Twelfth round of the 2012 Motocross World Championship, the Grand Prix of Czech Republic confirmed the come back of Valentin Teillet, who scored an overall sixth position for his second race since his injury, aboard his Rockstar Bud Racing Kawasaki. Eleventh of the GP, Dylan Ferrandis remains ninth in the standings with four more GP’s to go.
Regular venue for the series since ten years, Loket has always been a special track that riders like or hate! The grip is always strange on this slippery and narrow layout.
Valentin Teillet, who spent a couple of days practicing with the team in Belgium after Russia, showed great speed all weekend. After setting second fastest time in Pre-Qualifying the Frenchman earns fifth choice of gate in the Qualifying race and looked set to improve on this position. He was chasing fourth in race one, but had a freak incident as the gearshift was bent in a deep rut and prevented him from changing gear as he approached the next jump, the resultant crash losing him several places. In race two the dynamic rider held a strong fourth place for most of the distance, but his recent lay-off through injury told physically in the closing minutes and he was forced to surrender three places.
Teenage teammate Dylan Ferrandis continues the learning curve of a rookie season in which he is confronted by many new types of track. Even established veterans of the series admit that they find it difficult to adapt to the unusual Czech track so it was no disgrace for first-timer Dylan to find it difficult to adapt to track conditions. Despite an unfortunate incident on the opening lap of race one, when he was brought down by another rider, he never gave up all day and was rewarded with an eleventh place in the GP which consolidated his ninth place in the series.
Valentin Teillet: “I’m a bit frustrated with sixth place in this GP even though it is a mental boost after my injuries this summer. I went training with Jacky and Dylan in Belgium after we got back from Russia and came here confident about my speed. In fact I did have good speed this weekend, but no luck. I was fifth, close to fourth, halfway through the first race but then I damaged my gearshift in a deep rut and selected a neutral just before a jump. That cost me three positions. My second start was nearly perfect and I was fourth for most of the race, but I felt tired during the last ten minutes and lost several places. I feel stronger each week but I missed three GPs with my injury and am still not back to 100% fitness.”
Dylan Ferrandis: “My first start was not very good and then in a corner I crashed onto another rider’s bike; the engine stalled and the bike suffered some damage but I was able to come back to fourteenth by the finish. I was tenth after the second start, but I didn’t felt comfortable on this track and I could only manage to move forward to eighth; it’s a learning year for me, and when we race tracks which are strange to me I have concentrate on scoring as many points as possible.”
