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MX2, Pietramurata (Italy), PIETRAMURATA (ITALY), 4 November 2020

Roan van de Moosdijk seventh in his rookie GP season

F&H Kawasaki MX2 Racing Team’s Roan van de Moosdijk has clinched seventh in his rookie season in the FIM World MX2 Motocross Championship despite a crash at the penultimate round of the series.

The Dutch youngster maintained his remarkable 100% record of top three placing’s in practice with yet another second-fastest time during Qualifying at Pietramurata in northern Italy but suffered misfortune in both GP motos. In the first race he slid off at turn two when another rider un expectantly braked immediately in front of him but was already twenty-third at the end of the first lap and kept pushing to advance to fourteenth by half-distance and finally broke into the top-ten two laps from the end to finish a remarkable ninth. Tenth on the opening lap of race two he quickly moved up the leaderboard to sixth by the end of lap two and was challenging for fifth mid-moto until he had a dramatic downhill crash and was detained by the medical staff for a check-up. Despite the setbacks the twenty-year-old has now secured a seventh-placed world championship ranking in his rookie GP season prior to the final round of the series at the same track on Sunday.
 
Roan van de Moosdijk: “I was so close to the pole again but my start was not so good in the first race and I crashed in the second corner because some guy braked right in front of me and I saw it too late to miss him. It’s so difficult to pass here but I passed twenty guys to finish ninth; the result was not so good but the race speed was there and I was looking forward to the second moto. My jump was better this time but they pushed me to the outside at the first turn so I had to close the gas. Again I made quick passes from around fifteenth until I was sixth behind Renaux; I was faster and tried everything to pass but I couldn’t find a turn to do it. On a downhill there was normally a big kicker that you jump over but I couldn’t jump one lap; the suspension compressed, I was on the front wheel for a few metres and I hit the left side of my arm. I felt ok to continue straight away but the medical staff wanted to be sure and wouldn’t let me carry on for ten minutes so my race was over. Nothing is broken but I have a little pain in my thumb and shoulder; I guess tomorrow will feel a little stiff but I’ll be OK for Sunday. “
 
DRT Kawasaki’s Wilson Todd returned to racing for the first time since the enforced summer-break and was inevitably a little race-rusty. A fall on lap six of the first moto after moving forward two places from his initial twenty-fourth pushed the Australian back down to twenty-sixth but he rebounded with a series of solid laps to narrowly miss championship points in twenty-first position. A better getaway in race two saw him dispute thirteenth for six laps before an incident cost ten places; he battled back to sixteenth at the finish with a solid comeback during the second half of the moto.
 
Wilson Todd: “We decided it was a good opportunity to do a little racing as a head-start for 2021. I only got as far as the first turn at Valkenswaard in March, breaking my finger, fibula and ACL; at the time I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to race again this year so I went home to Australia to get surgery on the ACL and I only just started riding again. We’ve got new suspension and have been looking at sorting out set-up. I didn’t have any expectations; I just wanted to see how it goes and I got a little race practice and some points. “