Loads of elevation and loamy soil sums up the circuit of Pacov which hosted round eight of the FIM MX3 World Championship where surprise contender Frenchman Florent Richier, on his first MX3 appearance this year, took victory ahead of two typical MX3 front runners; UFO Racing MX Team’s Klemen Gercar and Orion-RS Petrol Team’s Frantisek Smola.Yesterday’s top qualifier Orion-RS Petrol Team rider Frantisek Smola was super charged at the start of race one, when he fired out of the gate to take the holeshot. Chasing the Czech Smola was red plate holder UFO Racing MX Team’s Klemen Gercar and RSC BUSKA / Ados Team’s Florent Richier. Throughout the race the trio were riding nose to tail, each looking for an opportunity to take over the lead. As they approached midrace, Richier saw an opening and took it, the Frenchman Richier went on to win, celebrating with a ‘Heel Clicker’ on the final lap. Meanwhile Smola was dealing with pressure from the championship points leader Gercar, while the battle was intense, the local rider Smola managed to hold on for second, finishing less than one second ahead of Gercar in third. Meanwhile Martin Michek didn’t get off to the best of starts but the Czech rider fought hard and managed to take fourth place, a massive fifty five seconds ahead of fellow Czech rider Jiri Cepelak in fifth.
Race two was full of suprises; race one winner RSC BUSKA / Ados Team rider Florent Richier took the holeshot and led the way ahead of Hillinger MX Team’s Matthias Walkner and RSC BUSKA / Ados teammate Martin Michek. While Richier proceeded to check out, Walkner and Michek engaged in a battle for second. Michek did eventually make a pass on Walkner to take over second but unfortunately crashed a few turns later and dropped back to third.
With one lap to go, Richier slowed down and allowed both Walkner and Michek to go by without a fight allowing the current world champion Matthias Walkner to win, just ahead of fan favorite Czech Martin Michek. Richier continued on to finish third and later admitted he purposely slowed down to allow his RSC BUSKA / Ados teammate Martin Michek take more championship points. Meanwhile Klemen Gercar managed to pass Orion-RS Petrol Team’s Frantisek Smola in the closing stages of the race to finish fourth leaving Smola to round out the top five.
Despite the strange turn of events, Frenchman Florent Richier took the overall just ahead of teammate Martin Michek. Red plate holder Klemen Gercar rounds out the top three.
Click here to obtain the complete results
The best moments of the eighth round of the FIM MX3 World Championship will be broadcast worldwide on MX-LIFE.TV and the 26 min magazine produced by Youthstream at the end of the event will also be broadcast on Fox Sports in Latin America thanks to the new agreement between Youthstream and the leading sports cable television network in Latin America, Fox Sports. By clicking here you will be able to download the complete TV coverage of the Czech round.
MX3 Round of Czech Republic – QUICK FACTS
Circuit length: 1950m
Type of ground: hard pack
Temperature: 23° C
Weather Conditions: changeable, rainy in the morning and sunny in the afternoon
Crowd attendance: 7000