The round of Flanders in Lommel saw the 7th round of the EMX125 presented by FMF Racing and the unique round of the EMXOpen. The competition raged over two days on the technical sand track, and the two classes delivered an outstanding show for the large Belgian public present. The two races in each category run over Saturday and Sunday which saw a complete change of weather making it even more challenging for the riders.
In EMX125 presented by FMFM Racing, it was Red Plate MJC Yamaha Official EMX125’s Janis Reisulis who won his second round in a row in front of the surprising and strong Kassimir Hindersson who got his first podium and the consistent second in the Championship, 737 Performers GASGAS’s Mathis Valin who finished third.
In EMXOpen, Tech32’s Pierre Goupillon came out victorious in front of Miro Sivhonen solid second and Ken Bengston who managed to finish on the third step of the podium.
In race 1, Domantas Jazdauskas took a great start and the lead in front of Pierre Goupillon and Karel Kutsar. Kutsar was not ready to wait long behind Goupillon as he made a successful move on lap 2 of 14 to go 2nd. Jazdauskas looked composed and relaxed at the lead but on lap 4 Kutsar pushed hard to find a space to overtake. He finally made the pass on lap 4 and took the lead to never give it up and win the race.
Goupillon looked comfortable on the tough track and dived in on the inside of Jazdauskas on lap 4 to go 2nd. The French rider looked good but Miro Sihvonen was closing in on him as he was charging forward from the beginning of the race from 6th place on lap 1. On lap 10, Sivhnonen made his speed talk and passed Goupillon to go 2nd. Sivhonen finished 2nd in the end while Goupillon settled for 3rd.
Ken Bengston had a solid race as he displayed a lot of determination to go from 12th on lap 1 to finish 4th which gave him great chances of podium. Behind him Sven Van Der Mierden was another great performer as he fought his way up to finish 5th from 10th on lap 1.
The first Belgian of the race, Yentel Mertens got a great start and passed the line of the first lap in 4th position and managed to ride consistently within the top 10 to finish 7th in the end. SM ACTION RACING TEAM YUASA Battery ‘s Cornelius Toendel didn’t have the best start as he found himself 19th on lap 1 but managed to finish 12th in the end.
Race 2 didn’t go as expected for Kutsar who fell on the first turn, broke his goggles and got an issue with his bike. Kutsar kept going for a good part of the race but had to unfortunately retire on lap 11 of 14, missing on a podium that was really reachable.
However, Goupillon took his chance to take the lead from the start and quickly edged away. No one could match his pace and Goupillon was destined to cruise to victory to go 3-1 and win the EMXOpen.
Behind him, a great battle for the 2nd place raged between Bengston and Sivhonen from lap 4 until the end. Before that, Davy Pootjes was racing perfectly in 3rd position but then crashed on lap 4 and had to retire with bike problems. Sivhonen pushed behind Bengston for a while but Bengston seemed to hold his ground well.
However, Bengston made some mistakes, nearly falling down a couple of times as he probably felt under pressure. Sivhonen nearly went off track as he tried to push for the 2nd place. These mistakes allowed Van Der Mierden to join the battle as the Dutch fought for a spot on the podium too. Van Der Mierden tried to force his way past Sivhonen but the Finnish defended well. In the end, Sivhonen showed great speed to make a pass stick on Bengston to move up to 2nd while Bengston settled for 3rd. Van Der Mierden could not manage to overtake these riders in front of him and ended in 4th place and unfortunately just outside of the podium.
With an excellent 2-2 Sivhonen deserved his spot on the second step of the podium with an incredible consistency while Bengston went 4-3 for 3rd overall rewarding his great comeback in race 1.
Martens showed great determination and talent to go from 13th on lap 1 to quickly move up to 5th on lap 4. The Belgian stayed in this position until the end to get 5th overall.
Pierre Goupillon: “It is a perfect weekend. I took the Holeshot in the first race and finished third but I had a good feeling. Today, I’m so happy, it was the same with the Holeshot and this time I raced all race long at the lead and I win the EMXOpen which is so amazing for me. I really want to thanks all my sponsors, my family, my team and everyone for everything!”
