MEGA START FOR MEWSE & MARTENS

When the gates slammed into the sloppy sand of Valkenswaard Norway’s Even Heibye was the quickest to react and took the holeshot with the two EMX250 rookies, Conrad Mewse and Maxime Renaux, in tow.

Mewse was looking right at home on the roughness of Valkenswaard as he hang right off the back of his Rockstar Energy Husqvarna, keeping the front wheel light, and wheel tapped his way past Heibye on the rhythm section after the waves to take over the lead.

Yesterdays runner-up, Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Hunter Lawrence didn’t do himself any favors with a mediocre start, but it didn’t bother him too much, he just got creative with his lines and put in two jaw-dropping laps to be on the heels of the leaders by the end of lap two.

Mewse started to inch away as Lawrence bashed bars with Heibye for second, eventually the Aussie made the pass and went after the race one winner Mewse. In no time at all, Lawrence, who was pinned beyond belief, blitzed past Mewse to take over the lead.

With ten minutes to go, Heibye hooked a gear and got right on Lawrence. Lawrence ended up handing the Norwegian, Heibye, the lead when he got too hard on the gas and spun out at the bottom of a hill. Mewse then took second back four seconds adrift of Heibye while Lawerence remounted in third, ten seconds back.

Lawrence was the fastest rider on the track by a full second but a race riddled with sketchy moments saw the ambitious youngster drop back to fifth with Bodo Schmidt Motorsports Thomas Kjer Olsen and Team Suzuki World MX2’s Dutchman Bas Vaessen taking third and fourth respectively.

In the final stages of the race Mewse regrouped and knuckled down to make a pass on Heibye for the lead and rode it home for a hard fought win over Heibye, Kjer Olsen, Vaessen and Lawrence.

Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Conrad Mewse was the dominator this weekend while Even Heibye stood on the podium for the first time in his EMX career. Bodo Schmidt Motosports Thomas Kjer Olsen was sick all week and was stoked with his performance for third overall.

EMX250 Race 1 Top Ten: 1. Conrad Mewse (GBR, Husqvarna), 30:13.460; 2. Hunter Lawrence (AUS, Kawasaki), +0:02.489; 3. Thomas Kjer Olsen (DEN, Husqvarna), +0:30.169; 4. Even Heibye (NOR, KTM), +0:33.440; 5. Anton Lundgren (SWE, Husqvarna), +0:50.010; 6. Kevin Wouts (BEL, KTM), +0:54.589; 7. Darian Sanayei (USA, Kawasaki), +0:57.320; 8. Nick Kouwenberg (NED, Honda), +0:59.807; 9. Nicolas Dercourt (FRA, Kawasaki), +1:00.376; 10. Ken Bengtson (SWE, Yamaha), +1:08.529

EMX250 Race 2 Top Ten: 1. Conrad Mewse (GBR, Husqvarna), 30:38.200; 2. Even Heibye (NOR, KTM), +0:03.207; 3. Thomas Kjer Olsen (DEN, Husqvarna), +0:06.589; 4. Bas Vaessen (NED, Suzuki), +0:08.435; 5. Hunter Lawrence (AUS, Kawasaki), +0:15.792; 6. Kevin Wouts (BEL, KTM), +0:30.054; 7. Anton Lundgren (SWE, Husqvarna), +0:38.858; 8. Nick Kouwenberg (NED, Honda), +0:57.430; 9. Ceriel Klein Kromhof (NED, Honda), +1:00.250; 10. Anton Gole (SWE, Husqvarna), +1:01.413

EMX250 Overall Top Ten: 1. Conrad Mewse (GBR, HUS), 50 points; 2. Even Heibye (NOR, KTM), 40 p.; 3. Thomas Kjer Olsen (DEN, HUS), 40 p.; 4. Hunter Lawrence (AUS, KAW), 38 p.; 5. Kevin Wouts (BEL, KTM), 30 p.; 6. Anton Lundgren (SWE, HUS), 30 p.; 7. Nick Kouwenberg (NED, HON), 26 p.; 8. Bas Vaessen (NED, SUZ), 25 p.; 9. Darian Sanayei (USA, KAW), 23 p.; 10. Ken Bengtson (SWE, YAM), 21 p.

EMX250 Manufacturers: 1. Husqvarna, 50 points; 2. KTM, 40 p.; 3. Kawasaki, 38 p.; 4. Honda, 26 p.; 5. Suzuki, 25 p.; 6. Yamaha, 21 p.

