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World trial: Double win for Bou and double third for Fujinami in Japan
02 giugno 2008
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This year, the event was again based at Honda’s motorsport centre, the outstanding Twin Ring Motegi circuit. While some of the sections will have been familiar to many of the riders, the organisers worked hard to create new challenges within the complex, featuring a combination of climbs and dips among earth banks and a series of tricky and technical sections over numerous rocks. Each day began and ended with the traditional purpose-built sections in front of the crowd on the circuit’s start/finish straight. The weather conditions for the two days could not have been more different. Heavy rain during Friday night and into Saturday morning meant that the soft earth quickly became extremely muddy and the rocks and tree stumps which offered good grip in the dry, were now treacherously slippery. So bad were the conditions that even Bou’s customary calm was absent at times during the first day. The scores at the end of Saturday demonstrated just how tough the weather made the event; only Bou and Raga took less than one hundred marks throughout day one. However, the scores do not belie the quality of the competition, with no less than seven riders covered by ten points at the end of the first lap. Bou went on to maintain his poise in difficult conditions and Raga was unable to mount a realistic challenge for the win. Fujinami suffered a brief spell of frustration however, as a crash in the first lap damaged the clutch on his Cota 4RT. The Montesa mechanics carried out running repairs part-way round and then completed the job between the two laps. However, despite bettering his first-lap score, he was unable to close the gap enough to raga to clinch second and came home in third, just six marks adrift. While the result on Sunday was a repeat of Saturday, the weather definitely was not. Bright sunshine greeted the riders and thousands of fans and the organisers had made changes to several sections overnight, to cope with the now very muddy and rutted sections. As a result, the competition was even closer than Saturday, with Bou and Fujinami tied on marks at the end of the first lap with Raga in third. However, while Bou resisted the pressure from Raga, who took less marks on the second lap but remained in second, Fujinami admitted to two mistakes that cost him ten marks and ultimately, a better result. However, the local hero was pleased with the team’s performance and there was more for him to celebrate. The organisers of the event made a presentation to celebrate his 200th Grand Prix trial event, a remarkable achievement and particularly poignant, coming at the home event for both himself and the Repsol Montesa HRC team. Bou - 1st /1st : “I must admit I was a little nervous coming here this weekend, as it is very important for the team to do well at its home event. There was perhaps a little more pressure than some of the other events because of that but I am extremely happy to get two wins for the team in its home country. Today [Sunday] was easier than yesterday, for sure. The changes to the sections and the better weather made the riding much nicer and you can see from the scores that this was so. It was very close today with me and Fuji and with Adam as well. Adam put a lot of pressure on, as did Fuji but I tried to concentrate on riding the best race I could, rather than look over my shoulder at what they were doing and it worked.” |
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