Mirroring last year’s triple header in Trentino (Italy), today was the first of three races at the Crossodrome Ciclamino Circuit and like last year, the sun shone upon the beautiful landscape, high in the Dolomite Mountains.
In the MXGP class it was Team HRC’s Tim Gajser who lead the Honda charge to finish the day in third overall keeping his championship hopes very much alive.
Race one saw the Slovenian battle hard throughout the moto with fast and consistent lap times, but frustratingly couldn’t quite make passes on the challenging hillside circuit. Then in race two Tim had a poor start after tangling with other riders on the start-straight. He was down in 12th place on the first lap, but managed to push upto sixth place in the first few minutes - eventually finish the race in third after another frustrating moto.
Gajser was followed home by Honda SR Motoblouz’s Benoit Paturel taking his CRF450R to ninth overall. Also great to see JM Honda Racing’s Henry Jacobi holeshot race two and finish the moto in 11th after a small crash in the latter stages.
Following a good result last weekend at his home GP in Spain, Honda 114 Motorsports’ Ruben Fernandez improved again today in Italy, taking his CRF250R to third overall, followed by Honda Racing Assomotor’s Stephen Rubini in ninth overall.
In race one Fernandez battled hard from a good start to move up to sixth place on lap one and then set-about a race of attrition to be rewarded with fourth place at the finish. Meanwhile Stephen Rubini had an even better start, one place ahead of Fernandez, but struggled to defend his position to eventually finish the race in ninth.
In race two Ruben got off to a better start and rounded lap one in fifth place, to eventually move into fourth place on lap four where he finished the race. Meanwhile, Stephen Rubini struggled to make progress from 12th place at the start to finish the race in 11th.
After competing for the Canadian national team at the recent Motocross of Nations in Mantova, Italy, Dylan Wright rode his first MXGP today on a Honda 114 Motorsports CRF450R, finishing the day in 19th place with 8 MXGP points.
The next race in Trentino trilogy will be held this Wednesday, 27th October.