The Youngest European riders protagonists of day two at Matterley Basin
Saturday 23 August: Today Matterley Basin was busy all day long hosting the first sessions of the EMX European Championships, as well as the Final race of the Amateurs.
The Youngest European riders protagonists of day two at Matterley Basin - Covington and Seewer battling for the lead.
Filippo Grigoletto became the Honda EMX150
champion and Josh Waterman won the Amateur class, whereas Raivo Dankers
and Conrad Mewse won the 65cc and 85cc qualifying races. Valentin
Guillod and Thomas Covington won the EMX250 Semi Finals, and Pauls Jonas
and Anton Lundgren dominated the EMX125 Semi Final heats.
EMX250
Group A’s Semi Final saw Valentin Guillod taking the holeshot and
dominating the heat until the chequered flag, whereas Benoit Paturel
rode a consistent moto in second. Steven Clarke had a bad start but he
managed to move up to the third position, ahead of Thomas Olsen and
Jorge Zaragoza.
In Group B’s Semi Final all the eyes were on the incredible battle that
American Thomas Covington and Swiss Jeremy Seewer had during the whole
race. Ben Watson took the holeshot, but in the early stages of the race
the American and the Swiss took control of the lead and opened a big gap
with the rest of the riders. Covington managed to keep Seewer’s
pressure during the whole race and he finished first, but Seewer did an
incredible job trying to overtake the American until the very last jump.
Damon Graulus was fifth after the start, but he managed to cross the
finish line third, and Brian Bogers and Micha-Boy De Waal were fourth
and fifth respectively.
EMX125
The red plate holder of the EMX125 series, Pauls Jonass, dominated Group
A’s Semi Final and Nicolas Dercourt crossed the finish line second
after having started in the third position. Third was David Herbreteau,
and Brian Hsu and Filip Podmol completed the top five.
In Group B’s Semi Final Calvin Vlaanderen took the holeshot and
dominated the first laps, but a strong Anton Lundgren managed to move up
to the lead and both riders exchanged the first position several times.
Lundgren managed to open a comfortable gap in the lead, but the Swedish
made a mistake with two laps to go and he lost the lead. However, he
managed to recuperate himself very quickly and he passed Vlaanderen back
and he won the race. Mika Kordbarlag was third, and Frederik Van Der
Vlist and Henry Jacoby rounded out the top five.
EMX85
The EMX85cc riders took part in the qualifying race and it was former
65cc Junior World Champion Jorge Prado who took the holeshot. However,
the current 85cc Junior World Champion Conrad Mewse took the lead
already in the first lap and he crossed the finish line with a
comfortable fourteen seconds gap from Prado. Glen Meier from Denmark
gave it all to overtake Prado, but he had to settle down with the third
place, and Gianluca Facchetti and Jakub Terasak completed the top five.
EMX65
Raivo Dankers dominated the EMX65 qualifying race from beginning to end
and he is one of the favourite contenders to win the 65cc European title
tomorrow. Anton Nagy from Sweden, who was second in the 65cc Junior
World Championship, crossed the finish line second, and Rene Hofer from
Austria and Italian Kevin Cristino were third and fourth. Russian Nikita
Kucherov was fourth after the start, but he dropped one position and he
finished fifth of the qualifying race.