Jake Weimer on the podium at Bercy Supercross
Newsflash, 31 October 2011
The annual Supercross of Paris Bercy has been once more a huge success. Jake Weimer was one of the fastest riders in Bercy, and put his Monster Kawasaki on the final podium.
For its 29th anniversary the French classic met some of the fastest SX riders, including Americans Jake Weimer and Nick Wey, or regular GP contenders such as Tommy Searle, Gregory Aranda or Dylan Ferrandis. Thanks to Weimer and Aranda there was one Kawasaki on the podium each night, and for his first attempt in a European Supercross Jake Weimer finished third in the ‘King of Bercy’ classification.
Riding his factory Monster Kawasaki in Paris, Jake Weimer was always among the fastest riders and posted twice the best lap time in the practice sessions. Third on Friday and second on Sunday in the main event, Jake lost his chance to become “King of Bercy” when he hit a neutral and crashed on Saturday. But it was a great experience for him, who missed most of the Supercross season after his injury; he proved in Paris how fast he can be on a SX track!
Called just one week before the event to replace Christophe Pourcel, Tommy Searle flew to Paris after just a couple of hours of training on his KX 450 F Kawasaki since the Motocross of Nations! Tommy improved his results night after night; eleventh, seventh and finally sixth on Sunday despite a crash, he gained more experience in Supercross and was the best European competitor behind Frenchmen Soubeyras and Izoird, both Supercross experts.
Third overall before the third and last day, Nick Wey confirmed his good performances in the Monster Cup for his second race on a Kawasaki. Fifth and then fourth during the first two nights, Nick was unfortunate to crash on Sunday while recovering from a poor start.
As usual Gregory Aranda was one of the fastest riders in Bercy; twice winner and later runner-up of the Super Pole session – each rider has a single lap to post a fast lap – Greg got a strong podium on Saturday with a third position. But he retired on Friday after a collision at the start of the main, and crashed pretty hard in the tunnel on Sunday during his last race for the Bud Racing Kawasaki team. He suffers a concussion, and went to the hospital for more exams after his crash.
Team mate Dylan Ferrandis was unfortunate aboard his KX 250 F; excellent on Friday with a fourth position in the SX Tour, Dylan crashed in the main event. Racing mainly the SX Tour class, he missed the qualification for the International program on Saturday and Sunday, due to race incidents.
Jake Weimer: “I had some good and some bad moment here in Bercy, overall the result is pretty decent. I won a couple of heat races, put some good lap times, it could have been better but it’s like it is! I had fun there and I would be pleased to be back next year; it was my first time in Bercy, I was excited and I knew what to expect with the crowd and the stadium. More than anything, anytime you can line up behind the gate and race is a good practice; Bercy was a good practice for me, I would have like to do better but I did a couple of faults including a crash on Saturday. My speed is decent right now, but my starts were up and down; when you have a bad start then it’s tough to ride in front, but overall it was a very good experience.”
Tommy Searle: “It was a last minute choice to race here; I got a phone call from Jean Jacques Luisetti last Wednesday when I was in holidays in the US. I had just four days on the bike before coming here as I didn’t ride since the Nations, but thanks to Mitch he provided some very good material. I was unprepared for this race and I didn’t like this, but I had fun and overall it was not so bad. I’m sure I could have been faster but this race was not so important for me, I didn’t want to take any risks. Each day I was better, I enjoyed the main event as during fifteen laps you can push and learn a lot. It was a nice weekend for me, I was happy to see my family and my friends who came to support me.”
Nick Wey : “I think that I had a very good chance of winning on Sunday; I didn’t got such a good start in the main and I knew I really need to make some quick passes but I made a mistake and crashed, it happens! A lot of time in the US I struggled with my speed this year, and it was good to be fastest in the practice session in Paris and coming to the main on Sunday I really wanted to do well as I still had a chance to be King of Bercy. Since I’m back on the Kawasaki I have great feelings and that would have been nice to be on the overall podium, but that didn’t happen. Anyway it was a good weekend for me.”
Dylan Ferrandis: “Friday was excellent for me; it was tough to race this event on a 250, but I went at least one time in the main event. I was unlucky as they put the red flag when I was leading the SX tour; then Soubeyras jumped on me on Saturday, for sure it could have been better. But I had also some nice battles with Nick Wey, and that’s positive as Nick got some great results here.”
Overall classification:
1.Chisholm (USA, Yamaha) 2.Tomac (USA, Honda) 3.Weimer (USA, Kawasaki) 4.Alessi (USA, Suzuki) 5.Soubeyras (FRA, Honda) 6.Izoird (FRA, Suzuki) 7.Searle (GBR, Kawasaki) 8.Wey (USA, Kawasaki) 9.Barcia (USA, Honda) 10.Aubin (FRA, Honda) 12.Aranda (FRA, Kawasaki) 17.Ferrandis (FRA, Kawasaki).
