Just a week after his podium at the French GP, Brian Moreau scored another good result on the sandy track of Ottobiano, home of the GP of Lombardia. He is now sixth in the 250 European championship and best Rookie, while Pierre Goupillon less successful in Italy is tenth in the standings.
Everyone is used to find sandy tracks in Belgium or Netherlands, but it’s more surprising to find sand in Italy except in Ottobiano, home of a GP since last year. The Bud racing riders trained during the week on the sandy ‘Bud Racing Training Camp’ in Magescq, but the temperature of the Italian track were more demanding with over 30° Celsius!
The weekend of Brian and Pierre looked like the results of the qualifying sessions, with a good result for Brian third in his group while Pierre was only eleventh in the other one. Brian got two good starts on Saturday and Sunday, and was always in the top five at the beginning of the races; he was third of the first race, fighting for the second position, when he made a mistake and crashed! Ninth after this crash, he regains one position to finish eighth; on Sunday he got another good start and try to avoid any mistake, losing one position but doing the entire race on both wheels to finish fourth. With a bad gate pick on this track Pierre couldn’t get any good start; in the first race he crashed during the opening lap, had to let all his rivals go before being able to pick up his bike on the track; last, he came back twenty sixth. On Sunday his start was better and he never gave up to come back from twentieth to eleventh.
The European championship make a break now until the Belgian GP in August, but our riders have the last three rounds of the French Elite championship on their calendar including Foolz next weekend; Brian Hsu will be back racing there before racing his first GP in Loket middle of july.
Brian Moreau: “Overall it was a good weekend, with a good result in the timed practice session on a sandy track. I have mixed feeling about my first race; I got a good start, made some moves to come fourth and then third, close to the second. I was trying to pass him when I crashed after ten minutes; I lost a couple of positions and some motivation as I was back on track in ninth, and finally scored an eight place. My second start was also good; I was third during a moment but finally lost one position. It was physically tough with such temperatures, but overall to finish fifth overall was not so bad.”
Pierre Goupillon: “With an eleventh position in my qualifying group I was twenty-one on the gate, not a good position here. I was very far at the first start and then crashed during the first lap; from last I could come back twenty sixth, disappointed with this result. In the second race I start in the top twenty and fight during the entire race to come back eleventh. I want to keep in mind the positive points, and learn from my mistakes; I will continue to train hard to be better in the sand for the next races.”
