The first round of the European Championship EMX125 presented by FMF Racing and the second round of the European Championship EMX250 finished up this morning on the dark sand of Valkenswaard. With over 170 entries between the two classes, KTM DIGA Junior Racing’s Miro Sihvonen was the best rider on the track in EMX250 and Ice One Racing Husqvarna’s Mikkel Haarup was by far the fastest of the 125cc riders, both scored the overall with 1-1 results.
Photo @Youthstream – The podium of EMX250
EMX250
One week after his third place podium finish in Trentino KTM DIGA Junior Racing’s Miro Sihvonen started race 1 in 6th but he made several passes including the most important one on F&H Racing Team’s Ruben Fernandez for the lead with only two laps remaining, Fernandez kept Sihvonen in sight but he finished 2nd. In Race 2 Sihvonen won again but Fernandez finished 25th scoring no championship points and placing 8th overall.
Dutch rider Nick Kouwenberg placed 3rd in Race 1 after starting in 7th passing several riders including Round of Trentino’s Race 2 winner, Morgan Lesiardo. Race 2 started slightly better for Kouwenberg, he was 5th on the first lap and again he made some passes to get himself to 3rd. Kouwenberg’s impressive 3-3 were consistent enough for second overall in front of his home crowd.
Morgan Lesiardo’s 4th in race 1 was his better finish of the two races with a 10th in race 2. The 4-10 surprisingly secured him the podium being the third best results in the class.
Nichlas Bjerregaard and iFly JK Racing’s Ken Bengtson were another example of how consistency pays off. The two didn’t necessarily have any remarkable race performances but their ability to place in the top ten twice in one weekend is proving to be a feat of its own. Bengtson’s 6th and 9th put him 4th overall and Bjerregaard’s 10-7 achieved the 5th overall.
Last week’s winner Yamaha SM Action’s Simone Furlotti is now third in the points after finishing 11th overall going 18-6 here at Valkenswaard.
Another member of the top 5 riders in the championship is ASTES4-Tesar Yamaha’s Karlis Sabulis. Sabulis was 5th in race 1 but he had issues in race 2 where he scored no points and finished 22nd.
Last year’s EMX 300 Presented by FMF Racing Champion, GL12 Racing’s Mike Kras also struggled scoring a consistent result. The two-stroke rider placed a disappointing 20th in Race 1 before his impressive rebound in race 2 to 5th for 12th overall.
Photo @Youthstream – The podium of EMX125EMX125
At the first round of the European Championship EMX125 presented by FMF Racing, Ice One Racing Husqvarna’s Mikkel Haarup had two impressive races over the two days, with a pair of decent starts he moved into the lead quickly during both races. He won race 1 on Saturday by over 13 seconds and on Sunday doubled his gap to win by 26 seconds.
Behind Haarup in race 1 it was Tim Edberg who battled with BUD Racing Monster Energy’s Brian Strubhart Moreau in which Edberg came out ahead.
Sunday was not as fortunate for Edberg though as he would instead battle for 6th with Alessandro Manucci all the way to the finish. Manucci finished 7th over but ended up holding off Edberg and denying him of the final spot on the podium which would instead go to Jesyk Racing Team’s Sergi Notario.
Moreau however improved his 3rd place finish from Saturday to a hard fought 2nd today. Moreau was in a race of his own for second the first half of Race 2 but was later pressured by Creymert Racing’s Kevin Horgmo, the battle for second was fierce but Horgmo couldn’t find a way past and eventually he finished 3rd, combined with his 10th on Saturday Horgmo rounded out the top 5 with 5th overall.
Last year Gianluca Facchetti finished 4th in the championship, he now leaves this weekend with a 6 overall result after 6th Saturday and 5th today. Facchetti was 5th on the first lap of race 2 before being passed by Horgmo, he later found his way back into the top 5 when he got fellow Italian Manucci on lap 6.
2016 EMX85cc Champion Rene Hofer finished 9th in Race 1 and looked like he was going to improve on the result in race 2 as he had a strong ride and battled for 7th. Hofer made an error and went down where he struggled to get going again, he eventually picked himself up in 12th before fighting his back to a 10th place finish, good enough for 9th overall.
2016 Honda EMX150 Champion and now JTECH Suzuki Valenti rider Emil Weckmann didn’t have the weekend he was hoping for, the 125cc rookie finished a decent 13th in Race 1 but his 21st place today put him 17th overall.
Full results on FIM Europe website: http://www.fim-europe.eu/events/319
