Team Monster Energy Bud Racing Kawasaki visited this weekend the famous track of Valkenswaard in the Netherlands, for the first round of the European MX250 Motocross Series. Darian Sanayei and Nicolas Dercourt both finished in the top eleven in the rugged sand of the Eurocircuit.
Just a week after his first race of the season in the French series, Darian Sanayei was in the Dutch sand with Nicolas Dercourt among eighty other riders who all came to qualify for the first round of the series. With one single training session including ten minutes of free practice and fifteen minutes of timed practice, there was not so much time to set up the bike and get used to this track but both Darian and Nicolas qualified in their group with a fourteenth and a eighteenth position.
Darian Sanayei put together a solid ninth placed overall result from 7-12 moto finishes. The young American was still finding a secure footing in the strange world of European racing but qualified at the first hurdle in a record entry field before showing glances of his potential by racing through the pack from eighteenth to seventh in the first moto and overcoming stoner damage to the rear brake mechanism in race two. Nevertheless he persevered to finish twelfth and complete the weekend ninth.
Team mate Nicolas Dercourt finished eleventh overall from 9-14 moto finishes after a disappointing qualification had left him with thirty-sixth gate pick. Resilient rides from seventeenth to ninth and twenty-sixth to fourteenth saw Nicolas narrowly miss the top ten on the weekend and have given him confidence for the future rounds in the series.
Both riders will enter the fourth round of the French Elite in Romagne in two weeks time.
Darian Sanayei: “There were a lot of riders involved in this first round of the series, and my first goal was just to qualify, as we have only twenty five minutes practice with ten minutes of free practice and then fifteen minutes timed. I got a fourteenth position in my group, which was not so good but enough to qualify, and that gave me the twenty-eighth gate for both motos. From the outside it was impossible to get a good start, but my first start was not so bad and I came from eighteenth to seventh. The start in the second moto was OK but still not good, but before the end of the moto I don’t know if I hit a stone or what but I had no rear brake; at the middle of the race the stone came out, so I had some rear brake again and I could push to finish twelfth.”
Nicolas Dercourt: “It was a tough weekend; I just hope that it was the worst one of the season. There were a lot of riders involved in the qualifying sessions, my lap time was not really good and I got a bad gate for the races. My first race was not so bad as I came back to ninth; I had fun on the bike, and was happy with my riding. The second moto was not as good; the start was worse and with the rain it was not easy to find somewhere to pass. I’m disappointed with my lap times and the second race, for sure I must be faster in qualifying to expect better results.”
