With fourth and seventh positions respectively Tanel Leok and Billy Mackenzie steered their works KX450F-SRs through the rain and across the rough bumps at Loket for the Grand Prix of Czech Republic and the eleventh round of the FIM MX1 Motocross World Championship.
The track at Loket – draped across a steep hillside just outside the historic town and 10 kilometres from the wonderfully scenic Karlovy Vary – is natural in practically every sense with few man-made jumps and the aerial tests coming mainly from the undulations of the landscape. The stony mud however was not particularly deep and this meant many braking bumps and a slippery terrain, particularly with the showers through the weekend. The presence of one and sometimes two racing lines did not allow for free-flowing overtaking on a major scale either.
24,000 spectators braved the rain and the low temperatures and were treated an incredible first MX1 moto in which at least nine riders circulated close together and positions changed every lap through incident. Mackenzie was in the heart of the scrap and Leok, who was half a second away from his fourth pole position of the season on Saturday but finally had to be content with second entry into the gate, quickly drew up to the tussle after a poor start.
Mackenzie slipped off from sixth position on lap four which cost him six positions and he fought against traces of arm-pump to finally manage seventh by the flag. Leok was twelfth on the first lap but rose to a decent fifth by the end of the 35 minutes and 2 laps.
The second race started as the rain came down at its heaviest all weekend and lasted well after the podium had cleared and the public has filtered out of the circuit. Leok was higher up the order from the beginning and circulated with Ramon and Barragan in a dispute for third. The moto was less hectic than the first. Leok finally conceded fourth to Ramon in the last laps when he was forced to ditch his muddied goggles. Mackenzie was right behind in sixth place and pushed his team-mate to the flag, finishing less than a second away.
“I was happy with my riding today and got the fastest lap in the first moto,” said Leok. “The start was not great but I came back quickly. The track was difficult and got worse with the wet in the second moto. I had to throw away my goggles and that’s when Ramon got past and it was tricky to stay close to him after that. Namur is next and we will have to be careful there as it is quite dangerous.”
“It has been a difficult weekend,” remarked Mackenzie. “The track has been really weird and every rider seemed to have a problem. I did not particularly like it and for the first time could not really gel with the bike and the terrain. The first race was going fine and I made some passes and set my fastest lap in the middle of the moto so I was going forward. I overtook Philippaerts and hit him pretty hard, which I did not mean to because I had the inside line and he did not let-off, so in the next corner he came back at me and I let him through but as I went to square-off I touched his back wheel and went down. After that I could not really get my rhythm going and ended up with seventh, which I wasn’t that happy with. In the second race it started raining and the track was even more slippery. I was up there in the beginning but it was the same thing again in terms of not being able to get comfortable, so I kept to my lines and came home. I was only five points off the podium and the overall result is not too bad considering but I knew things can be much better than this.”
Leok still remains ninth in the world championship, 20 points from sixth spot and 25 points ahead of Mackenzie who keeps tenth.
KRT head back to their base near Eindhoven where they will only have a few days to prepare before the short journey to Namur for the Grand Prix of Belgium and round twelve of fifteen. The Flemish spectacle represents the first of four Grand Prix in five weeks.
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