Brad Todd wins in Italy – beats some big names!
The Bologna motor show is one of the biggest in the World… 10 days of motoring madness from F1 to Rallycross, to 35,000 HP Dragsters and two-wheeling truck-driving stuntsters with the very latest motoring magic from E-cars to Bently 4×4 to every aspect of motorcycling including motocross. A feast for the eyes and soul of the every petrol-head on two or four wheels…
One of the literal centres of attention is the race circuit arena which nestles between show halls. A combination of tarmac and sand, groomed to perfection as a host to a celebration of motorsport.
The daily delights of two and four wheel demo’s and races culminates in an invitational International motocross event featuring the very best riders in almost every class of racing… As an Italian team, in one of the biggest Italian shows, the I-FLY JK YAMAHA team had to be there and make our presence felt.
We unveiled most of our 2018 team at this event… Our young (14 year old, Dutch) lady racer Lynn Valk took the overall win in the WMX class with a 2/1 score on the Thursday, then on Friday, a public holiday in Italy, our teenaged Hungarian racer Adam Kovac made 4th spot in the 125 class, just missing a podium place by 2 points.
International newcomer, 16 year old Welsh racer Jaydon Murphy (No.118 (middle-left) in the image of the Grand Finale start… Right up there…) took a well deserved eighth place in the MX2 class in the Super Finale, capping a great debut ride on his first visit to Italy.
However the biggest upset of the day was caused by our own UK EMX250 teamster Brad Todd who threatened the established arenacross stars Alessandro Lupino and Cedric Soubeyras in the first two motos, splitting the Italian and Frenchman comfortably to take two second places, then in the Grand Finale, the combined top-eight from MX2 and MX1, Brad holeshot and checked-out, stunning the star-studded opposition. Lupino was never close enough to attack and Soubeyras struggled to maintain the pace of the leaders and ended a half lap away at the flag. One -Two-Three was Todd – Lupino – Alvin Ostlund.
All together a fantastic two days of racing and a brilliant start to the I-FLY JK YAMAHA team’s 2018 season on (Italian) home soil in front of thousands of motor-show fans.
As always, a BIG thank you to the team and all our sponsors and supporters.
Focus now turns to the UK Arenacross series where we, as current UK ProLite AX Champions, Jason Meara will be looking to defend our title and we will be going all-out to head the field in the Pro class with heavy-weight hitters Dan Reardon and Florent Richier.
Words: Dickie Dye
