The circuit of Lommel, in Belgium, hosted this weekend a new round of EMX 150.
Jack Bintcliffe put in an impressive performance that saw the young Brit dominate the first race in the deep sand of Lommel, moving him closer to the championship lead.
At the gate drop Bintcliffe got a great start that saw him take the holeshot and begin to pull away from the rest of the riders. Throughout the duration of the race he was able to build and maintain a gap that, at the end of race, was over twenty seconds to the second placed rider Emil Weckman, who currently leads the championship.
Weckman struggled to begin with and lost places at the start but was able to find his pace and move back up to fourth early on. The young Finn was then the centre of an intense battle with Alexis Collignon, Tim Edberg and Viking Lindstrom that lasted the majority of the moto.
Weckman and Collignon exchanged places a number of times while fighting for second and third and although Edberg and Lindstrom were exceedingly close behind, they managed to stay ahead. It looked like Weckman was going to be forced to accept third place, but on the final lap Collignon made a small error that not only allowed Weckman to cross the line with second but gifted third place to Viking Lindstrom, who had made his way past Edberg at three-quarter distance.
Jack Bintcliffe made his Lommel weekend point-perfect with another holeshot and race two victory. The first person to take two wins on the same weekend this year, Bintcliffe now sits two points behind current red plate holder Emil Weckman with only one round remaining.
A great start saw Bintcliffe lead into the first corner closely followed by Emil Weckman and Viking Lindstrom. The young Brit was quick to set fast lap times and move himself away from the chasing Finn. Weckman was able to stay within a few seconds of the #11 rider and was gifted the race lead with two laps to go when Bintcliffe had a small crash. An intense two laps followed with Bintcliffe unable to find a way past until the second half of the last lap.
It looked to be a repeat of yesterday’s results for the top three with Lindstrom running strongly in third. However, a small crash halfway through the race dropped the Swede to sixth behind Alexis Collignon. A strong recovery ride saw Lindstrom progress back up to third before a small mistake left him fifth at the finish line.
A bad start saw last week’s overall winner Albin Larsen struggle for position in the opening laps. Larsen soon found his rhythm on the particularly bumpy track and, after a good battle with Alexis Collignon and Lindstrom’s mistake, found himself third at the chequered flag.
The battle for the Honda 150 European Championship title concludes on 29-30 August with the final round at the MXGP of The Netherlands, Assen.
Jack Bintcliffe #11 – overall winner
“I’m over the moon with this weekend with two holeshots and two wins. I am just so happy with the result. I tried to keep really calm when the bike went down and when Emil went by I was struggling a little bit but I took some deep breaths and just stay with him and find somewhere to pass him. I think Assen is going to be a really hard race between me and Emil because we’re both going to be riding as hard as we can, but I’m going to try and go that bit harder and hopefully win.”
Top five overall results:
1 – #11 Jack Bintcliffe – GBR
2 – #25 Emil Weckman – FIN
3 – #2 Alexis Collignon – FRA
4 – #54 Viking Lindstrom – SWE
5 – #3 Albin Larsen – SWE
Top five championship standings:
1 – #25 Emil Weckman – 209pts
2 – #11 Jack Bintcliffe – 207pts
3 – #3 Albin Larsen – 192pts
4 – #48 Tim Edberg – 174pts
5 – #54 Viking Lindstrom – 169pts
Full results on FIM Europe website: http://www.fim-europe.eu/events/108