EMXOpen – Race 1 – Top 10 Classification: 1. Karel Kutsar (EST, KTM), 31:47.786; 2. Miro Sihvonen (FIN, Husqvarna), +0:09.251; 3. Pierre Goupillon (FRA, KTM), +0:11.913; 4. Ken Bengtson (SWE, GASGAS), +0:15.085; 5. Sven Van der Mierden (NED, GASGAS), +0:26.083; 6. Gert Krestinov (EST, Honda), +0:27.443; 7. Yentel Martens (BEL, Honda), +0:28.290; 8. Micha-Boy De Waal (NED, GASGAS), +0:35.922; 9. Jakub Teresak (CZE, Husqvarna), +0:40.518; 10. Lukas Platt (GER, KTM), +0:42.192
EMXOpen – Race 2 – Top 10 Classification: 1. Pierre Goupillon (FRA, KTM), 31:31.776; 2. Miro Sihvonen (FIN, Husqvarna), +0:06.983; 3. Ken Bengtson (SWE, GASGAS), +0:13.165; 4. Sven Van der Mierden (NED, GASGAS), +0:27.050; 5. Yentel Martens (BEL, Honda), +0:31.961; 6. Tim Koch (GER, Husqvarna), +0:37.195; 7. Micha-Boy De Waal (NED, GASGAS), +0:55.153; 8. Tomas Kohut (SVK, KTM), +1:07.058; 9. Cato Nickel (GER, KTM), +1:07.489; 10. Domantas Jazdauskas (LTU, KTM), +1:10.623
EMXOpen – Overall
EMXOpen – Championship Top 10 Classification: 1. Pierre Goupillon (FRA, KTM), 45 points; 2. Miro Sihvonen (FIN, HUS), 44 p.; 3. Ken Bengtson (SWE, GAS), 38 p.; 4. Sven Van der Mierden (NED, GAS), 34 p.; 5. Yentel Martens (BEL, HON), 30 p.; 6. Micha-Boy De Waal (NED, GAS), 27 p.; 7. Gert Krestinov (EST, HON), 25 p.; 8. Karel Kutsar (EST, KTM), 25 p.; 9. Tim Koch (GER, HUS), 23 p.; 10. Tomas Kohut (SVK, KTM), 23 p
EMXOpen – Manufacturers Classification: 1. KTM, 50 points; 2. Husqvarna, 44 p.; 3. GASGAS, 38 p.; 4. Honda, 31 p.; 5. Yamaha, 9 p.;
In race 1, Janis Reisulis got the best start and took the lead in front of Fantic Factory Team Maddii’s Maximilian Werner and a surprising Saku Mansikkamäki. Mathis Valin was 4th on lap 1 and made early charges on Mansikkamäki on lap 2 of 13 to go 3rd and kept going a lap later to overtake Werner to move up to 2nd on lap 3. On lap 4, Valin started to get close to Reisulis at the lead when he crashed and move down to 4th. Reisulis was then never worried about riders behind him and went on to win the race comfortably.
Valin had to do it all over again, and he did it over the course of two laps as he managed to overtake Mansikkamäki and Werner to go 2nd and never let that place until the end. Werner also kept a strong pace to finish 3rd in the end with another solid performance for the German. The front three in the Championship topped their race.
Following a great start, Mansikkamäki was still 4th on lap 9 but unfortunately fell down and missed on his season’s best finish to go 14th in the end. RFME GASGAS MXJunior Team’s Francisco Garcia had the pace on that race as he found himself 5th on lap 1 and moved up to 4th on lap 8 after passing Mansikkamäki. He had momentum when his bike let him go while he was chasing after Werner on lap 9. Garcia unfortunately had to retire from the race.
Vitezslav Marek was one rider who didn’t many mistakes and stayed consistent to gradually gain positions. In the end he finished in 4th position. A great battle lasted during the whole race between Kasimir Hindersson and Fantic Factory Team Maddii’s Elias Escandell. Hindersson got the best of Escandell on lap 2 top move up to 6th when he made a mistak and picked himself up in10th place. Escandell was 7th on lap 4 when Hindersson made up the gap by overtaking 2 riders to put pressure on him. On lap 6 Hindersson was the quickest and made the pass stick to go 7th. However, Escandell made some great moves to overtake again on lap 9. Both gained a position with Garcia retiring from the race and Escandell was riding well in 5th position when Hindersson came back for more on the very last lap to make one last successful charge. Hindersson finished 5th while Escandell settled for 6th.
Maximilian Ernecker made a great comeback going from 20th on lap 1 to finish at an excellent 7th place while WZ Racing Team’s Gyan Doensen had a similar start to finish 13th on his part.
In Race 2, Werner took a blistering start and took the lead in front of Valin and Garcia while Reisulis got stuck in the traffic and found himself 11th after the first corners. Reisulis rapidly came back to 6th on the turn of lap 1 of 13 but it was Hindersson, 4th on lap 1, who had the best momentum as he quickly capitalised on Valin and Garcia’s mistakes on lap 2 and 3 respectively to move up to 2nd. On lap 6, Hindersson kept charging and caught up with Werner. The young German didn’t protect his lead enough and Hindersson saw the opportunity to charge on the inside and take the lead. Leading a race for the first time this season Hindersson kept his composure very well and continued on the same pace to win his first race and climb on the second march of the podium with a 5-1.
