Kawasaki Racing Team started their assault on the 2008 season at the traditional opener, the pre-season International at Mantova in Northern Italy. With a top line-up of Europe's motocross elite the popular Mantova Starcross event was staged under blue sky’s on a rough, sandy track.
Tanel Leok has been training hard in Spain with his team and new team-mate Manuel Priem, Leok, nicknamed the Estonian Express, confirmed recent reports that he was in good shape and happy with pre-season testing. All was confirmed as he posted the fastest training time during Saturday’s qualifying practice in Mantova. Leok suffered a sizeable crash after trying too hard in the do-or-die Superpole lap.
The Mantova Starcross event, is a real crowd-pleaser with a unique atmosphere only possible at a pre-season event without the pressure of Grand Prix competition, two riders compete in a one-on-one knockout event battling through elimination rounds. Tanel disposed of all the contenders in his group with a succession of blistering one-lap races, and finally lined up against World Championship favourite Josh Coppins for the final sprint. The Kiwi held the early lead, but Tanel was timing the race perfectly, and out-jumped Coppins spectacularly on the triple to nose ahead.
Having won the MX1 class one-on-one trophy, Tanel squared up to MX2 class winner Tommy Searle to vie for overall honours. Tanel held the early lead, but the plucky Englishman took the battle to him and moved through halfway around the lap. He did not reckon with the Estonian's resolve, though. Tanel railed a corner on the outside, and a bemused Searle had to yield. With this victory, Leok claimed the overall victory in the one-on-one competition and received a magnificent trophy.
Tanel unfortunately fell hard at the start of the first race of the day, dazed he quickly remounted and got into the charge, but with the race limited to 20 minutes, there was scant opportunity to repair the damage, he finished in 20th position. Tanel’s day could only improve and his second race performance saw him barge from outside the top ten to eighth position by the fall of the flag. With a blinding start in the third and final moto, Leok moved from 4th to 2nd position passing World Champion Steve Ramon, he battled with the low sun which caused him to ride blind over many jumps to secure second position and seventh overall on the day.
Manuel Priem made his official Kawasaki debut. The likeable Belgian has settled well into the factory MX1 squad and been working hard with Leok in Spain in recent weeks. The deep sand of Mantova wasn’t kind in Priem’s first outing and he finished outside of the top ten but he improved with each of his next two outing taking 10th and 6th positions using this valuable time to help him set up his new 450cc race machine for the more important races which lie ahead.
Leok...“In the one to one battle this morning I wasn’t risking too much, not pushing myself to the limit but anyway I won which was nice, it’s always nice to win but those kind of head to head races are special, I think special only to this race. It helped to set me up for race one but I was unlucky and crashed, I crashed again in race two but came back a few positions and finished 7th but the best result was in the final moto. I gated 4th and pulled back to 2nd I wasn’t losing any ground but the sun was very low and made some of the jumps very scary. Yesterday I crashed because of the sun so I didn’t want to risk making the same mistake. The track was very rough and difficult which was good, I was happy with the set up of the bike, this is the first race of the season, I know I had some bad luck but overall I leave happy and positive knowing that the work we have done in the last few months is carrying on where we left off at the end of last season.”
Priem...“This is my official debut on the factory Kawasaki bike, I was confident that we had the bike set up well but you always start these races searching for a better and better set up, this is not practice, it’s a racing environment and you always discover many different things about a new bike under these conditions. For the first outing I was happy, 10th in race two followed by 6th in the final moto gave me a positive feeling now I have something to work on as we test before the next pre season at Valance, France in two weeks time. The bike set up was good, the track was very bumpy towards the end which I like, I pulled through the field and improved my position in each race but mid pack and 10th positions off the start is something that maybe need to improve and work on during the coming weeks.”
