UDDEVALLA (Sweden) 14 August 2023 – The Round of Sweden delivered intense racings and battles over the whole weekend in both categories. It was especially challenging on Sunday for the riders with the rain coming in play.

In EMX250, Fantic Factory Team Maddii’s Cas Valk got the perfect win with a 1-1 I front of Red Plate Hutten Metaal Yamaha Racing Team’s Andrea Bonacorsi who stayed solid to go 2-2 while BT Racing Team’s Kay Karssemakers fought hard to get on the third step of the podium.

In EMX125 presented by FMF Racing, MJC Yamaha Official EMX125’s Janis Martin Reisulis continued his winning streak with his 3d win in a row in front of 737 Performers GASGAS’s Mathis Valin who went 2-2 to keep a chance of Title victory on the last round. Kasimir Hidersson completed the podium to get a good back-to-back podium.

In Race 1 Cas Valk made an outstanding start to get the Holeshot and keep going at the lead. The Dutch rider showed that he is on form after winning the EMX2T in Czech Republic at Loket. Cas Valk kept leading the race and managed to keep a comfortable cushion thanks to his great speed. Valk in the end won his second race of the season. 

Behind him, the EMX250 Red Plate Andrea Bonacorsi rose in power throughout the race as he started 5th on lap 1 of 15. Bonacorsi gradually found his flow as he first overtook his teammate Hutten Metaal Yamaha Racing Team’s Ivano Van Erp on lap 4 and then capitalised on the fall of Husqvarna BT Racing Team’s Maxime Grau on lap 10 to move up to 3rd. The Italian rider then got faster and faster each lap to finally catch up and pass Bud Racing Kawasaki’s Quentin Prugnieres on the last lap to finish 2nd. Van Erp who found himself 3rd on the opening lap got overtaken several times to finish 6th. 

On his side Grau took a great start to be 2nd from lap 1 but could do nothing to prevent Prugnieres to overtake him on lap 7. Prugnieres rode very well and although he got overtaken by Bonacorsi finished at a great 3rdplace in the end. Grau however crashed in lap 9 to move down to 10th where he stayed until the end.

The second in the Championship, Kay Karssemakers had to fight his way after an average start going 6th on lap 1. The young Dutch rider displayed a great effort to move up to 4th just in front of another great performer, VRT KTM Factory Juniors’ Ferruccio Zanchi who went from 9th on lap 1 to finish 5th in the end. Zanchi had to deal with Van Erp for the 5th place as Van Erp didn’t let the Italian pass without a fight. A give and take lasted over a couple of laps where Zanchi finally got the last word on lap 6 and moved up and finished in 5thplace.

In Race 2, Fueri took the fastest start although Valk was right behind and got the best drive on a landing on the opening lap to take the lead. Valk then didn’t give any chance to the other riders as he was the fastest under the rain. Similarly to race 1, Valk controlled the race from start to finish and went 1-1 to win his second round of the season dominantly and consolidated his 3rd place in the Championship. 

Bonacorsi got a decent start to go 4th on lap 1 but had to work to move up and took 4 laps of 13 to pass Fueri for 3rd. Haakon Osterhagen also got a great start as he overtook Fueri on the opening lap to move up to 2nd. Ensued then a relentless charge forward from Bonacorsi who felt better as the race went on to reduce the gap with Osterhagen. Bonacorsi eventually got very close to Osterhagen after a mistake from the Norwegian. On lap 11, Bonacorsi managed to power through to pass Osterhagen for 2nd and go 2-2 for the 2nd overall extending his advance in the Championship on the second Karssemakers. Osterhagen finished at good 3rdplace in the end to finish 8th overall. 

Karssemakers got some issues during the race as he got to 6th on lap 1 and quickly got goggles issues but pushed hard to get as close as possible to Bonacorsi. Maybe a bit too hard as his bike started to smoke, envisaging a future bike issue. In the end Karssemakers showed great character and grit to overtake SM Action Racing Team Yuasa Battery’s Federico Tuani on lap 8 for 5th.  In the end Karssemakers got overtaken by a late charging KTM Beddini Racing Team’s Valerio Lata on the last lap to finish 6th to go 4-6 and round the podium in 3rd, getting his 6th podium out of 7 rounds. Lata finished 5th for 6th overall while Tuani finished 7th for 7th overall.

