Moto Media

Fontanesi dominates first WMX race at Matterley Basin


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.