British MX2 racer Jake Nicholls has
enjoyed a solid weekend at the Czech GP, where despite the wet weather 21
000 fans turned out over the weekend to enjoy the intense racing
action.
After a delayed start to his race
season through injury, Jake Nicholls has been gaining more and more speed
at every GP, and this weekend was no exception as the young Brit pulled off
a great start in moto 1 and fought hard up at the sharp end of the pack.
Heading around lap one in 3rd position Nicholls was hot on the
tail of Herlings, whilst Factory Yamaha’s Gautier Paulin was pushing
hard in 4th.
Paulin managed to slip past on lap
3 leaving Nicholls, Roelants, Aubin and Anstie all battling it out for the
entire race. At the end of the moto Nicholls had overpowered Roelants, and
fought off a last lap charge from Searle to cross the line in a superb
5th position.
As the gate dropped for moto 2
Nicholls was once again quick out the gate, but getting caught up with some
other riders took Nicholls down on the first turn. Re-mounting and setting
off at the back of the pack the determined KTM racer soon settled into a
fast pace and clawed his way through the MX2 pack, passing riders lap after
lap on the slippery circuit and ‘one lined’ circuit. At the end
of a tough moto Nichols crossed the line in 11th position having
fought through from almost 30th place.
The combined moto results scored
Nicholls 8th overall for the GP, just 1 point off of
6th place.
Jake Nicholls: “Overall I was
really happy with my riding, straight away in Sunday warm-up I was
comfortable and confident for a good race. The first moto was a good start
and I felt ok running with the front guys, also my fitness was no problem.
I held 4th until 2 laps to go, but then I got cross-rutted going
up one of the hills and that dropped me to 5th. Moto 2 was
another good start, but I got hit hard on the first turn and that just
knocked me straight off the bike! In the end I fought back from dead last
to 11th, so I can’t complain, but the points were all so
close, actually in the end I was only a few points off a top 5, and less
than 10 off the podium, so this really encourages me. The next GP is my
home GP, I am really excited to race in front of my home crowd. I raced my
first ever GP on that circuit back in 2006, I enjoy the track and hope to
perform well.”
Results:
MX2 Race 1
1 Roczen,
Ken
GER
KTM
2 Herlings,
Jeffrey NED
KTM
3 Aubin,
Nicolas
FRA KTM
4 Anstie,
Max
GBR
Kawasaki
5
Nicholls, Jake
GBR KTM
6 Searle,
Tommy GBR
Kawasaki
7 Roelants,
Joel BEL
KTM
8 Teillet,
Valentin FRA
Suzuki
9 Tonus,
Arnaud SUI
Yamaha
10 Tixier,
Jordi
FRA
KTM
MX2 Race 2
1 Roczen,
Ken
GER
KTM
2 Herlings,
Jeffrey NED
KTM
3 Searle,
Tommy GBR
Kawasaki
4 Tonus,
Arnaud SUI
Yamaha
5 Paulin,
Gautier FRA
Yamaha
6 Anstie,
Max
GBR
Kawasaki
7 Teillet,
Valentin FRA
Suzuki
8 van
Horebeek, J BEL
KTM
9 Roelants,
Joel BEL
KTM
10 Kullas, Harri
FIN
Yamaha
11 Nicholls,
Jake GBR
KTM
MX2 GP Overall:
1 Roczen,
Ken
GER
KTM
50
2 Herlings,
Jeffrey NED
KTM
44
3 Searle,
Tommy GBR
Kawasaki
35
4 Anstie,
Max
GBR
Kawasaki
33
5 Tonus,
Arnaud SUI
Yamaha 30
6 Teillet,
Valentin FRA
Suzuki
27
7 Roelants,
Joel BEL
KTM
26
8
Nicholls, Jake
GBR KTM
26
9 Aubin,
Nicolas
FRA KTM
20
10 van Horebeek,
J BEL
KTM
19
MX2 World championship
standings:
1 Roczen,
Ken
GER
540
2 Herlings,
J.
NED
513
3 Searle,
Tommy GBR
435
4 Paulin,
G.
FRA
389
5 Tonus,
Arnaud SUI
325
6 Anstie,
Max
GBR
318
7 Osborne,
Z.
USA
295
8 Kullas,
Harri
FIN
268
9 Aubin,
Nicolas
FRA 227
10 Roelants, Joel
BEL
206
11 Charlier,
C.
FRA
179
12 Nicholls,
Jake GBR
165