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Mathis Valin Earns Top 5 Finish in Spain
Kawasaki Racing Team MX2's Mathis Valin narrowly missed the podium at Almonte in Andalucia to sit fifth in the FIM World MX2 Motocross Championship standings after two rounds.
Top 6 starts in each race established the platform for the solid result around a rugged high-speed track. Hard-worked passes on Lap 3 and Lap 9 of eighteen in Race 1 saw the French teenager convert a sixth-place start to fourth. He closed onto the rear wheel of the defending champion for third in the closing laps, but came up just one second short of a further pass. Switching to a different gate for Race 2, he again emerged sixth from the first turn and spent half the race searching for the opportunity to move into fifth. He finally made the move halfway, but fourth was already too far. He concentrated on riding home a safe fifth, until a slip halfway around the final lap cost one position in the race, but didn’t compromise his fourth overall and fifth in the series standings.
"Race 1 was quite good; I had a pretty good start, found my flow and had a good end to the race as I was pushing Längenfelder. Race 2 was a bit more difficult. I stayed a little too long behind Everts; I couldn't pass him and that cost me a lot of energy to attack him for so many laps. Then, I had a small crash on the last lap which cost me one position. I pushed hard in both races and showed I have the speed, but I have to work on my passes. MX2 is very competitive, so it's not easy to pass anywhere. I need to pass more quickly in future."
- Mathis Valin
