With hot weather as well as hot racing, the FIM MX3 World Championship round two kicked off today at the beautiful circuit of Troyan, Bulgaria, where Slovenian Klemen Gercar was the top qualifier.
When the gates dropped for the MX3 qualifying race it was Klemen Gercar who was fired up, taking the holeshot with Matthias Walkner and Pier Felippo Bertuzzo hot on his heels. Walkner was quick to make a move on Gercar and take a hold of the lead but unfortunately for Walkner, Gercar was in no mood for games taking back the lead just a few turns later. Not long after Gercar got back around Walkner, Pier Felippo Bertuzzo decided he wanted a piece of the action, making a pass to take over the second position, the pass was successful but Walkner was not prepared to give up, he remained on the back wheel of Bertuzzo throwing everything he could at him until the finish, but in the end Bertuzzo remained strong holding off Walkner for second place.
Meanwhile Tomas Simko and Petr Michalec were in a stiff battle of their own for the fifth position, but neither were to settle as another challenger in the form of Timur Muratov was soon hard on their case passing both Simko and Michalec within a period of two laps. Muratov’s charge didn’t stop there; he eventually caught and passed the current MX3 point’s leader Gert Krestinov to finish the race in fourth, forcing Krestinov to settle for fifth.
Further back Czech Frantisek Smola was looking fast, fresh off his American ‘AMA’ experience, but with a mistake leaving him off the track, he only managed to finish seventh. Also going off the track was fellow Czech and top pre-qualifier Martin Michek, who was looking very fast in practise, but after a bad start and a couple of mistakes ninth place was the best he could do.
In the end the qualifying race was won comfortably by Klemen Gercar who finished seventeen seconds ahead of second and third place riders Pier Filippo Bertuzzo and Matthias Walkner.
MX3 Qualifying Race top ten: 1. Klemen Gercar (SLO, Honda), 23:53.811; 2. Pier Filippo Bertuzzo (ITA, Yamaha), +0:17.138; 3. Matthias Walkner (AUT, KTM), +0:19.298; 4. Timur Muratov (RUS, KTM), +0:32.625; 5. Gert Krestinov (EST, Kawasaki), +0:40.533; 6. Tomas Simko (SVK, KTM), +0:42.790; 7. Frantisek Smola (CZE, KTM), +0:43.862; 8. Petr Michalec (CZE, Honda), +0:44.413; 9. Martin Michek (CZE, KTM), +0:44.855; 10. Ardo Kaurit (EST, Yamaha), +0:49.425;
Click here to obtain the complete results
The second round of the FIM MX3 Motocross World Championship will be broadcast LIVE on the Bulgarian National TV Station BNT. Click here to download the complete MX3 TV coverage of the Bulgarian round.
MX3 Round of Bulgaria – QUICK FACTS
Circuit length: 1652m
Type of ground: hard pack
Temperature: 27° C
Weather conditions: Sunny with a few morning showers