Next up for the Gabriel SS24 KTM team was Round fifteen of the MXGP world championship took place at Uddevalla, Sweden, and was accompanied by round eight of the EMX250 series.
In EMX250 Cas Valk took pole position in timed qualifying. Starting race one in 4th he went onto make the pass for second by lap 5. He was applying the pressure on the leader Lata when on lap 12, Lata crashed with a back marker. Luckily Cas was able to avoid the fallen riders and capitalise on this mistake to take the race win. With track crews working on the track overnight and watering it heavily Sunday formed differently for race two. With Cas not getting a good start, coming through the field would be key, but with how the track developed, it was very hard to pass on. Cas gradually made his way up the order to finish in 6th place, falling just short of a podium finish for 4th overall. He remains second in the championship with 3 rounds to go.
Cas: “Overall a positive weekend for me with a good Saturday taking pole position and winning race one, race 2 was a bit more difficult after I messed up the start and it was not easy to pass riders, really looking forward to Arnhem to be riding in the MX2 again!”
With many of the tracks this year being new to Josh Uddevalla proved difficult to find the right bike set up on the hard gritty conditions. He had 22nd in timed qualification and 21st in the RAM qualifying race. With the selection of middle gates he would get pushed to the outside in both motos. In race one, he had some good battles but slipped off, losing all of his momentum and finishing 28th. With a few changes he was eager for redemption in race two, but the start did not go his favour and he had to come from the back. With a better feeling than in race one he found some crucial lines for passes and started ticking off the riders and by the end of the moto managed to get back up to 23rd. Despite the results not being what he had hoped for Josh feels his shoulder is getting its strength back and he can push to be back in contention for points where he knows he can be.
Josh: “I feel like this weekend should have been much better than the results we got! Unfortunately a crash in moto 1 and in moto 2 had a terrible start after making some poor decisions in the first couple corners which made for a tough day on the one lined track. Back to work this week to get ready for Arnhem!”
Team Manager Shaun Simpson: “Looking at the bigger picture it was a positive weekend. Cas took one Moto win on Saturday and we didn’t lose any points in the EMX250 championship fight with three rounds to go. Josh showed some good speed and fight on Saturday, another good step in the right direction. We need to keep working on our starts and aggression. Motivated already for next weekend in Arnhem.”
Words by Gabriel SS24 KTM – Images by Ray Archer
