Fiolek Podiums at Bulgarian GP Motocross
Sevlievo – The LS Motors-Honda girls started their season in style. American Women’s MX champion Ashley Fiolek grabbed another podium spot, her third podium from her five GP starts so far! Ashley finished 3rd in both races and left a very good impression. Fiolek took the holeshot in both moto’s and enjoyed held the leader spot for a couple of moments. On Saturday as well as on Sunday German Laier and reigning World champion Lancelot proved to be a bit faster. Lancelot won the GP in Sevlievo in front of Laier and Fiolek. However Ashley was the best American girl on Bulgarian soil with Tarah Gieger coming home ninth while Aubrianna Dunn unfortunately didn’t score any points.
Belgium’s Elien De Winter ended up 11dth in the overall standings. That was a surprisingly good result l given her injuries (Elien is on the mend after suffering a broken vertebra and a dislocated pelvis). In the first race on Saturday Elien finished in 8th. In the Sunday she had to ride through the pain barrier but clinched an honourable 13th position nevertheless. De Winter became 11th and first Belgian in the overall standings. Brenda Wagemans was 13rd and Morane de Barquin 24th.
Ashley Fiolek: I couldn’t be any happier with my weekend because we got another podium! That’s exactly our goal when we come to race in Europe. Actually I felt good on Sunday morning and thought that I could push for the win. Things turned out differently with the soil being a bit slippery from watering and the track was becoming very rutted. That’s when I really miss my factory RedBull/Honda bike! But I don’t want to make any excuses, because I did manage two holeshots on my production CRF250R! Besides Livia (Lancelot) and Stephanie (Laier) were riding realy well this weekend. I’m already looking forward to racing them again.
Elien De Winter: Sure I am disappointed by this result. But then again, I am enough of a realist to know I should be happy to just be here! I took 21 points, so that’s pretty good damage limitation. Yesterday went reasonably well, a bad start meant that the 8th place was quite ok. Today turned out to be a totally different ballgame. When I got up this morning I had a lot of back pain. In fact, I could barely walk. Since I am allergic to most medication, pain killers were out of the question. Off course you try to spare you back by working with your legs and shoulders but after two laps I already knew that it would be very hard to stay in the race. Those 20 minutes and two laps seemed to go on forever. I have never been so happy that the race was over as today.
Results
Race 1:
1 Laier (GER-KTM),
2. Lancelot (FRA-Kawasaki),
3. Ashley Fiolek (USA-LS Motors Honda),
4 Franke (GERKawasaki),
5 Mann (SWE-KTM),
6 Kane (IRL-Suzuki),
7 Veenstra (NED-Suzuki),
8 Elien De Winter (BEL-LS Motors Honda),
9 Papenmeier (GER-Suzuki),
10 Fontanesi (ITA-Yamaha)
Race 2:
1 Lancelot,
2. Laier,
3 Ashley Fiolek (USA-LS Motors Honda),
4 Mann
5. Veenstra,
6 Gieger (USAL-Yamaha),
7. Papenmeier,
8 Franke,
9 Kane,
10 Fontana
