The fifth round of the EMX250 in was an eventful one in the deep ruts of the German track that challenged every rider to pull off incredible skills to come out on top.
Race Report and Images by Infront Moto Racing
It was the EMX250 red plate, Bud Racing Kawasaki’s Mathis Valin who was the winner of the day after showing a lot of composure with solid racing throughout the weekend and good determination.
In Race 1, it was VRT Yamaha Racing’s Karlis Reisulis who managed the Holeshot just in front of Beddini GASGAS Factory Juniors’s Valerio Lata. The Italian then managed to get in front after a couple of corners.
The new red plate Mathis Valin could have made a better start as he found himself 6th but charged quickly to get behind Valk in 4th at the end of the opening lap. The new addition to the Championship, American Gavin Towers from VRT Yamaha Racing made a decent start on his debut to pass the first lap in 7th position.
Reisulis showed very good speed after making a great start and was trailing by only a couple of seconds behind Lata for the first 3 laps. Further down, Valin begun to eat up the gap with Valk, 3rd at the time, and managed outsmart him on lap 4 with a combination to go inside out to pass the Dutch rider. On lap 6, all the effort of the Frenchman Valin came to a waste when he crashed out of 3rd place and picked himself up in 5th just in front of Towers.
The other Frenchie, WZ Racing Team’s Maxime Grau managed to get up form 6th on the opening lap to 4th on lap 6 of 15, and overtook Valk for 3th a lap later after getting the best drive on a jump. Meanwhile Lata was setting his fastest lap of the race to move 6 seconds clear off Reisulis.
With 3 laps to go, the rained started to fall down but Lata kept the lead until the end while Reisulis could not hold off Grau as he passed the Latvian for 2nd and keep that place until the end. Reisulis settled for 3rd while Valin could only come back up to 5th.
Race 2 was an eventful one, but it started perfectly for Towers who took the Holeshot in front of Grau and Valin. Alexis Fueri from Fantic Factory Racing MX2 made a decent start in 4th with Lata 5th after a couple of corners. Fueri finish 8th in the end.
After few corners, Towers tipped over and threw away his lead to pick himself in 4th. It gave Grau, Valin and Lata the opportunity to pull away. Also falling early on was Reisulis who managed to come back to a very good 8th place in the end. Cat Moto Bauerschmidt Husqvarna’s Nico Greutmann was one who started very well but fell a couple of times to finish 6th in the end.
On lap 2, leader Grau got caught by his countryman Valin for the lead as the red plate took the inside line in a corner. Unfortunately, while chasing back Grau tipped over to find himself in 5th position. Valin led Lata and Towers who showed great technique and composure for his first European outing.
As the ruts were getting deeper, riders had to stay full focus to not make mistakes. This is what happen to Valin who miss stepped a rut and Lata took his chance to take the lead. Meanwhile Valk quickly climbed up to 4th where he would control this position until the end.
Lata showed all his qualities as he kept the lead until the end but he unfortunately jumped on a waved yellow flag which would be very costly for the young talented Italian, as he lost the European Championship standard 10 positions-penalty. With the top 10 riders winning a position in race 2, the entire podium was shaken up.
In the end, Valin climbed on the top step with a 5-1 and consolidated his red plate too. With two solid races, Grau went 2-4 for 2nd overall while Valk was the one who clinched an unexpected podium with a 3rd overall with a 4-3.
Mathis Valin: “It was not a bad weekend at all. Of course, i don’t like to win like this but this is racing. Yesterday was a bit more complicated for me but I felt good on the track today. Now we go back to work and see you the next rounds”
Results
Race 1
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Race 2
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Overall
EMX250- Championship Classification: 1. Mathis Valin (FRA, KAW), 212 points; 2. Cas Valk (NED, KTM), 186 p.; 3. Valerio Lata (ITA, GAS), 182 p.; 4. Maxime Grau (FRA, KTM), 137 p.; 5. Ivano Van Erp (NED, YAM), 132 p.; 6. Saad Soulimani (MAR, YAM), 130 p.; 7. Francisco Garcia (ESP, GAS), 113 p.; 8. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, YAM), 105 p.; 9. Nico Greutmann (SUI, HUS), 104 p.; 10. Alexis Fueri (FRA, FAN), 79 p
EMX250 – Manufacturers Classification: 1. Kawasaki, 212 points; 2. KTM, 212 p.; 3. GASGAS, 205 p.; 4. Yamaha, 192 p.; 5. Husqvarna, 118 p.; 6. Fantic, 79 p.; 7. Honda, 59 p
