Mixed fortunes for Walsh and Ostlund at German GP
REVO Husqvarna UK’s Alvin Östlund and Dylan Walsh experienced mixed fortunes at the MXGP of Germany – round 10 of the 2019 FIM Motocross World Championship – at Teutschenthal.
Following a crash in Saturday’s qualification race, Dylan went to the line in 22nd in MX2 – four places behind Alvin – for Sunday’s two points-paying motos and with both riders forced to pick outside gates they were put firmly on the back foot.
Dylan dug deep in the opening moto and advanced from outside the top 20 to 14th at the flag on his FC 250, one place ahead of Alvin who put in a solid if unspectacular performance.
After a mid-pack start in moto two, Dylan was again forced to come through the field on the hard-pack, rutted track and his race-long charge was rewarded with another 14th-placed finish for 13th overall.
Alvin had a big crash on the opening lap and after restarting at the back of the field fought his way up to 25th.
The next stop for the team is round five of the Maxxis ACU British Motocross Championship at Desertmartin in Northern Ireland where Dylan will carry the series leader’s red plate with Alvin seven points behind his team-mate in third.
Sam Yates (Crew Chief)
“It’s not been a bad weekend. Free practice was okay but nothing special and then in timed practice Dylan got in the groove and was sixth which was really good. Alvin was 17th but it was very close – there wasn’t a lot of time between them both.
“Unfortunately, in the qualifying race Dylan tagged the back of Cervellin and went down and was miles behind so he rode really well to come through to 22nd. Alvin rode a steady race to finish 18th which wasn’t bad but there was room for improvement.
“In the first race neither got a great start but they were coming from outside gates which didn’t help and both battled hard. Dylan came through to 14th with consistent lap times and didn’t fade which was very positive and Alvin was just behind in 15th.
“In the second moto they again struggled out of the gate – both tried to shut off and tuck it inside but it didn’t really work out – and then Alvin landed on the back wheel of Pessoa and went down quite hard. He was miles behind but he didn’t give up and was solid and Dylan rode his own race – he had a big gap ahead of him and a big gap behind him – and, again, his lap times didn’t drop off.
“Obviously, it’s not where we want to be. We would like to be breaking into the top 10 but there are still plenty of rounds left for us to achieve this and we’ll keep working on it.”
Alvin Östlund
“The first race was okay but in the second race on the second jump the guy in front of me was a little bit short and I landed on his back wheel so I had a big crash. I didn’t know if I would be able to finish the race.
“I did but I was far behind so I treated it like training and just rode my own race. I’m not where I want to be in the championship but I’m going to try to regroup, train hard and be ready for the next race.”
Dylan Walsh
“It’s not been too bad but I messed up in the qualifying race when I got taken out in the fourth turn and had to come from last. That messed my gate pick up and I had two bad starts so had to come through from behind in both motos.
“I was happy with my riding and I felt pretty good all weekend but I just need to work on the full package for the next round.”