Reisulis followed Hindersson and showed why he is the Championship leader with an excellent and mature race. Reisulis overtook Werner on lap 7 and strongly finished 2nd to go 1-2, winning the overall and his second round in a row after Germany. For Werner things got bad to worse when he got overtaken by the excellent Garcia and JK Racing Yamaha’s Nicolai Skovberg leaving him in 5th place and missing out on the 3rd overall to the combative Valin.
After his good 2nd place in race 1, Valin got a great start and found himself 2nd on lap 1 but as in the first race, Valin crashed and moved down to 6th and had to do work hard to get back to the top. And it proved hard to do with Escandell defending superbly in 5th place. Escandell unfortunately crashed and was disqualified to accept outside assistance but Valin could still not find a way to pass Skovbjerg first on lap 9 and then Werner until the end of the race. However, with Werner down to 5th, Valin managed to get on the podium with a 2-6 to finish 3rd overall while Werner finish 4th overall.
Garcia and Skovbjerg displayed great performances. Garcia managed to stay consistent the whole race and had to battle with Skovbjerg for 3rd over the last 4 laps. Skovbjerg pulled an incredible race as he went from 18th on lap 1 to make his way up to 4th behind Garcia on lap 10. Skovbjerg thought he did the hardest when he took the inside of Garcia to go 3rd on lap 12 but Garcia answered straight back to get his spot back on the last lap. Garcia finished 3rd for 9th overall while Skovberg ended the race 4th to go 8-4 and 5th overall.
Janis Reisulis: It was a good, consistent and tough weekend for me at the same time. Maybe not the speed and physical strength that I wanted but we managed the overall win. I am really happy for Kasimir (Hindersson) who was the real killer today. But otherwise, it’s my second win here in Lommel, can we do the third win in EMX250? We’ll see!”
EMX125 Presented by FMF Racing – Race 1 – Top 10 Classification: 1. Janis Martins Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), 30:29.057; 2. Mathis Valin (FRA, GASGAS), +0:14.624; 3. Maximilian Werner (GER, Fantic), +0:41.036; 4. Vitezslav Marek (CZE, KTM), +0:43.197; 5. Kasimir Hindersson (FIN, KTM), +0:54.301; 6. Elias Escandell (ESP, Fantic), +1:00.142; 7. Maximilian Ernecker (AUT, GASGAS), +1:02.768; 8. Nicolai Skovbjerg (DEN, Yamaha), +1:04.873; 9. Noel Zanocz (HUN, KTM), +1:06.290; 10. Douwe Van Mechgelen (BEL, Husqvarna), +1:08.331
EMX125 Presented by FMF Racing – Race 2 – Top 10 Classification: 1. Kasimir Hindersson (FIN, KTM), 31:08.999; 2. Janis Martins Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), +0:09.388; 3. Francisco Garcia (ESP, GASGAS), +0:09.744; 4. Nicolai Skovbjerg (DEN, Yamaha), +0:14.547; 5. Maximilian Werner (GER, Fantic), +0:25.739; 6. Mathis Valin (FRA, GASGAS), +0:31.206; 7. Mads Fredsoe (DEN, KTM), +0:35.620; 8. Gyan Doensen (NED, KTM), +0:52.486; 9. Noel Zanocz (HUN, KTM), +1:01.639; 10. Cole McCullough (IRL, KTM), +1
EMX125 Presented by FMF Racing – Overall
EMX125 Presented by FMF Racing – Championship Top 10 Classification: 1. Janis Martins Reisulis (LAT, YAM), 313 points; 2. Mathis Valin (FRA, GAS), 282 p.; 3. Maximilian Werner (GER, FAN), 220 p.; 4. Vitezslav Marek (CZE, KTM), 208 p.; 5. Elias Escandell (ESP, FAN), 194 p.; 6. Francisco Garcia (ESP, GAS), 191 p.; 7. Mads Fredsoe (DEN, KTM), 166 p.; 8. Noel Zanocz (HUN, KTM), 141 p.; 9. Gyan Doensen (NED, KTM), 130 p.; 10. August Frisk (SWE, KTM), 108 p
EMX125 Presented by FMF Racing – Manufacturers Classification: 1. Yamaha, 319 points; 2. GASGAS, 311 p.; 3. Fantic, 261 p.; 4. KTM, 253 p.; 5. Husqvarna, 145 p.;
