Ups and downs for Freeman and Watson at EnduroGP Italy
Over the weekend, the Enduro World Championship stopped in Bettola, Italy, for the fourth stage of the 2024 season, drawing a large number of fans who contributed to making the Italian stage a truly spectacular event.
The Motoclub Ponte dell’Olio, assisted by the Track Inspector Maurizio Micheluz, has drawn for the occasion a high-level race track articulated in three challenging and technical stages to be repeated four times on Saturday and three times on Sunday, for a total of twenty-one special tests during the entire race weekend.
After the Super Test on Friday evening, the race got started on Saturday in the centre of the town, and then moved on to the various stages on the programme: a 1.2 km long Extreme Test on hard and friable ground mixed with rocks, an Enduro Test of over 5 km on hard ground, and a 5.1 km long Cross Test very fast and across a field with numerous ups and downs.
Brad Freeman rode a near-perfect race on Saturday, showing his top form and finishing 2nd in the EnduroGP Class and 1st in the E3 Class with a significant gap over his direct rivals. On Sunday, with the race course made extremely difficult due to the heavy rain, Brad tried to hold on to the race by recording good times in all special stages, but one mistake in the second Enduro Test and the last Cross Test prevented him from taking the top step of the podium. The final score for the second day of competition is a 3rd position in the E3 Class and a 10th position in the EnduroGP Class. He still holds the E3 Class leader’s plate.
Nathan Watson also ran a brilliant race on the opening day, finishing 2nd in the E2 Class and 5th in the EnduroGP Class. Unfortunately on Sunday, due to the heavy rain, he made a few too many mistakes and was unable to express himself fully, finishing 4th in the E2 Class and 11th in the EnduroGP Class.
Worthy of mention are the good performances of Team OX Moto with Theo Espinasse in the E1 Class, 4th in both race days, and Leo Joyon in the Junior1 Class 3rd on Saturday. Also a good performance by Team Entrophy on Sunday: Davide Mei 5th in the Juonior1 Class and 7th in the Junior Absolute Class, Samuli Puhakainen 5th in the Junior2 Class. Also worth mentioning are Matej Skuta 3rd on Saturday and 4th on Sunday in the Junior 2s Class, and Tim Apolle 4th on Saturday and 3rd on Sunday in the Open 2s Class.
Brad Freeman
“A weekend of ups and downs, on Saturday I managed to get some good results and fight for the win in the EnduroGP Class as well as winning the E3 Class. On Sunday, however, I made a mistake in the second enduro test and could not recover and lost several positions. I am still the leader of the E3 Class.”
Nathan Watson
“It’s a shame to have ruined the race weekend with a poor race on Sunday. However, I am happy with Saturday’s performance because I came close to the podium in the EnduroGP and finished 2nd in the E2 class.”
Now that the Italian round is over, team and riders will gather again for the fifth round of the 2024 season at Gelnica in Slovakia over the weekend of 12-14 July 2024.
Words and Images by Beta