Forty 300cc two-strokes on a gate is music to the ears of most genuine race fans. The tinny sound is like a shot of adrenalin that pumps everyone up right before the gate falls. When the gates dropped for the final race of the weekend it was yesterday’s runner-up Yentel Martens who took the holeshot ahead of the race one winner Mike Kras who slid out on the exit.

With Kras down, Martens, who was coincidently last year’s dominator here in Valkenswaard, checked out and cruised home for an easy victory. Meanwhile, behind the leggy Belgian, GL12’s Lewis Gregory wasted no time in muscling his way forward and was in a comfortable second on lap two. Gregory’s GL12 teammate Brad Anderson was also flying in the opening stages of the race but stacked it on lap three.

Dutchman Patrick Vos soldiered his way from eighth all the way to third ahead of Belgian Mike Vanderstraeten and Kevin Van Geldorp. As for the Race One winner Mike Kras, he had a disastrous first lap where he went down in the first corner and then tangled with another rider a lap later. Despite losing his front fender the Dutchman dug deep and managed to come home in sixth.

Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Yentel Martens went 2 – 1 for the overall and the first red plate of the season while GL12 Yamaha Racing’s Lewis Gregory replicated his result of last year with second overall. Dutchman Mike Kras rounded off the podium after his outstanding recovery from two crashes in the final race.

EMX300 Presented by FMF Racing Race 1 Top Ten: 1. Mike Kras (NED, KTM), 30:08.630; 2. Yentel Martens (BEL, Husqvarna), +0:08.004; 3. Mike Vanderstraeten (BEL, TM), +0:33.141; 4. Lewis Gregory (GBR, Yamaha), +0:45.442; 5. Francisco Utrilla Antonio (ESP, Yamaha), +0:56.162; 6. Brad Anderson (GBR, Yamaha), +1:08.082; 7. Joshua van der Linden (NED, Yamaha), +1:25.761; 8. Joey Smet (BEL, KTM), +1:27.409; 9. Kevin Van Geldorp (NED, Yamaha), +1:50.594; 10. Thomas Marini (SMR, Husqvarna), +1:52.637

EMX300 Presented by FMF Racing Race 2 Top Ten: 1. Yentel Martens (BEL, Husqvarna), 29:24.719; 2. Lewis Gregory (GBR, Yamaha), +0:28.437; 3. Patrick Vos (NED, KTM), +0:30.782; 4. Mike Vanderstraeten (BEL, TM), +0:32.322; 5. Kevin Van Geldorp (NED, Yamaha), +1:07.049; 6. Mike Kras (NED, KTM), +1:08.861; 7. Matthew Moffat (GBR, KTM), +1:11.126; 8. Dietger Damiaens (BEL, KTM), +1:12.242; 9. Joshua van der Linden (NED, Yamaha), +1:12.497; 10. Francisco Utrilla Antonio (ESP, Yamaha), +1:13.548

EMX300 Presented by FMF Racing Overall Top Ten: 1. Yentel Martens (BEL, HUS), 47 points; 2. Lewis Gregory (GBR, YAM), 40 p.; 3. Mike Kras (NED, KTM), 40 p.; 4. Mike Vanderstraeten (BEL, TM), 38 p.; 5. Kevin Van Geldorp (NED, YAM), 28 p.; 6. Francisco Utrilla Antonio (ESP, YAM), 27 p.; 7. Joshua van der Linden (NED, YAM), 26 p.; 8. Patrick Vos (NED, KTM), 25 p.; 9. Matthew Moffat (GBR, KTM), 24 p.; 10. Dietger Damiaens (BEL, KTM), 22 p.;

EMX300 Presented by FMF Racing Manufacturers: 1. Husqvarna, 47 points; 2. KTM, 45 p.; 3. Yamaha, 40 p.; 4. TM, 38 p.

Click here to obtain the complete results.

All the photos of the MXGP of Europe will be available here

MXGP EUROPE – QUICK FACTS

Circuit length: 1550m

Type of ground: sand

Temperature: 11°C

Weather conditions: changeable

Crowd Attendance: 23,000

MXGP was available across the board in high definition and is also globally available to view live and in HD on MXGP-TV.com. Click here for the complete list of countries and cooperating MXGP broadcasting networks.

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