Champion Bou wins on day two in Australia – Fujinami sixth

2014-04-13 17:21
It
was business as usual for current world trials
champion Toni Bou – Repsol Honda on day two in
Australia as he took a clear win from Adam Raga –
Gas Gas with Jeroni Fajardo – Beta, third. After
taking the win on day one of the Grand Prix of
Australia which opened the 2014 FIM series
Takahisa Fujinami – Repsol Honda could not carry
the form into day two and finished a lowly sixth.

The organisers had made modifications to six of
the hazards for the second day in order to
extract more marks from the riders and this
clearly showed in the final scores. It was clear
blue skies once again over the event for the
competitors as they set off to compete over three laps of fourteen sections.

The opening lap is always difficult as the riders
watch each other’s attempts to gain the advantage
and Bou made his move on section seven as he was
the only rider to lose no marks which boosted his
confidence for the remainder of the lap. The
difficult section thirteen though would once
again prove difficult as Bou stopped and lost
five marks with only the Sherco rider Alexandre
Ferrer losing no marks for a spectacular clean
ride. Fujinami and the young Spanish rider Jorge
Casales – Gas Gas would be the only other two
riders passing through the ends cards as the rest
of the entry failed. As the first lap scores came
in Bou on five marks held the advantage from Raga
who was on ten which consisted of just two five
mark penalties. The other leading riders had
scores of over twenty each such was the dominant riding of the leading two.

On the second lap Raga knew that to challenge Bou
he would have to keep the pressure on but Bou
parted with just a solitary mark on section two
though Raga also improved from his first lap to
drop only two single marks on sections three and
ten as these two riders pulled away from the rest
of the entry to make the fight for the win there own.

Another notable performance came from Great
Britain’s James Dabill – Beta who had a lap score
of seven but he had accrued too many marks on the
opening lap to make a serious challenge for a place on the podium.

It was a very tense final lap for Bou and Raga as
they knew that one slip would change everything
but they both held their nerve and parted with
only single marks each to give Bou the victory.
For Raga the damage had been done on the opening
lap and despite some excellent riding he had to
admit defeat to his Spanish rival and current
world champion. For the other competitors the
modifications to the hazards had certainly made
make them harder to clean and Jeroni Fajardo came
home a distant third. Fajardo again claiming his
third position on the tie breaker rule having
finished on thirty nine marks together with
Albert Cabestany – Sherco. Cabastany making up
for his disappointing sixth position finish on day one.

Toni Bou now takes a seven point advantage in the
championship standings to the next round in Japan later this month.

HONDA RIDER COMMENTS:

Toni Bou: “The pressure has been on me to win
today and I am very happy to take this victory.
Second position yesterday was a good start to
this year’s series but I now have the confidence
to carry this victory to the next round in Japan.
I would like to thank everyone in Australia for
the support and also my team Repsol Honda for a good job”.

Takahisa Fujinami: “I have been frustrated with
my riding today as maybe I was expecting too much
after the win yesterday, maybe I tried to hard
today. I am now in second position in the
championship which I am happy with as the series
moves later this month to my home round in Japan”.

Results: Mount Tarrengower (Australia) – 13.04.2014

1: Toni Bou (Repsol Honda-ESP) 7; 2: Adam Raga
(Gas Gas-ESP) 13; 3: Jeroni Fajardo (Beta-ESP)
39; 4: Albert Cabestany (Sherco-ESP) 39; 5: James
Dabill (Beta-GBR) 50; 6: Takahisa Fujinami
(Repsol Honda-JPN) 69; 7: Jorge Casales (Gas
Gas-ESP) 81; 8: Eddie Karlsson (Montesa-SWE) 106;
9: Pol Tarres (Sherco-ESP) 106; 10: Alexandre Ferrer (Sherco-FRA) 116.

World Championship
1: Toni Bou (Repsol Honda-ESP) 37; 2: Takahisa
Fujinami (Repsol Honda-JPN) 30; 3: Adam Raga (Gas
Gas-ESP) 30; 4: Jeroni Fajardo (Beta-ESP) 30; 5:
Albert Cabestany (Sherco-ESP) 23; 6: James Dabill
(Beta-GBR) 22; 7: Jorge Casales (Gas Gas-ESP) 16;
8: Pol Tarres (Sherco-ESP) 16; 9: Eddie Karlsson
(Montesa-SWE) 14; 10: Alexandre Ferrer (Sherco-FRA) 14.

Source: Honda Pro Image

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