Tuesday August 27, 2013 at 12:50pm
This weekend’s World MX3 Motocross Championship round took place at Matterley Basin. With a bit of added trickiness due to the overnight rain and cool temperatures for round seven of the FIM Motocross MX3 World Championship. Taking his third overall victory of the season was UFO Racing Team’s Klemen Gercar who extends his points lead over his closest rival and second place Martin Michek. Rounding out the top three in style after dominating race two was British star Oakleaf Kawasaki’s Shane Carless.
Known for his fantastic starts, Orion-RS Petrol Teams Frantisek Smola blasted out of the gate to take race one’s holeshot ahead of the defending MX3 world champion Matthias Walkner and KTM GST Berlin Racing’s Christian Brockel. Right from the get-go Walkner and Brockel were on a mission to get to the lead, pushing Smola wide on a corner to take over the first and second positions very early in the race. Meanwhile UFO Racing Team’s Klemen Gercar was hammering down after an average start left him outside the top five. It wasn’t long before the Slovenian had snuck his way around the fourth place Adam Chatfield and third place rider Frantisek Smola to take over third position.
As the race approached the half way mark the red plate holder Klemen Gercar had made a move on the second place of Christian Brockel and was making a charge for the lead. After four laps of riding in the roost of Matthias Walkner, Gercar launched off a downhill jump to pass Walkner up the inside on the following corner.
While Gercar was out front looking visibly comfortable being the only guy in the field to clear the massive uphill triple lap after lap. Walkner found himself under attack from his biggest championship threat Martin Michek. Michek and Walkner rode wheel to wheel for the last leg of the race, but in the end it was Walkner who held on for second forcing Michek to settle for third.
Meanwhile Great Britain’s Adam Chatfield put in a stellar ride on his MX3 debut to take home fourth ahead of KTM GST Berlin Racing’s Christian Brockel in fifth. Fellow Brit Shane Carless finished the race in a solid sixth place on the Oakleaf Kawasaki.
Race two saw Francy Racing Team’s Petr Irt take the holeshot and lead the first lap, unfortunately for Irt while mixing it up with the MX3 toppers he lost the front end through a sweeping turn resulting in him hitting the deck hard enough to break his handlebars and put him out of the race. Taking over the lead was race one winner UFO Racing Team’s Klemen Gercar who was again looking reasonably comfortable on the Matterley Basin circuit. Chasing the red plate of Gercar was British Shane Carless and Czech Martin Michek.
Coming into the second half of the race the crowd was beginning to roar as their British Oakleaf Kawasaki rider Shane Carless begun pressuring the current MX3 point’s leader Gercar for the lead. A few laps later Carless impressively jumped over Gercar to take over the first place. While Carless proceeded to pull away, Gercar was facing another challenger in the form of Martin Michek.
Michek and Gercar tossed back in forth the second place a few times before Michek sealed the deal and rode to a comfortable second place finish. Gercar kept a calm head to finish third in race two and take the round of Great Britain overall.
Taking home fourth was the wild card British rider Adam Chatfield with UFO Racing Team’s Petr Michalec rounding out the top five.