Swedish world round: it's Raga, Bou, and Fuji

Bou and Fujinami second and third in Sweden

Thursday, September 4th, 2008 - Honda Motorcycle Press Release - Total Motorcycle - http://www.totalmotorcycle.com

Toni Bou and Takahisa Fujinami – both Repsol Montesa HRC took second and third place respectively at this weekend’s Grand Prix of Sweden, the eighth round of the 2008 FIM SPEA Trial World Championship. The win went to Bou’s arch-rival Adam Raga – Gas Gas as the championship returned to Sweden for the first time in fifteen years.

Located at the Uddevalla motocross circuit, which has featured in the World MX championship recently, the setting for round eight was impressive, to say the least. The first group of sections wound their way up and down a rocky outcrop opposite the MX track while the remainder of the sections were located in the woods surrounding the circuit. This gave the lap two very different characteristics, with plenty of grip on the open rocks, but more slippery conditions under the trees.

Bou, Fujinami and Raga once again set the early running, the three evenly matched over the opening sections. Fujinami cleaned the first eight sections while Bou dropped three marks and Raga just one. However it was the second half of the first lap where the marks began to mount, on the slippery sections under tree cover. Fujinami picked up the only five of the day for the leading three on section eleven, a combination of a muddy bank and moss-covered rocks. However, despite this, he was in second place by the end of the first lap, behind Raga and ahead of his team-mate Bou.

With just six marks covering the top three, the pressure was on for the second lap. The scores were markedly lower the second time around, with Raga adding just two to his first-lap tally. But the competition between Bou and Fujinami was intense, the pair neck and neck throughout the lap. However, it was on section thirteen where it would go wrong for the Japanese rider. Fujinami lost two marks to Bou’s clean and this moved him from one mark ahead to a single mark behind his team-mate by the end of the event, once again claiming third spot behind Raga in first and Bou second.

Bou - 2nd :
“I’m happy with second today. Both Adam [Raga] and Fuji were very strong, but finishing second to Adam is very good for the championship, even though he closed the gap a little. I made some small mistakes on the first lap today – nothing too bad, but some that I should not have made. But my second lap was incredible – two marks – I was very pleased with that. I think maybe the pressure of maintaining the championship positions was on my mind this morning, for the first lap. It would be nice to be able to ride without thinking about the championship and just focus on the race, but it’s not always that easy, especially with only three rounds left. It was easier to do on the second lap, as you can see in the scores, but not so easy to start with. I think this has been a very good trial; some of the sections were a little easy and overall, it could be made harder for the future, but a good trial anyway.”

Fujinami – 3rd :
“Third place again! I’m not so happy with the result, as I was second after the first lap and wanted to remain there, but I am pleased with my riding today. I made some small mistakes, but the biggest problem was two marks I picked up in section thirteen on the second lap, when Toni cleaned it. By that point, I was one mark ahead and that put me behind with only two sections to go. Both Toni and I cleaned the last two, so he stayed ahead. I like this trial; the first part of each lap was quite easy – the rocks were dry and had lots of grip and you can see from the scores that almost no marks were lost there. But the second part, in the trees, was more difficult. It was damp and while it was possible to clean the sections, it was also easy to make mistakes and pick up a three or even a five.”

Laia Sanz –
Repsol Montesa HRC had another difficult weekend on the Scandinavian sections. After finishing the European Championship round on Saturday in fifteenth, she finished eleventh in today’s Junior class. She admitted she had a poor first lap and while her second was better, it was not enough to improve on her position by the end of the event. “Today was a disaster for me. The second lap was better, with thirty marks against forty eight for the first, but still not good enough. I was making stupid mistakes on the first lap and that was where the problems were. The first part of the lap was OK, but the second was very difficult. It felt almost like two separate trials, the sections were so different. I was also running out of time on the second part, which meant I had to rush some of the sections, which also did not help.”

FIM World Trial Championship Series 2008
Round 08 Uddevalla, Sweden
1 Adam Raga (SPA-Gas Gas)
2 Toni Bou (SPA-Montesa)
3 Takahisa Fujinami (JPN-Montesa)
4 Dougie Lampkin (GBR-Beta)
5 Jeroni Fajardo (SPA-Beta)
6 Marc Freixa (SPA-Gas Gas)
7 Albert Cabestany (SPA-Sherco)
8 Michael Brown (GBR-Beta)
9 James Dabill (GBR-Montesa)
10 Daniel Oliveras (SPA-Sherco)
11 Henri Himmanen (FIN-Beta)
12 Martin Kroustek (CZE-Beta)

From the good folks at:
http://totalmotorcycle.com/BBS/viewtopic.php?t=30153&sid=2896e1d04eb186dad6d8e12877b3b820