Team Venum Bud Racing Kawasaki’s Francisco Garcia narrowly missed the podium in the European EMX250 Motocross Championship, to retain third place in the series points-standings with five more rounds to go.
Kegums is a regular venue for the European and World Championships, and this weekend we were there for the eighth of the thirteen rounds of the series. Racing conditions were very different as we had nice weather on Saturday, but again some mud on Sunday due to overnight rain.
On Saturday in the first moto of the weekend Francisco confirm the pace he had shown as he posted second-fastest time in Timed Practice. The Spanish youngster moved from a twelfth-placed start to sixth within a lap and continued to make strong passes to reach third by lap four. The front two had already escaped but the Kawasaki rider, regularly setting the fastest laps, closed the gap dramatically, sweeping into second with three laps remaining, and he continued his pace to finish just three seconds behind the winner. Overnight storms left extremely heavy track conditions for the EMX riders in their second moto on Sunday morning; Francisco made an excellent third-placed start but had been pushed back to fifth at the completion of the first lap. Further mistakes saw him relegated to seventh, his position at the end of the race. Missing the podium by just two points, he retains third in the points standings after eight of thirteen rounds.
On Saturday a first lap crash demoted Jake Cannon, twenty fifth on the gate, to thirty-first but the Australian teenager responded well to pull back to fifteenth until a last-lap incident with a fallen rider put him out of the race. On Sunday chaos at the first turn again left Jake outside the top-twenty but he showed great resolve to advance to eleventh with two laps to go; he had a top-ten result in sight before a mistake on the final lap put him back to fourteenth. He is now fifteenth in the points standings.
Francisco Garcia : Fourth overall (2/7) and third in the championship
Jake Cannon : Twentieth overall (DNF/14) and fifteen in the championship
Francisco Garcia: “I was riding really well with a good feeling for the track on Saturday, but the guy from my left cut my line straight out of the gate so my start was not so good. Still, I made some good passes and I was riding so fast at the end to come close to the win. On Sunday track conditions were so difficult after the rain; it was the same for everyone but I never had a good feeling on the track and there were unpredictable ruts on the jumps. I crashed once and then I had a really big moment on the finish jump and scared myself; but the most important thing is that I am leaving here in one piece and have kept my third place in the championship.”
Jake Cannon: “My riding’s OK and I had two good comebacks through the field, but the starts are killing me at the moment; it all begins with Qualifying and I need to sort that out. I got two good jumps but particularly here it’s a really big detour at the first turn from the outside. Let’s hope I can sort out my Qualifying before the next round in England.”
