The MXGP series kicks off for Gebben Van Venrooy Yamaha at Matterley Basin
The MXGP World Championship season finally kicked off at the weekend after Storm Eunice hit the UK the previously weekend seeing the event postponed but fast forward a week and conditions were totally different and much more ideal.
It was the return of the traditional two-day format after a few years of having to make do with the one-day format due to COVID-19 restrictions. With the MXGP riders having plenty of track time it was a busy weekend but great to see the series make a return kicking off the 2022 season. The Matterley Basin circuit presented a very rough and rutty track for the riders first test of the year.
Things started off well for Calvin Vlaanderen who’s starting his third year with the Gebben Van Venrooy Yamaha team after finishing tenth in the qualifying race. In terms of speed, it was a positive weekend for Vlaanderen as he showed flashes of what he could do but with it being the first race of the year arm pump was an issue so while 12-11 in the moto’s was a solid day, it could have gone even better.
Arminas Jasikonis was making his MXGP debut with the Gebben Van Venrooy Yamaha team and the goal for the Lithuanian will be to improve as the season progresses. With the riders having a shorter off season than usual it means Jasikonis hasn’t had time on a new bike as much as he usually would going into the season. At the opening round, Jasikonis finished 20-21 to secure a point. He’ll be looking for better results as the season goes on and break into the top fifteen as soon as possible.
The team now head to Italy for the second round of the MXGP World Championship taking place at Mantova this weekend.
Calvin Vlaanderen (11th overall): The first GP is in the books and it was definitely a challenging weekend for me. I struggled a lot with arm pump the whole weekend so some of the races I was just in survival mode, not really attacking the track and racing like I know how. It was not the results I wanted to go 12-11 at the first GP. My goal was to be inside the top eight in both races but during the second race I started to ride more lose and felt more like myself again. I will try to take that momentum into next week – I know what I need to work on so let’s try to improve for Mantova next weekend.
Arminas Jasikonis (22nd overall): The weekend was filed with bad luck. Every session I had something going on but anyways I am still happy and healthy. Those little things we can fix and riding wise I haven’t had enough time. I still need to improve my riding but it’s difficult when we have some little issues because then we can’t have productive riding, but I am happy and really motivated for Mantova. I am sure it will be much different and a different result but at the moment we don’t look to much at the results, we just try to get race time in, and everything will then be good.