KRT’s Billy Mackenzie and Tanel Leok placed fourth and fifth overall on their works KX450-FSRs at St Jean d’Angely for the Grand Prix of France in an emotional weekend and the first meeting after the death of Team Manager Jan de Groot last Monday. The seventh round of fifteen in the FIM MX1 Motocross World Championship took place in hot weather conditions and watched by 28,000 spectators.
St Jean, located on the west coast and close to the holiday town of La Rochelle, was entertaining the French stop on the World Championship for the first time since 2005. As ever the circuit facilities and layout was of a very high standard, although the track itself was fast, hard-packed and lacked any real degree of difficulty. The lap-times were short and the emphasis on horsepower over technical skill was apparent on a hot Saturday practice and qualification schedule when the top twenty riders in Timed Practice were split by just two seconds.
Mackenzie, who gave Kawasaki their first ever MX1 Grand Prix victory two weeks ago in Japan, was fast on Saturday and held the top spot on the timing sheets several times through both free sessions before confirming ninth in the chrono.
‘Mac’ started both race in excellent fashion. In the first moto and quickly pushed his way past Mike Brown to hold second position behind runaway leader and winner Josh Coppins. The Scot then damaged his front wheel on a heavy landing from a jump and the affected handling of the bike troubled his arms and increased his lap-times. Soon he fell victim to the pursuing David Philippaerts, and Steve Ramon also got the better of him before the chequered flag. He ended up fifth.
The 23 year old would go one better in the second moto as he led for the opening six laps but again didn’t quite have the extra pace to defy Coppins and Ramon. The current British Championship leader was riding well though and frustrated Philippaerts in his attempts to overtake for the entire second half of the race. Tanel Leok was on the charge by this stage and bustled past both riders to seal third and his second top three finish of the season. Mackenzie, despite one or two physical moments with Philippaerts, was content with fourth and the same ranking overall for his second best finish of the season and a solid score after his Japanese ascension.
“I am pleased with that. I came here with the goal of taking two top five results and top five overall and I did it,” he said. “I was quite surprised that I was riding as fast as I was on this kind of track and I had the fastest lap-time in the first race. I felt good in both motos today but I think the heat got to everyone and I felt quite tired. I did not get the best of sleeps both nights. I am happy that I dug deep in both races and did not give up. I am pleased with how I am riding at the moment. Since I got my diet sorted things have definitely been on the up and been good for me.”
Leok gained his third pole position of the season in the fading seconds of the session on Saturday and looked in form and determined to chase his second podium result of the season. A poor start did not assist the Estonian in the first race. He had to work hard to make his way up the leaderboard from sixteenth and was frustrated with eighth place at the finish. The second moto was a different story as he set about passing riders with relish from a top ten start. His aggression and prime condition helped him reach third by the end of the afternoon. The recently turned 22 year old was buoyed by a return to the leading group after an indifferent start to the season.
“Qualification and practices were perfect and everything went really good,” he said. “The Kawasaki is working really well for me but I am not getting the starts right. I still need to figure out what to do. We are filming the starts now and will try to correct the mistakes. I finished eighth in the first race after coming back from sixteenth; that was good but obviously I wanted to be higher up and nearer the top three. In the second race I went from fourteenth to third and I was really happy with that. I felt great and went for it; I just wished the race could have been longer!”
The team wore black armbands in memory of De Groot while a picture of the revered Dutchman was also hoisted at the back of the team awning. Both riders wore special dedicated sticker sets on their boots and helmets.
In the World Championship Mackenzie has broken into the top ten and is currently ninth, just five points behind Leok.
KRT will contest the remaining eight rounds of the season with Assistant Team Manager Martin van Genderen at the helm. The next outing for the Dutch crew will be the Grand Prix of Bulgaria at the Sevlievo circuit on June 17th.
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