Stellar British performance by Marshal Weltin!
After a year of absence on the GP calendar due to the MX of Nations, Matterley Basin made its return for round nine of the MX2 World Championship. Marshal Weltin took his CRF250R to a brilliant fifth in the first moto, the young American scored a career best 8th overall. This is also Jumbo No Fear Vamo Honda’s best result ever in GP’s. Micha-Boy De Waal failed to score points in England.
The hard and fast Matterley Basin circuit in Winchester is one of the most well liked tracks of the world championship. Sunny weather completed the picture perfect presentation of a venue that’s known for big jumps and great racing.
Micha-Boy De Waal immediately gelled with the track and was the fastest of the Jumbo No Fear Vamo Honda riders in time practice. In the qualifying race Micha was forced to retire after a stone damaged the radiator. Admittedly struggling to produce the same kind of pace he does in the races Weltin had to settle for 26th in time practice. True to form the American made his way up to 18th in Saturday’s qualifying race.
Although Marshal had been searching for that elusive strong getaway for most GP’s thus far the first Matterley Basin moto turned out to be a game changer. Weltin guided his Honda to 8th in the opening lap and put in a spectacularly consistent and confident ride. Matching the pace of front runners Marshal circulated in 6th for most of the moto and picked up another position after Thomas-Kjer Olsen retired. The first race saw team mate De Waal luckless on the opening lap. After his crash Micha made a tremendous push from last to 20th when he went down hard and pulled off.
A first lap crash could have complicated things for Marshal Weltin but he made the best of exploiting his good feeling with the track and his improved bike performance. From 24th after the opening lap he fought back to claim 13th at the checkers. Battered and bruised “MBDW” lined up for the final 30-minute plus 2 lap chase. The spectacular Dutchman suffered a bad start yet he remained in contention for the last championship point until the end. It was heartbreaking to see Micha ride through the pain barrier to miss out on 20th by 1,2 seconds.
This weekend the MX2 World championship reaches the halfway mark of the 20-round series at Saint-Jean d’Angély in France.
Marshal Weltin: “The results in moto 1 were a great feeling for me, fifth is a career best. Being able to (finally) give the team something back has been very satisfying. It was great in the sense of a personal accomplishment too. The fact that it took me so long to get a result hasn’t been because of a lack of grinding or working. We made some changes with the performance of the bike both engine-wise and with the suspension and that turned out well on the track. Let’s keep the momentum up for next weekend in France!
Micha-Boy De Waal: “Matterly Basin was a very difficult GP for me. I managed to come back strong after my first lap crash in the opening moto but with 10 minutes to go I hit the deck hard. My back really hurt, luckily they couldn’t find any serious injury at the mobile clinic just severe bruises. I tried everything I could in the second race but my lower back gave me a lot of pain.”
Words: Tom Jacobs
Pic: ShotbyBavo