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Scorching temperatures could not stop New Zealand’s MX star Ben Townley from scoring another double GP victory in France today. Townley looked amazing all weekend and couldn’t put a foot wrong has helped to make KTM history.
As the MX1 riders lined up for the first race of the day, temperatures had already exceeded the 30°c mark and the stifling heat would play a major role in the outcome.
Townley didn’t get the start he wanted and had to make his way through the field without spending too much energy. He moved from sixth to third position in the space of three laps and had Mikael Pichon and Stefan Everts within his sights. Townley meticulously started to eat away at the eight second gap and at the same time fended off a challenge from fellow countryman, Josh Coppins. BT soon reeled in Pichon and was now hot on the heels of his biggest rival, Everts. With three laps to go, Townley’s calculated pass rattled the Belgian as he was demoted to second position. Everts tried to comeback at the factory KTM but the younger Townley had got the better of him and left Everts gaping for air. Townley gave a triumphant salute to his pit crew before crossing the finish line for victory.
A great start in the second moto put Townley into the lead from the second corner as he flew pass fellow Kiwi, Josh Coppins. Stefan Everts gave chase but fumbled on the third lap as BT continued to post consistently fast laps and controlled the race by pulling a sizeable lead. Townley took time on the final lap to thank an enthusiastic French crowd and gain his second double victory of the season. Fellow countryman, Josh Coppins followed home in second to make it a Kiwi 1-2 podium and enter into the MX1 history books.
“This has been a great weekend for KTM as they also won in the road racing and we won both the MX1 and MX2 classes here in St Jean. I’m happy at the moment that my level has improved enough to win. I now need to fight to try and get second off of Josh in the championship. At the moment I’m taking it race by race and it’s going really well at the moment. In the last few weeks we have made a lot of improvement on the bike after Japan. If we can keep going like this there is no reason why I can’t fight for second in the championship and even Stefan might make some mistakes. I want to thank team who has been working so hard week in and week out and when we have a result like this it makes it even better to work harder for the coming weeks and keep up the results. The track lay out of was great and the changes that they made were also really good. Even though we had some rain the track guys did a sufficient amount of work to make sure there were some passing lines – I think they did a great job,” stated Townley.
