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Bernardini new European Champion in EMX300 in Lommel (Belgium)

fim europe We’ve reached the seventh and final round of the European Championship EMX300 series and the sound of twenty-six 300cc two strokes ripping around a track still sounds as mint as it did at the first round of the championship back in April this year. When the gates dropped for the final race of the season, the newly crowned EMX300 champion TM Racing Team’s Samuele Bernardini carried that same momentum he’s been carrying all championship long around turn one with yet another holeshot. Although it appeared the Italian would check out as he set the fastest lap of the race on lap one putting a three second cushion on yesterday’s fastest rider GL12 Racing’s Lewis Gregory, he threw it away with a high side on lap two which dropped him back to tenth. Gregory exhibiting that same aggression and intensity he showed in race one yesterday afternoon was quick to capitalize on Bernardini’s mistake.

While Gregory managed to put a slight buffer on the rest of the pack which temporarily teased him with a grasp on the overall round victory, one of the early season championship favorites Wilvo Forkrent KTM’s Kenny Van Dueren had caused an uproar from the ecstatic Belgian crowd as he came under attack from fellow Belgian’s Mike Van Der Straeten and Sven Scheynen. Van Der Straeten, clearly no stranger to the terrain here in Lommel as he was the winner of the ‘Rookie Cup’ back in 2009, started clicking off a series of consistently fast laps and was soon pressuring Gregory for the lead. With a quarter of the race to go, Van Der Straeten dropped the hammer and made the pass into first forcing Gregory to ploy a response. Gregory, who was hungrier than ever for the overall victory, started pushing a little harder as he tried to find an answer to the incursion of Van Der Straeten. One lap later, Gregory hit a kicker over the finish line and cartwheeled it allowing Van Der Straeten to jet away for his first ever European Championship race and overall victory.

With Gregory fortunate enough to re-mount and finish without loosing a position, Van Dueren crossed the line in an unchallenged third. Now with all seven rounds of the European Championship EMX300 in the bag, TM Racing Team’s Samuele Bernardini was the clear champion while fellow Italian Team Maddii Racing’s Marco Maddii put together a consistent season for second ahead of GL12 Racing’s Lewis Gregory.

 

 Download here FIM Europe Press Release 128/2014