Friday 23 August: 524 riders entered in the event divided into 10 Championships:
Fontanesi dominates first WMX race at Matterley Basin.
The MXGP Festival started this morning with
the first race of the fourth round of the FIM Women’s Motocross World
Championship, as well as with the MX3 free and qualifying practices, the
Veterans World Cup race one and the Amateur Qualifying race. Chiara
Fontanesi dominated the first WMX race and Natalie Kane and Maghan
Rutledge were second and third. Klemen Gercar was the fastest MX3 rider,
whereas Mats Nilsson won the VMX race and Josh Waterman the Amateur
Qualfiying heat.
The WMX Race one started with Natalie Kane taking the holeshot and
leading the first lap, but a strong Chiara Fontanesi caught the Irish
rider by the end of the first lap and she overtook her and managed to
lead the race until the chequered flag. Natalie Kane tried to follow
Fontanesi, and although her lap times were really good, she crossed the
finish line twenty-two seconds behind the Italian.
Meghan Rutledge was a little bit disappointed with her performance today
because she was not able to race with the front group. The Australian
managed to be third by the end of the first lap but a mistake saw her
droping one position, which later on recuperated and finished third
ahead of Stephanie Laier.
The former WMX World Champion stalled her bike right before the gate
dropped, so she started almost from the last position. However, Laier
was able to get a really good rhythm to move up to the third position.
In the end Rutledge overtook her, but Laier has proved today that she
can be fighting for the victory if she gets a good start. Britt Van der
Wekken rode a strong race and she finished fifth.
In MX3 red plate holder Klemen Gercar was the fastest of the Qualifying
practice, and Martin Michek and Matthias Walkner obtained the second and
third best lap time of the session. In the Veterans race Mats Nilsson
went out with the victory, ahead of Christoph Lackner and Ed Bradley.
However, home rider Phil Mercer exchanged the lead with Nilsson since
the beginning of the heat, but he crashed with three laps to go and he
was only able to crosh the finish line in the seventh position.
The Amateur riders took part in the Qualifying race and Josh Waterman
dominated it from beginning to end. Second was James Dodd and Jake
Millward completed the top three. All the Amateur riders will give it
all in tomorrow’s final race because they will be racing to win the
prize money that Monster Energy will hand to the top three riders. On
top of that Stocktock will also give some high-tech gadgets to all the
participants.