Tom Church finished fourteenth overall and was the best performer for Molson Kawasaki at a surprisingly weather-hit Bellpuig circuit for the Grand Prix of Spain and the second round of the FIM MX2 Motocross World Championship. The trip to the Iberian Peninsula is the first of two meetings inside a week as the British crew the heads immediately west for the Portuguese round next weekend.
Swanepoel and Church did not have to worry about the qualification heats on Saturday as a sustained period of rainfall and drizzle lasting almost a full twenty-four hours beginning on Friday meant that the initial phases of the Grand Prix was erased in favour of a Timed Practice session on Sunday morning. The track was deemed too wet and in danger of degenerating into an irreparable state. Swanie was 7th quickest while Church was not far behind in 13th as proceedings finally got underway.
A complete switch of climate arose mid-morning as the skies cleared and the Spanish sun dried the mud, created a rutted and bumpy prospect that yielded largely a single quick line.
Church adapted quickly to the changing terrain, surrounded by 22,300 spectactors, and rode well to take his best moto finish of the season so far with eleventh in Moto1. A mistake proved costly in Moto2 though and 15th was the only obtainable ranking.
“The first race was good and I had an ‘alright’ start,” he said. “I came back from 15th to 11th and it was a decent moto. In the second one I missed a gear coming out of the gate but had a good first lap and rose to 11th. I nearly went down and veered off the line and lost something line eight places from running wide. I had to fight my way back from there and luckily a few guys went down in one crash. I took 15th and while it wasn’t the best of GPs I still took more points than Valkenswaard and will now look forward to Portugal which is a good track for me.”
Swanepoel, who aced the third round of the British Championship with a double moto win last week, and has been in excellent form of late could not repeat his podium result from the opening Grand Prix and had to swallow twentieth overall. He was eighteenth twice and the first race was not uneventful for the talented South African.
“I just had a really bad day today,” he reflected. “I qualified seventh and was really pumped with that but in the first race I went down a couple of times and didn’t ride very well. The second race was the same thing. Another bad start and struggling to come through. It was one-line out there, especially in that second moto. Things were going better but it was tough to make up positions.”
“Normally this should have been a good place for me but the conditions made things hard and I still have a lot to learn to run up front against the guys in this type of scenario,” he added. “As long as Agueda is not like this then it’ll be good!”
After two rounds Swanepoel is tenth in the championship standings while Church is eighteenth.
Round three awaits the team in just six days time with the challenging red soil of Agueda providing the next battle ground for the Grand Prix stars.
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