Team Rockstar Energy Bud Racing Kawasaki started the 2012 season on a positive note, as Valentin Teillet finished runner-up in the MX2 class at Valence International, the first pre season event of the season. With an 85 class win for new member David Herbreteau and a strong performance for Livia Lancelot, the team scored good results seven weeks prior the opening round of the World Championship.
Valentin Teillet was Kawasaki’s only official representative in the MX2 category, as Dylan Ferrandis is still recovering from his shoulder surgery sustained in December. The energetic Valentin came through his debut with flying colours, as he charged hard all day to secure second place overall. After recording fastest time during the morning qualification Teillet shot into the lead from pole in the opening moto and led for ten minutes before relinquishing the lead as he started to suffer with the inevitable early season stiff forearms. A similar ride in race two left the 21 year old securely in charge of second overall on the day and he sensibly took no risks in the combined MX1/MX2 race which concluded the day’s programme, doing sufficient to maintain his overall placing in the MX2 class.
There was a race in the race between Livia Lancelot and long-time rival Steffie Laier; Steffie won the first battle, and Livia the second one among some of the fastest MX2 riders of the planet!
New young talent David Herbreteau was on another planet in the 85cc invitational race. Posting the fastest lap in the timed practice session, 1,8 second ahead of his rivals, the kid had some troubles with his gate at the opening race but came back from last to fifth! Only seventeenth at the second start, he took the lead in the third lap to win easily the second race and the overall.
Valentin Teillet: “It was a good weekend. It’s just a pre-season race but I took it seriously, as did most of my rivals. I got good results in the practice sessions with the pole position in the qualifying, and grabbed two holeshots today! That is really positive, but unfortunately during the races I had some troubles with my arms and couldn’t stay with Tonus. Second overall in not bad; we could saw that we worked well with Jacky Vimond and the entire team, and now we have several rounds of the French Elite series to finalize our preparation for the GPs.”
Livia Lancelot: “That was a pleasure to race on such good conditions, and I’m pleased with my results. We battled with Steffie all weekend long, we had good time and I was happy to beat her in the second race. We were there mainly to test the bike before the Women’s French series, and it was great to see that we worked in the right direction with the team. We just change some settings on Saturday, and even if the track was rough I had a great feeling with the bike. I will enter in two weekd the opening race of the French Elite Championship, I know that it will be tough to qualify but I want to try. Racing against faster riders is for me the best way to make progress.”
David Herbreteau: “We did some adjustments on the settings of the bike on Saturday during the practice sessions, and Sunday was good for me even if I didn’t enjoy so much my riding in the timed practice session. I had some troubles at the start of the first race, but I was able to come back fifth; I found some good lines, and that helped me also in race two when I started mid pack. It was my first race on the Kawasaki and with Bud Racing, and everything went well; we worked well with Jacky this winter, he helped me to improve my riding and I want to thanks all the team and our sponsors for their support.”