Podium joy to start off Arenacross UK
title defence for LPE Kawasaki
Fresh from the off season, the reigning Arenacross UK Tour
champions arrived at the opening round of the 2015 tour at the Phones4u Arena
in Manchester. This was to be the first time that the Arenacross UK Tour had
visited the City of Manchester. For the 2015 tour the LPE Kawasaki Racing Team
unfortunately lost their reigning champion Fabien Izoird after suffering a back
injury, and Frenchman Florent Richier was called upon to replace Izoird and
line up alongside last year's rider Loic Rombaut, also joining the team for the
2015 Tour is Jimmy Margetson in the Rookies class.
The opening round of the Tour started with the practice and
qualifying session during the daytime, allowing the riders to get settled into
the track and start to produce faster lap times as the sessions progressed. In
the Pro Classes Loic topped his group to finish third fastest overall while
Florent finished tenth. In the Rookie class Jimmy finished eighth fastest in
his first attempt at Arenacross.
As the lights went down and the fireworks went off it was
time for the night show to start and in the opening race of the evening it was
Loic out on track first and suffered a mid-pack start, but quickly pushed
forward into sixth place in the opening laps. Loic continued to push hard and finished
in a solid sixth. Next up was Florent in the second heat race and as the gate
dropped, Florent fired into the lead and took the holeshot. With a clear track
ahead Florent rode smart to take the race win.
Before the Pro's returned to track it was time for the
Rookies Final and Jimmy started in eighth but moved into sixth place by the end
of the opening lap. Once in sixth place Jimmy was looking comfortable and
advanced to fifth after another crashed. As the race came to a close Jimmy made
a couple of mistakes and slipped to seventh place at the finish.
The second set of heats saw both Loic and Florent in the
same heat and as the gate dropped Loic started in fourth with Florent back in
eighth. Unfortunately Loic crashed at the end of the opening lap and remounted
in last place. Meanwhile Florent was pushing hard and soon into fourth place
and pushing the leaders. With all the chaos going on at the front Florent was
able to move into the lead and take the race win and head to the Main Event as
top points scorer. Unfortunately Loic crashed later in the race and remounted
at the back of the pack to finish seventh, unfortunately this was not enough to
go straight to the Main Event and sent Loic to the LCQ.
In the LCQ Loic got boxed in at the start and was seventh
early on and with only two riders advancing to the Main Event Loic had a lot of
work to do. As the race went on Loic moved into fifth and then fourth with a
lap to go but it was not to be enough.
Next on the timetable was the Head to Head and with
Championship points on the table Florent was looking for a good result. In the
first heat he made light work of Adam Chatfield, and then in the Semi Final
Florent was up against Thomas Ramette and after getting into the lead, Florent
slipped off the bike and lost the race. After losing the semi-final Florent
headed to the line for the consolation final against Ashley Greedy and took the
win.
The last race of the night was to be the Main Event and
there was drama before the gate even dropped with a number of riders hit the
gate while Florent stormed out of the gate and took over second place. As the
race continued Florent came under pressure from Angelo Pellegrini and
temporarily dropped to third until Pellegrini crashed out handing Florent a
solid second place finish, to start the season off in strong form. The team now
have less than two weeks until they head to Belfast for rounds two and
three.
Florent Richier: The weekend started hard for me as the
track was soft and I'm not used to riding SX in these conditions but in the
races I felt more comfortable and found my lines. In the races I got some good
starts and rode well and in the Main Event I was second and could have taken
the win but I wanted to make sure that I finished and second place is still
good for the Championship.
Loic Rombaut: This weekend has been hard for me. I had the
speed during the daytime but in the heat races I made too many mistakes and
suffered from bad starts and had to go to LCQ. In the LCQ I made a bad start
and could only get up to fourth, so no Main Event for me this weekend.
Jimmy Margetson: I really enjoyed tonight, it was my first
time doing Arenacross and I rode a little bit tight and made a couple of little
mistakes but I've learnt a lot and look forward to the next event.
Steve James - Team Manager: Today started pretty well but
going into tonight we unfortunately had a mixed bag of results, in the Rookies
Jimmy rode great in his first ever Arenacross to finish the Final in 7th
following a bad start. During the race he had worked his way up to 5th but
slipped off in a corner 7th is still a credible result though and a great start
to the Championship for him. In the heats for the Pro's, they went really well
for Florent as he won both his heats and transferred straight to the Main Event
with first gate pick, but unfortunately for Loic he suffered some bad luck in
the second heat and crashed twice and had to go the LCQ. In the LCQ he didn't
make the start needed and had to settle for 4th and missed the Main Event for
the first time but we have seven more rounds to go and I know things will turn
around and be better for Loic at the next round. In the Head to Head Florent
won his first one and was leading the Semi until he slipped off and had to
settle for third, but that still gave him two vital championship points. Then
in the Main event Florent made a good start and rode smooth and safe he was
passed by Pellegrini for second who would then crash out soon after. Florent
rode well to finish second and on the podium taking the 18 points and with the 2
extra points from the Head to Head he sits in second in the Championship just 3
points behind Ramette who took the win tonight and even though Loic had a tough
night he still scored 3 valuable points which added to Florent's points gives
us third on the night and third in the Team Championship standings so even
though we had a tough night we still came away from the first round with
something we can work on and hopefully chip away at. We now have two weeks to
do some more testing and prepare, so we can come out strong ready for rounds
two and three at Belfast.
Pro Main Event
1st Thomas Ramette
2nd Florent Richier
3rd Adam Chatfield
4th Harri Kullas
5th Romain Biela
6th Steven Clarke
7th Nev Bradshaw
8th Cyrille Coulon
9th Ashley Greedy
10th Elliott Banks-Browne
11th Franklin Nogueras
12th Angelo Pellegrini
Pro Series Standings
1st Thomas Ramette (20 points)
2nd Florent Richier (18 points)
3rd Adam Chatfield (16 points)
4th Harri Kullas (15 points)
5th Romain Biela (14 points)
6th Steven Clarke (13 points)
7th Nev Bradshaw (12 points)
8th Cyrille Coulon (11 points)
9th Ashley Greedy (10 points)
10th Elliott Banks-Browne (9 points)
11th Franklin Nogueras (8 points)
12th Angelo Pellegrini (7 points)
13th Adrien Lopes (4 points)
14th Loic Rombaut (3 points)
15th Matthew Bayliss (2 points)
16th Jeffrey Meurs (1 point)
Rookie Main Event / Championship
1st Gradie Featherstone (20 points)
2nd Ollie Osmaston (18 points)
3rd Joe Clayton (16 points)
4th Tony Saunders (15 points)
5th Billy King (14 points)
6th John Wright (13 points)
7th Jimmy Margetson (12 points)
8th Joele Hart (11 points)
9th Jordan Moxey (10 points)
10th Miles Jones (9 points)
Please use the Image credit as follows. Pic © Nuno
Laranjeira/e22 Sports
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