Nederlands
Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2’s Rick Elzinga has placed sixth overall at his home GP in The Netherlands for round 16 of the 2024 MX2 World Championship. The Dutchman charged through the field in both races, finishing sixth in Race One and improving to fifth in Race Two. For Elzinga’s teammate, Karlis Reisulis, seventh in the opening race set the Latvian up for a strong weekend. Unfortunately, an early incident in Race Two ruled him out of the running, and he’d finish 15th overall.
The rough, choppy, and technical sand circuit of Arnhem in The Netherlands hosted the Dutch GP for only the second time. With both youngsters very competitive in the sand – Elzinga stood on the podium in second overall just three weeks ago in Lommel, Belgium – they both had high hopes of impressing. However, mid-pack starts held them back from fully demonstrating their capabilities at round 16 of MXGP.
Elzinga’s results at his home GP weren’t quite what he was hoping for, but his racecraft and blistering pace was on full show in The Netherlands. In Race One, a hard charge saw him reach as high as fifth with a handful of laps to go until Camden McLellan demoted him back to sixth. Elzinga retook fifth on the last lap, but a lapped rider slowed him down, allowing McLellan to move back past him. The Yamaha YZ250FM racer then held off his younger teammate Reisulis to cross the finish line in sixth.
A mid-pack start in Race Two gave Elzinga a lot of work to do. Within a couple of laps though he was into the top 10 before he began chasing down the top five riders. Closing in lap by lap, the 21-year-old worked his way past Sacha Coenen with four laps to go, coming up just short of advancing further as the laps wound down. Placing sixth overall, Elzinga remains sixth in the MX2 Championship Standings.
For Reisulis, it was a mixed weekend of racing. Feeling confident for a strong overall finish after posting the third-fastest time in the morning’s warm-up session, that speed carried over into Race One when he chased Elzinga across the line to place seventh. Frustratingly, Reisulis’ weekend came to a premature end in Race Two when he fell and a competitor landed on his bike, rendering it too damaged for him to rejoin the race. With four rounds to go, Reisulis remains 17th in the MX2 World Championship Standings.
From the deep sand of The Netherlands, the team now heads to the hardpack of Fraunfeld in Switzerland next weekend for the 17th round of the MX2 World Championship on August 24-25.
Rick Elzinga “Today was a good day. My speed was good but bad starts in both races cost me. In the first one I used up a lot of energy to reach the top five but I kept on pushing. I moved into fifth on the last lap after dropping to sixth mid-race, but then I was held up by a lapped rider and got passed back so I ended up sixth. Race Two was similar. A bad start and then by the time I got into sixth the top five were too far ahead, although I closed in on Kay de Wolf at the end but he seemed to have a problem. So, sixth overall is ok and now it’s on to Switzerland.”
Karlis Reisulis “I have mixed feelings about this weekend. In warm-up this morning, I felt really good on the bike and felt confident for the races. My start in Race One wasn’t too bad but I should have attacked more early in the race, but my speed was good and I came through for seventh. Then in Race Two, I clipped the start gate with my front wheel a little bit so my start wasn’t so good. I was pushing to make up time and then I crashed. I was fine but someone landed on my bike and it was unfortunately too damaged to finish the race. It’s frustrating but I’m ok and I’m looking forward to next weekend.”
Photocredits – Fullspectrum Media