Victory for Leok in Final Belgian Championship Event
Whether it's his impending marriage, his new racing contract, the weather, or the planets, one does not know, but Tanel Leok has struck a purple patch of form recently. After his first GP victory in Ireland, the Estonian Express has been brimming with confidence. By the looks of it, he took this confidence with him in bucket-loads to the last round of the United Telecom Belgian Championships in Pierreux. The Belgian organisers, always amongst the most progressive in Europe, dished up a completely new - and spectacular track for riders and spectators alike. A perfect autumn day, large crowd, good line-up and the buzz of a championship final would make for a memorable day's worth of racing.
The Express was chugging on all cylinders, and despite the presence of an all-star field in the United Telecom Trophy, including Ken De Dijcker, Steve Ramon, Josh Coppins, MX2 world champion Tyla Rattray (on his 250cc machine), and a host of others, Tanel stopped the clocks with the fastest qualifying time. Despite his good gate, the first race had a fairly ordinary course for the 23 year old. He was up there, but could not quite get his rhythm going, and eventually crossed the line in fifth position.
In the second race, Tanel left nothing to co-incidence. He grasped the race with both hands and controlled matters from the front. After a hard-fought holeshot on his Kawasaki, he topped the leaderboard every single lap, and finally came home a few seconds ahead of world number 2 Steve Ramon.
To our knowledge, Kawasaki do not manufacture photocopying machines, but Tanel certainly seemed to pull the Xerox out in race 3. From his perspective, it was a carbon copy of the second race, as it was an all-green affair at the front of the pack. This time he cruised home with an even more comfortable margin, this time heading Clement Desalle.
The two race wins were enough for Tanel to stake his claim on the biggest trophy and the prettiest trophy girl, and for the first time, he could mount the top step of a Belgian Championship podium. His next outing will be at the Motocross Of Nations in Donington, England, where he hopes to lead Estonia to another strong result in this signature event that pits the three best riders of more than 30 countries against each other.
Full results and championship standings are online.