The Italian Junior MX National Finals kicked off in Monterosato di Fermo. With the arrival of Gennaro Utech in the team, who joined Davide Paglialunga, there were two riders competing in this first final.
It was two days of great heat, that of Fermo, that put the riders and the organisers to the test, but in the end everything went well, to the great satisfaction of all.
Saturday was dedicated to time trials to determine the best times for the Group A heats. Gennaro’s performance was excellent, riding his TM 125 and achieving the second fastest time in his group. For Davide there was nothing to be done, his 29th group time relegated him to the Group B heats.
The first heat of the excluded group took place late on Saturday afternoon and Davide had a bad start, crashing and finding himself practically at the back of the group from the first bars. His comeback brought him up to 19th place. On Sunday morning Group B opened the programme with the second run. Davide had a better start and immediately found himself close to the top ten. He stayed there for most of the race and finished in 12th place.
Gennaro started the first race in Group A and was in the middle of the pack from where he began his comeback. Unfortunately, on the third lap, when he was close to the top ten, he crashed and dropped several places. The resulting comeback took him from 22nd to 13th place at the chequered flag.
In the second race he had a better start and was tenth on the first lap. In the first laps he managed to move up to sixth place, but in the second part of the race he lost a few positions and finished eighth.
With these results Gennaro occupies ninth position in the championship, but he will have to do better in the next round at Ponte a Egola (PI) on 5th and 6th October, as his speed is definitely better.
MATTIA SERAFINI (Team Manager): It was a positive first final. Gennaro has been with us for less than a month and we need all the development work on the bike to have a perfect feeling. Bad luck limited him a little in the first race with a couple of crashes that forced him to recover. In race two things went better and at times he was able to ride with the fastest group. We will certainly take advantage of the time between the two finals – Ponte a Egola is practically a month away – to try and be at our best. We know that Gennaro can be with the strongest, but we have to be ready and work on the starts.
For Davide the discourse is different, this is a year for him to gain a lot of experience in a championship that he has never faced in full. These finals will be very useful for him to improve in many aspects and to be at a good level next season. I would like to thank all the guys in the team who work so hard both at the races and in the company during the week to prepare as well as possible. See you in Ponte a Egola more charged up than ever!
