Introducing Petar Petrov

Petar Petrov - Christophe Desmet image for Youthstream.

Bulgarian rider Petar Petrov of the Kemea Reytec van de Laar Yamaha team heads into his home Grand Prix with a lot of confidence as he sits in 13th place in the 2013 FIM World MX2 Championship points. Petrov who is on 61 points after scoring 9-21 results in Italy last weekend will be looking to make a bigger points haul in Sevlievo, Bulgaria, this weekend.

Despite having some inconsistent results in the first three rounds this year Petrov is looking forward to racing at his home Grand Prix, knowing that he has the bike and team to help him get to the very front of the MX2 class.  
 
"I am really feeling good in the team," Petrov said. "Everybody is getting along great and working with team manager Marnicq Bervoets is really fun, I can learn a lot from him. The whole team is working very hard to get me as comfortable as possible. Having been 4 months off the bike, it was a bit difficult to get the feeling back, but I worked hard and feel it’s going in the right direction. This winter I went to Bulgaria to train and spend some time with my family. I had a great time and it was good to be over there and see everyone. It was an extra motivation to work even harder."  

Coming into the season Petrov knew it would be a challenge, racing outside of Europe at the very exotic countries of Qatar and Thailand. It was also something he looked forward to.  

"I was really looking forward to the weekend in Qatar. In the pre-season race in Valence my riding and fitness were quiet good. The results could have been a bit better as I got passed at the end in each race, but in the end I was happy with how I rode. I still feel I’m getting faster every time I go out on the bike. I was excited to take off to Qatar. It was a new venue and with a race under the lights it was very special. I was quite happy with my results. I finished 11th overall and I was just one point down for 10th place in the championship. It was very difficult in this warmth, and I was not 100% convinced with my physical condition. I know I have to work on my starts too. I have to say I really enjoyed the two first rounds of the MX2 Championship. The night race in Qatar was really cool and also in Thailand I had a great time."  

Having enjoyed the opening two rounds Petrov suffered big disappointment in round three in Valkenswaard, Holland, where he missed the chance to run up front after a crash in the early going.  

"I was so disappointed with the crash in the second race in Holland. I had a good start but in front of me riders started to struggle and I wanted to avoid them. I braked a little too hard, then crashed myself and got like 15 riders riding over me. Luckily nothing was broken but I did feel sore and like a train hit me some days later. Until then things were going really well. I felt really good on the Yamaha and I think I had the speed to battle for a top 5 place. Unfortunately that didn’t go as planned, then Italy was inconsistent for me. Now I will take it easy for some days before I start working hard again for the next race in Bulgaria."