Who knew Swede’s were so fast in the sand? As of now, everyone knows after the dominating performance of Mafi Yamaha MX Team’s Alvin Östlund who rode impressively in the sandy chop of Lommel this weekend to go 1-1 for his first two moto victories of the year as well as his first ever EMX125 round victory. Although it was Östlund who took the cake this weekend, you can’t take anything away from the challenge in race two. Diga Racing’s young Latvian star on the rise Tomass Sileika took the holeshot and led the opening laps of the race, while an abundance of riders tailed him. With the entire top eight literally riding wheel to wheel around what is possibly the toughest circuit imaginable for a 125cc bike, the sand masters eventually emerged.
While early race leader Sileika battled to keep his KTM 125 rubber side down, Dutchman Bas Vaessen stepped in to give the race one winner and new race two leader Östlund some grief. After keeping Östlund on his toes for the first twenty minutes, Vaessen made a mistake out the back of the circuit and dropped back to fourth allowing SV Racing MX Team Russia’s Ivan Baranov and red plate holder Rockstar Energy Suzuki Europe’s Brian Hsu, who were in the thick of a battle of their own, to push forward and take over the second and third positions.
As Hsu continued to hound Baranov, Kemea Yamaha Racing’s Cyril Genot had closed in on Vaessen for fourth. Vaessen who appeared to be drained after his tremendous early race effort for the lead started making error after error that allowed the young Belgian Genot to go through. After a close call through the rhythm section with one lap to go, Vaessen lost yet another position to KTM Junior Academy Finland’s Miro Shivonen, who put in an extraordinary ride from outside the top twenty to come home in fifth. With the combined results of race one yesterday and race two today, Alvin Östlund was the clear round winner ahead of the newly crowned champion Brian Hsu and Dutch Bas Vaessen. Cyril Genot managed to seal the deal on fourth overall with Miro Shivonen rounding out the top five.
As for the championship, Hsu was crowned champion ahead of today’s victor Östlund while Red Bull KTM Racing’s injured rider Davy Pootjes still managed to take away third overall despite sitting out two of the rounds this season.
Download here FIM Europe Press Release 126/2014
