Bike It Kawasaki MX2 Racing Team’s Jack Chambers and Bobby Bruce each displayed top-ten pace in the Portuguese mud but had little reward at the end of the day in the fifth round of the FIM World MX2 Motocross Championship at Agueda.
Chambers had to come from nineteenth on the first lap of race one as he displayed persistence in atrocious weather with mud, rain and ruts to advance to eleventh. He was looking good for his best result of the season in race two as he held a secure seventh place early on but a nasty crash which left him trapped under his own bike did not deter him from rejoining the race for a fifteenth-placed finish which secured thirteenth overall. He is now fourteenth in the series standings.
Jack Chambers: “This track was gnarly; puddles everywhere and long deep ruts with holes you couldn’t even see at the end of them. I’ve ridden GNCC Cross-country in the States but nothing like this. It was a mud festival; just a matter of survival. I made good progress for eleventh in race one and was running sixth/seventh together with my teammate Bobby in race two with good pace until each of us came unstuck. I had one big crash when I got stuck under the bike and banged my knee but I kept going for fifteenth.”
Bruce made good starts in both motos and ran in good positions each time until the track claimed him. Eleventh at the first timing-split in race one, he crashed downfield on lap two but dug deep to finish nineteenth. A tremendous start and good speed saw the English youngster hold sixth place for three laps of race two before the mud grabbed him again but he again battled on to finish seventeenth. Quentin Marc Prugnières rode two consistent races on another Kawasaki, avoiding costly stops to finish seventh overall from ninth- and sixth-placed moto finishes.
