Today in Assen (Netherlands), Emil Weckman increased his championship lead from Jack Bintcliffe with a race one win, ahead of tomorrow’s final race of the season.
The start of the race saw home-hero Mack Bouwense take the holeshot with Weckman just behind into the first corner, while Bintcliffe struggled to get off the line and found himself caught in the pack before losing time running wide in the second corner. At the end of the first lap Weckman had moved himself into the lead and remained there until the end, troubled only on the last lap by a recovering Bintcliffe, who managed to reduce a ten second deficit to only 0.894 seconds in the last three laps.
Alexis Collignon, Tim Edberg and David Robson also made strong starts on the man-made sand track. Although Collignon looked to be closing on Weckman in the first half of the race, none of the three could keep the same pace as the red plate holder. Edberg had a strong end to the race and pulled away from Collignon to take a decisive third place.
Henry Vesilind and Viking Lindstrom also rode well on the tricky surface to finish in sixth and seventh position respectively. The American Slade Tressler, who rode to his second highest position of the season, also had a strong result after a brief battle with Bouwense.
Emil Weckman now leads the championship with a gap of five points on Jack Bintcliffe. Tomorrow’s championship deciding race will start at 9.30 local time.
“I feel really good, the win today makes it a little easier for me in tomorrow’s race. I had a really good start in this race and I want to do the same tomorrow so I can hopefully get the Holeshot and be at the front”, said Emil Weckman.” I am not thinking about the championship so I am just going to be focusing on my own race and doing the best I can tomorrow”.
“It is great that the championship battle will be decided in the last race of the season”, commented Davy Dousselaere, Honda Europe off-road manager. “The riders have really impressed me here at Assen because it is a tricky track with the sand changing in every lap, but they all rode well and we had some good battles. Both Emil Weckman and Jack Bintcliffe have been very impressive today, they are able to cope with the pressure very well for their age and I think we are going to have a very exciting race tomorrow”.
Top five results:
1 – #25 Emil Weckman – FIN
2 – #11 Jack Bintcliffe – GBR
3 – #48 Tim Edberg – SWE
4 – #2 Alexis Collignon – FRA
5 – #26 Henry Vesilind – EST
