Toni Bou took his fifth win of the season
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REPSOL HRC’S Toni Bou was back to his winning ways at the sixth round of the 2008 FIM
SPEA Trial World Championship at Tolmezzo in Italy at the weekend. He held off a strong challenge from Adam Raga on the Gas Gas to take his fifth win of the season so far.
Third place once again went to Repsol team-mate Takahisa Fujinami, making this the seventh time this year that these three riders have filled the podium.
The Italian round of the championship moved to the small town of Tolmezzo in the Carnia region, in the far north-eastern corner of Italy. The area was experiencing a heat-wave and the riders
were faced with high temperatures in the thirties as they began the event.
The trial comprised a combination of natural hazards and man-made sections,created within the
town itself. The sections were concentrated in three main areas around the town, creating a
total lap distance of nearly six miles. This meant riders not only had to contend with the
sections themselves, but traffic and the fans as they negotiated their way around the outskirts of the town.
It was Bou who set the running on the first lap, picking up a single five, a three and a two with
a pair of dabs on the tricky sections as they wound their way up several of the hillside stream
beds descending from the mountains surrounding the town.
By the end of the first lap, Toni on his factory four stroke had a clear margin of nine marks as he began his second tour.
In contrast, Raga and Fujinami were evenly matched by the end of the first tour, despite
difficulties for Fujinami, when his Cota 4RT suffered brake problems and the team were forced
to return it to the paddock to make repairs.
Their totals of twenty-one marks were reached with the pair only taking the same score on two
sections, thirteen and fourteen and the scene was set for an excellent second lap.
As it transpired, Raga was the man on the move for lap two, claiming just eleven marks against
Bou's sixteen and Fujinami's fourteen. While this was enough to ensure he would win out against
Fujinami, it was not enough to reel in Bou and claim his second win in as many weeks, but it did
mean a familiar podium ceremony for trials fans.
Bous said: "Today has been a very strange day. I made two very big mistakes and picked up a pair
of fives and at that point, I thought I would not be able to even get on the podium, let alone win. However, I was able to take another victory, which I knew would be important and of course,
I’m very happy to do so. The sections here this weekend seemed quite easy, but it was also not
difficult to pick up points. I think it was very good for the spectators to have the sections
mainly in three areas, but it did mean we had to cover a lot of ground between them. It tends to
be a bit easier when the events are more compact."
RESULTS:
1. Toni Bou (SPA-Montesa), 28
2. Adam Raga (SPA-Gas Gas), 32
3. Takahisa Fujinami (JPN-Montesa), 35
4. Albert Cabestany (SPA-Sherco), 44
5. Jeroni Fajardo (SPA-Beta), 62
6. James Dabill (GBR-Montesa), 65
7. Dougie Lampkin (GBR-Beta), 69
8. Marc Freixa (SPA-Gas Gas), 81
9. Michael Brown (GBR-Beta), 95
10. Jordi Pascuet (SPA-Beta), 99
11. Daniel Oliveras (SPA-Sherco), 101
12. Michele Orizio (ITA-Scorpa), 111
13. Daniele Maurino (ITA-Gas Gas), 122
14. Francesco Iolitta (ITA-Scorap), 125
15. Jerome Bethune (FRA-Beta), 127
World Championship positions after 6 rounds
1. Bou, 151
2. Raga, 136
3. Fujinami, 127
4. Cabestany, 89
5.Fajardo, 88
6. Lampkin, 88
7. Freixa, 67
8. Dabill, 67
9. Brown, 52
10. Oliveras, 40
11. Ogawa, 15
12. Maurino, 15
13. Nozaki, 14
14. Kuroyama, 14
15. Bethune, 14
Next event: Round 7 at Kramolin (Czech Republic) on 06 July.
