The World Championship stopped last weekend in Lommel, for the most demanding round of the season. With its deep sand the Belgian track is one of the most difficult track, and when you have four different classes in action during the weekend it’s even worse than you can imagine!

For the fourth time in his young career Brian Moreau was visiting this track where he got a podium result in the 125 class a few years ago, but his weekend didn’t start that well this year. He was penalised during the timed practice period and lost his tenth position. Twenty-eight behind the gate, he couldn’t get a decent start but his race was solid as he came back eleventh at mid period; then believe it or not he hit a big stone – not sure there’s two stones in the sand at Lommel – and damaged the bike, forced to retire! He will get his revenge in the second heat, as he did a solid race to score a eighth position, his second ‘top eight’ result after Loket one week ago.

As always it’s a new track and new conditions that our American rider Mitchell Harrison discovered this weekend, always happy to travel all over Europe. Mitchell will learn a lot watching the best sand specialists and his results will be better and better all weekend long; fourteenth in the qualifying race, he will score a twelfth and a thirteenth position despite an early crash in race two. The track was rougher than ever, but he came back from twenty eighth to thirteenth. Next race for Mitchell & Brian will be the GP of Italy (Imola) in two weeks time.

This week-end, the GP structure and BUD racing staff will be at big youth event named « Rookies cup» with Quentin Prugnières and the 500 kids racing this event !

The third and last MXGP of the ‘East Tour’ offered some good moments to team Bud Racing Kawasaki, with a top eighth result for Mitchell Harrison and a great Saturday for Brian Moreau. They have now ten days and a French Elite next weekend to finalize their preparation for the long trip to Indonesia!

Home of a GP since more than twenty years now, Teutschenthal offered some novelties this year, as the FIM want to reduce the average speed on the tracks after too many injuries in the last World Championship rounds. The track was rougher and more technical as they didn’t flat it too much between the races, and the racing was better and more safe!
Mitchell Harrison had his best GP since joining the series in April as he claimed eighth overall with eighth- and tenth-placed moto finishes. And the American did it in style after gating sixteenth and eighteenth! A rapid series of passes during the early laps of race one saw him quickly through to ninth and after twelve minutes he advanced yet further to eighth, remaining unruffled through the closing laps as he successfully answered every challenge from the current world number three. Race two was less spectacular but equally effective as he made regular passes throughout the race.

The GP motos were less fortunate for his teammate Brian Moreau, who was excellent on Saturday with third-fastest in time practice. He got his career-best qualification race with a fifth-place finish, but was unable to post similar performances on Sunday as he fell on the opening lap of each race and miss the points. Youngest rider of the class Brian proves that he has the speed and the potential to score at least top ten results, but needs to be more patient during the first circulations.
Racing the European 250 Jimmy Clochet was also unlucky as he crashes early in both races; he had to retire in the first moto after jumping on another bike, and not much better for race two as he was involved in the start crash and came back twenty-one.

Next weekend the team will line up in the penultimate round of the French Elite championship, while Quentin Prugnières will enter the last qualifying race of the European EMX85 in Slovenia.

Mitchell Harrison: “I felt amazing all weekend and my riding showed that; I was just missing good starts to do even better. I’m so happy with my Bud Racing Kawasaki; the chassis, engine and suspension are really good and I feel I’m really learning over here! I had good speed all weekend and just kept pushing and pushing. It was a really good track, a lot like High Point back home in the States with a lot of ruts and opportunities to pass and suited my riding style; if you were smooth and patient with the track it treated you well but now we need to work on the starts. I’m really excited to head to Indonesia; I’m sure it will be a cool experience.”

Brian Moreau: “Saturday was a really good day! I had a good practice session which gave me the third gate pick; I know that I could have been even better as I made several mistakes. My jump of the gate was good in the qualifying race and after the first corner I came out fourth. I didn’t take any risks and raced most of the race in that position until Jacobi passed me near the end. The track was very technical; I didn’t make any mistakes on Saturday, but couldn’t repeat that on Sunday as I crashed early in both motos. That’s frustrating, I feel sorry for the team who put so much efforts and I learnt a lot this weekend.”

Russia one week ago was not really a good GP for the Bud Racing Kawasaki riders, and this weekend in Latvia they got better results, especially Mitchell Harrison who had one of his best weekend since he arrives in Europe.

Two long trips at the program, and two very different locations with a very fast track in Russia and a sandy layout much more technical in Latvia. In Russia Mitchell (18/19) didn’t really got the results he deserves, but in the second moto he shows that he’s on a good way as he started in the top five, fight with the top guys of the class during several laps and then start to do a couple of mistakes and lost many positions. More and more comfortable on the Bud Kawasaki KXF, he proves this weekend that he’s closer and closer to the top ten; he got really bad starts in each moto, but fought hard to come back in the good points. Twenty third and twenty fourth at the start of both races, he came back twice twelfth! Eleventh of the GP he now expect to finish close to top 5 for the following races. For Brian Moreau both weekends were disappointing as he just scores 3 points in Russia (19/20) and 4 in Latvia (23/17). Brian is the youngest rider in the class, but these results don’t show at all what he’s able to do; Brian is struggling at the moment, crashing too many times – his fault or not – and he needs to have one decent weekend to reverse the situation. We expect much more from him starting in Germany next week-end.

The European 250 was also at the schedule of both GPs; suffering from food poisoning in Russia Jimmy Clochet did his best in Russia (10/10) but Latvia was even more difficult for him who has no experience of sand racing. He didn’t score any point in Kegums (30/28) and he’s now seventh in the standings before Germany this weekend.

Mitchell Harrison: “I got in Latvia my best result since Portugal, and it was a really good day. We made some little changes to the bike and I felt more comfortable, but I didn’t got good starts this weekend and I had to make my way through the pack. In the first moto I came back from twenty-third to twelfth and in the second moto from twenty-fourth to finish twelfth again. I charged hard and I feel really good with the bike now; I can’t wait for Germany. The track was great here; it’s a little like some tracks we have back home in Michigan and I felt very comfortable.”

Brian Moreau: “Two difficult weekend for me, the only positive point is my speed and my lap times. I made too many mistakes, and crashed too many times; some are my fault, some come from other riders and finally I always ride tense… Each weekend I gave everything but at the moment it’s pretty disappointing as I can’t get good results but we’ll continue to work and prepare Germany where I expect better results.”

Jimmy Clochet: “I was sick in Russia as I had food poisoning and couldn’t eat anything during four days, but I managed to get some important points. One week later in Kegums I was still affected by the poisoning, and as I don’t have any sand experience it was a very bad weekend for me. I’ve a few days to recover and prepare Germany.”