Prugnieres delivered an outstanding performance after getting tangled at the start to find himself 19th.  The French rider had a mountain to climb to get a chance to get on the podium but he finished incredibly in 8thplace. Despite this comeback, Prugnieres went levelled with Karssemakers to finish 4th overall.

Cas Valk : “What to say! It was just the perfect weekend. P1 in every session and two race wins. I’m extremely happy to win again. It was a bit up and down after I won in Spain and it was not easy but I worked hard during the last weeks to do what I know I can do and I’m looking forward for the next rounds.”

EMX250 SWEDEN – UDDEVALLA 2023 – Results and Video!

Main Photo: Cas Valk

Bottom Photos: 1. EMX250 Start; 2. EMX250 Podium

In race 1, Fantic Factory Team Maddii’s Maximilian Werner took the best start in front of Mathis Valin and Janis Reisulis. Reisulis went on the charge straight away and launched a successful attack on Valin for 2ndon lap 2 of 14, Reisulis didn’t take long to take the lead off Werner as he managed to pass him a lap later on lap 3. Reisulis flew to victory and extended his lead in the Championship. His closest pursuer this season, Valin got the best of Werner to go 2nd on lap 4. Valin rode well in 2nd although Werner didn’t give up without a fight and was showing a better pace than Valin as he closed in on the French rider towards the end. Valin managed to hold onto his 2nd place to not let Reisulis gain too many points on him. Werner finished fast but settled for 3rd. 

WZ Racing Team’s Gyan Doensen rode really solidly in 4th place and even put pressure on Werner for 3rdbut in the end stayed 4th until the end. Kasimir Hindersson confirmed his recent showing in Flanders as he made a good start to go 5th on the turn of lap 1. Hindersson was never put under pressure the whole race to finish 5th in the end. 

Vitzslav Marek, Noel Zanocz and Fantic Factory Team Maddii’s Elias Escandell had to battle together for the 6th place. Escandell took a good start to see himself in 6th place for half of the race but Marek made his move and passed him on lap 8 after coming back from the 9th place on lap 1. Marek didn’t last long in 6th place as Zanocz charged a lap later to take his place after overtaking Escandell. In the end Zanocz finished 6th while Marek ended the race in 7th and Escandell 8th. 

In Race 2, Werner took control of the race early on with a great start in front of Escandell and Reisulis. Werner made an incredible effort as he created up to 12 seconds gap in front of Escandell. The conditions started to worsen with the rain inviting itself to the race. Reisulis was 3rd and took some time to get closer to Escandell while dealing with Valin behind in 4th. Reisulis managed to keep Valin at bay the whole race. The gap between Werner and Escandell started to melt and with Reisulis closing in on the front two riders the last laps were going to be intense. 

Escandell did very well to keep Reisulis behind him although, unknown to him, the young Spanish rider did not respect a yellow flag on a jump during the race and was going to be demoted 10 places. Reisulis threw off his goggles and kept putting pressure on Escandell until the very last corners of the race when Escandell who was also going to make a move on race leader Werner crashed down while in the same time Werner made a mistake and had his bike completely come to a stop and stalled. Reisulis managed to avoid the chaos that gifted him his second race win of the round while Valin who was few seconds behind also capitalised on that to finish 2nd. Werner finished 10th in the end while Escandell finished 16th due to the penalty.

Reisulis went 1-1 to win the round the perfect way and extended his lead on Valin who thanks to his 2-2 and 2nd overall still kept a slim chance to win the title on the last round in Great Britain. It was another strong performance for Hindersson who managed to gained many positions from 8th on lap 1 to 4th in the end to go 5-4 for 3rd overall and a back-to-back podium for the Finnish.

Janis Reisulis: “This was such a fun round and it is one of my favourite tracks in Europe. I’m not sure what happened in the last lap of the second race as I got from third to first but I managed to get that win. I also managed to be good mentally because it was hard before as I always thought about the Championship. But it is much better now with a smooth riding and two race wins. I’m super happy about the weekend.”

Main Photo: EMX125 Start

Bottom Photos: 1. Janis Reisulis; 2. EMX125 Podium

MXGP OF SWEDEN QUICK FACTS:

Circuit length: 1620m

Type of ground: Hard Pack

Temperature: 18°

Weather conditions: Rainy/Cloudy

Weekend Crowd Attendance: 22,000