Jack Bintcliffe (in the photo) stormed away from the pack to take race one victory at the sun-bathed Czech Republic track Loket, despite Emil Weckman taking the holeshot.
Both Bintcliffe and Weckman made good starts on the run into the tricky first corner, which sees the track make a tight left hand turn up hill, while the rest of pack bunched together. Tim Edberg unfortunately lost out in this first corner when the field of riders took the tight line and he was left with nowhere to go, which resulted in a small crash that relegated the young German to last but one before he could get going again.
Bintcliffe and Weckman quickly pulled away from the rest of the field and managed to maintain their pace and the gap until the chequered flag. Despite Weckman trying his hardest, the young Finn was unable to close the gap to Bintcliffe. In the closing laps of the race Bintcliffe’s confidence was plain to see with large jumps and quick turns, which earned him a 10.6 second gap over Weckman at the finish line.
The battle for third place between Albin Larsen, Hakon Fredrikson and Viking Lindstrom lasted all race, with the three riders within touching distance of each other for most of it. At the chequered flag it was Larsen who came out on top taking the third place.
Despite his first corner incident, Tim Edberg was on top form throughout the race and managed to make his way through the field to come away with eleventh place and some vital points. The South African wild car rider Keegan Hickson Mahoney was also able to take some points as he finished behind Yago Martinez. HIckson Mahoney chased hard to pass the young Spaniard but was unable to find his way past the talented youngster.
Yusaku Tanaka had a good European debut, running in the top ten for the majority of the race. Unfortuntely for the young Japanese rider, who has made the trip to the Czech Republic specifically to compete in the Honda 150 European Championship, is not used to the large amount of elevation changes a European track can feature and a couple of small crashes towards the end of the moto cost him a top ten finish.
Jack Bintcliffe #11
“It feels amazing to get this win and the track was awesome, it really flowed. There was some rain last night but I think it made the track better; it had more grip and there were some more ruts so it was really good. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll get another good start, get the holeshot and just have a good race and win. Emil Weckman came second so that’s good for him but I’m catching him up now so that’s really good.”
Davy Dousselaere – Honda Europe off-road manager
“Today we had another very good race from the young riders and they tackled this tricky track exceeding well. Both Jack Bintcliffe and Emil Weckman had very strong races and have earned themselves a lot of points today. Our two wildcard riders for this event Keegan Hickson Mahoney and Yusaku Tanaka also had good races and both scored points. I am particularly impressed with Tanaka who has come from a Japanese national championship where the tracks a little different to Europe. For sure, it will be interesting tomorrow to see who will be on the podium.”
Top five results:
1 – #11 Jack Bintcliffe – GBR
2 – #25 Emil Weckman – FIN
3 – #3 Albin Larsen – SWE
4 – #23 Hakon Fredrikson – NOR
5 – #54 Viking Lindstrom – SWE
