The Gabriel SS24 KTm team headed to the final round of the Dutch Masters at the weekend. The red plate holder in MX2, Cas Valk, was joined at Markelo by Josh Gilbert in MX1, who had returned from injury.
Cas had the third quickest time in timed qualification and from this he was second off the start in race one. It was title rival Rick Elzinga with the holeshot and Cas fought hard throughout the whole moto trying to make the pass for the lead just coming up short to finish in second.
In race two Cas had a good start again and was applying the pressure to make the pass when he unfortunately crashed. He picked himself back up and worked hard for the remaining part of the moto in the hope to catch back up to the leaders, sadly he was not able and finished a respectful third. This gave Cas third overall on the day.
With title rival Elzinga finishing ahead of Cas in both Moto’s this meant he would clinch the title by 1 point and Cas would finish a still well deserved second overall in the series in his rookie year on the 250cc machine.
Returning to racing from injury Josh decided to join Cas at Markelo to get a race under his belt ahead of the British championship starting this coming weekend. In the MX1 class he qualified 10th after struggling slightly with the track conditions.
Lining up for race one alongside the likes of Herlings, Febvre and Vlaanderen Josh captured an impressive holeshot on board his KTM 450 SX-F. With Herlings crashing early on Josh settled in third for most of the race but arm pump started to set in and he wasn’t able to attack the track like he knew he could which got to him in the final laps of the race and finished 5th.
In race two Josh got another impressive start just narrowly missing out on the holeshot as he, Febvre and Vlaanderen came into the first corner side by side. A small altercation from Febvre saw him and Josh caught up on the first lap meaning Josh started the race in 10th. Despite this Josh had a better feeling with the track and gradually made the passes throughout the race to secure another 5th place finish for 5th overall.
The team will now prepare for round one of the Dirt Store ACU British Championship at Lyng on the 28th April.
Words by Gabriel SS24 KTM – Images by Niek Fotografie
