Losail, Qatar, provided the HSF Logistics Motorsport Team with its first opportunity to reap motocross world championship points for the 2017 season. This despite the fact that the weekend was not the smoothest ever for Brian Bogers, Davy Pootjes and Calvin Vlaanderen, who finished 15th, 18th and 19th respectively.

Calvin Vlaanderen’s weekend started in minor key. His bike fell over in the waiting zone before the qualifying heat. This resulted in the electrical wire of his starter button short circuiting, making it difficult to start the bike. After a push start, the bike stalled again behind the gate, and Calvin missed the qualifying race. ” My weekend started off badly, because my mechanic could not enter the country due to a visa problem. To add to my problems, a issue prevented me from starting in the qualifying race, which meant that I had to start both races from the 32nd gate,” a disappointed rider explained afterwards.

Also Brian Bogers had some troubles during qualifying, After a crash, a number of other riders rode into his bike. The resultant damage also forced him out of the race. Davy Pootjes did finish the qualifying race in 14th position.

The riders regrouped and went into Saturday’s races with renewed enthusiasm. Brian Bogers started his first race well and slotted into ninth spot. He held onto a top ten spot for a long while, but later in the race, he lost some rhythm, and dropped a few spots, finishing 14th.

Davy Pootjes had a lesser start and had to claw his way back from outside the top 20. He quickly worked his way into the points, and as the race moved towards its end, he claimed a few more spots with a final push and finished 16th.

Calvin Vlaanderen felt the drag of his bad starting gate, and had to fight forward from 26th position. He made good initial progress, but also lost his rhythm and finished 23rd for the race.

Brian Bogers launched into 17th spot at the start of race two, and rode like a man on a mission to claim 13th spot, making him the highest-placed Dutch rider in the field. “We had hoped for more, but we had bits of trouble throughout the weekend. Despite this, I am happy that we broke the ice and got into the points. Next week offers new opportunities, and we’ll be going for it fully motivated,” he said.

Calvin Vlaanderen also had a much better second heat. Again he had to recover from the back of the field, but this time, he rode well into the points with 16th place. ‘’In the first race I battled to find my rhythm, and I really rode as if I were on a training ride. In the second race, it was much better, with more aggression and more competitive speed. I’m disappointed, because this is not what we had hoped for and could have achived. We will be working hard on it to come back stronger next week,” Calvin said.

Davy Pootjes’  second race was a carbon copy of his first. Recovering from a lesser start yet again, he again forced his way into 16th spot.  “We took the positives out of the weekend on which we can build. The results were not what we wanted, but I gained a lot of confidence, and that is important at this stage. We leave here uninjured, and ready to tackle the challenge again in Indonesia,” he said.

In the overall standings, Brian Bogers raked home 15th spot, Davy Pootjes claimed 18th and Calvin Vlaanderen 19th.  Next weekend the teammates will line up for the second round of the series in Indonesia. This race will follow the usual time schedule, with qualifying on Saturday and the races on Sunday.

Overall Grand Prix MX2 in Qatar:

1 Pauls Jonass 50 Pnt

2 Benoit Paturel 44 Pnt

3 Julien Lieber 40 Pnt

4 Thomas Kjer Olsen 36 Pnt

5 Michele Cervellin 28 Pnt

15 Brian Bogers 14 Pnt

18 Davy Pootjes 10 Pnt

19 Calvin Vlaanderen 6 Pnt

Author

Dan Lamb is a 12+ year journalist and the owner of MotoXAddicts.