After racing to back-to-back wins at rounds two and three of the 2024 FIM Flat Track World Championship powered by Anlas, Kineo, Blackburst and HKC Koopmann, super-experienced American rider Sammy Halbert leads as the series moves into its second half this coming Saturday (7 September) when the fourth round is staged at Morizès in France.
- Talented field assembles for round four of 2024 FIM Flat Track World Championship
- Series passes the halfway mark in south-west France
- Sammy Halbert heads the charge into Morizès on Saturday
In just his second season in the championship, the thirty-six-year-old former American Motorcyclist Association national champion from the Pacific Northwest is emerging as the rider everyone needs to beat following his initial campaign in 2023. Last season a pair of podium finishes – including victory at the final round – lifted him to seventh in the standings, but having got to grips with the learning curve that goes hand-in-hand with racing on a different continent he has now emerged as a serious title contender.
After finishing third when the 2024 series got under way at Boves-Cuneo in July, Halbert recorded victories in Meissen and King’s Lynn to open up an eight-point advantage over the Czech Republic’s defending champion Ervin Krajčovič (KTM) who backed up fourth at round one in Italy with consecutive second-placed finishes in Germany and Great Britain.
Britain’s Tim Neave (Yamaha) is another relative newcomer to the FIM Flat Track World Championship and in just his second season currently sits third, seven points behind the charging Czech. A former national-level road racer, Neave is still working on bike set-up although second place in Boves-Cuneo and a third on home dirt at King’s Lynn certainly indicate that he is heading in the correct direction after struggling to eleventh last year on an under-performing machine.
While the top three are threatening to distance the chasing pack, there is no shortage of title contenders just waiting for the ideal opportunity to step up to the challenge and at the forefront is Finland’s two-time champion Lasse Kurvinen (KTM).
Frustrated by red tape and injuries after shifting his focus to America, the forty-five-year-old – champion in 2020 and 2021 – returned to the series this season with immediate success when he won in Boves-Cuneo. Slipping to fifth and then eleventh at the subsequent two rounds has halted his momentum, but he is just four points behind Neave and remains very much in contention.
With the Czech Republic’s Ondřej Svědík (Yamaha) – who is currently lying eighth – not on the starting list for Morizès, no other rider in action on Saturday has made it onto the podium this season and the candidates for a top-three finish are queuing up, including 2022 champion Gerard Bailo (Zaeta) and the Italian pairing of Kevin Corradetti (GASGAS) who was second in 2021 and Matteo Boncinelli (Beta) who was third last year.
The first Heat at Morizès is scheduled to get under way at 16:00 local time on Saturday 7 September with the action streamed LIVE on FIM-MOTO.TV. To sign up click here. For more information click here.
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Words by FIM Flat Track – Images by Jesper Veldhuizen
