Gareth Swanepoel Consistent in Turkey

For the first time in the 52 year history of the Motocross World Championships this weekend would see the world’s best riders head to Istanbul in Turkey to go head to head in round 3 of the championship. Factory Kawasaki’s Gareth Swanepoel headed into this weekend confident after his strong performance on the KX450F-SR in heat 2 of last weekend’s Bulgarian GP.

Saturday was a tough day for the charging South African as he battled to get flowing on the brand new Hezarfen circuit. Only managing a 16th in the short qualifying race meant ‘Swanie’ did not get a good gate pick for the two 35 minute and 2 lap main races, meaning strong starts would be tough to achieve.

As the gate dropped for Heat 1 Gareth was in the middle of the action, rounding up lap 1 on the rough and one lined circuit in 15th position, giving him some work to do to get himself into the top 10 where he was aiming for. As ever Gareth became faster and stronger as the race progressed, one by one he started getting the passes in as he slowly climbed up the score sheets. Having ridden a solid race, Gareth Swanepoel crossed the finish in a respectable 11th position amongst a packed field of past MX1 Grand Prix winners.

Desperate for a better start in Heat 2 ‘Swanie’ lined up his ‘green machine’ ready to get a good jump out the gate. In the heat of the moment Gareth dropped the clutch a split second too early and his bike got stuck under the dropping gate as the rest of the pack where on their way towards the first corner. A disastrous start, completing lap one in 28th position, the outlook was not good. On the first 8 laps of the race, Gareth made at least one pass on every single lap, getting him up to 19th position at roughly the half way point. Over the next few laps the Kawasaki rider made a few more passes before settling in 16th position where he remained until the end of the tough race.

“Coming from the back of the pack is just so hard, all the riders in the top 20 positions are so equally matched that it is almost impossible to get a great result with the kind of starts I’m getting this year. In Heat 2 I just got too excited and dropped the clutch too quick making it even worse. This week I am going to do some testing on the starts to get them better, hopefully I show the boys in Valkenswaard.”

www.swanie.co.za