It was a steady weekend at round eighteen of the FIM world championship and round ten of the EMX50 series in Afyonkarahisar – Turkey for the Gabriel SS24 KTM team
In EMX250 Cas Valk qualified third quickest in timed qualifying. In race one he got out of the gate ok and made it into 4th place quickly. He clocked off consistent lap times and rode a steady race but remained 4th at the end of the 25min +2 lap race.
Track conditions on Sunday were a lot different to Saturdays racing. Heavy amounts of water put on the track overnight and it ripped deep saw big clumps baked hard by the sun and resulted in a very one lined track with minimal passes places. Cas had a really good jump out of the gate and was in the top 2 going into the first corner, but made a small mistake in the second corner. He settled into 4th and by lap 4 was in 3rd position. This is where he would finish and come away with 4th overall, he remains third in the championship, 31 points off red plate holder Valin with 1 round remaining.
Cas: “Riding was good this weekend and made almost no mistakes, just missed a little bit of speed to fight with the front guys this weekend. Full focus on the last British championship of the year in 2 weeks time!”
In MXGP Josh Gilbert qualified 19th in timed practice and in the RAM qualifying race shot out of the start from the outside. He came out of the first corner in the top 4 alongside the 3 championship contenders! It took him a few laps to settle and find a comfortable rhythm, he was in a battle for the whole race and by the end he finished 18th.
Race one Josh had a mid pack start but struggled to find his flow, he managed the track as best he could and by the end of the race was able to improve his times and finished 18th. A slight tweak to the suspension for race two made Josh a lot more comfortable, with a similar start to race one but getting caught up on lap one. He would finish race 2 in 19th place. Again positives were to be taken away from the weekend with another 2 point scoring rides.
Josh: “Turkey was another new track to me on the GP calendar this year. It was an impressive set up and the track looked great, it didn’t race as I thought it would and it didn’t develop the best over the weekend being quite one lined. I had a great start in the quali race and had two solid motos.”
Team Manager Shaun Simpson: “We had hoped for better this weekend but both riders showed good speed and technique during the Turkish GP.
Cas just was just a little off the pace this weekend. He was riding well and pushing hard but just couldn’t get close enough to the front to make a challenge for the win. Josh showed again that his speed and intensity is improving every week but his strength and fitness in the heat just still isn’t there to fight all the way to the end of the races.
“We now have a weekend off which we will use to regroup, recharge and train hard before the last round of the British Championship and the Final MXGP/EMX250 rounds in Spain.”
Words by Gabriel SS24 KTM – Images by Ray Archer
