tenth-placed start from gate fifteen and maintained a top-ten ranking until a small slip pushed him back to twelfth on the final lap. Fourteenth for the first twelve minutes of the Sunday moto until he was forced to retire, the Chilean’s Saturday scoreline was sufficient to see him advance to twelfth in the series standings.
Mathis Valin: “We came in Belgium two weeks ago to train and prepare for this race in Lommel, and we got the reward. On Saturday in the first moto I took my time and when I found my rhythm I passed the two guys in front of me and made a gap. On Sunday I must admit that I was disappointed with my riding; I was fighting the track and that cost me some energy. I got a good start again, but I didn’t felt comfortable with the track. But normally this should be a learning year for me and I am still learning every weekend! The most important thing is that I have kept the red plate and I only lost one point to one of my main rivals this weekend. There are still four round to go, so now we go home to work to keep the red plate until the end of the series.”
Benjamin Garib: “I got a decent start and was running around tenth all moto; on the last lap I had a small crash trying to make a pass so I had to be content with twelfth. This is my first time at Lommel and it’s a cool experience even if I was forced to retire in the second moto.”
While his team mates were racing the Belgium sand, Anthony Bourdon got his first Supercross win of the season for the SX international of Carpi in Italy. Anthony had a very good night, winning his heat race and finishing 3/1 in the main events to grab the overall win.
