Maxime Desprey of Team Bud Racing Kawasaki Monster Energy joined a select band of three riders who have scored back-to-back victories in the prestigious Paris-Lille/Bercy Supercross.
Two legends of the sport -American Jeff Emig and France’s David Vuillemin – are the only other two to have achieved the feat previously in the ‘lites class’ throughout the 32 year history of the event.
Maxime will soon walk on the footsteps of his compatriot Vuillemin when he crosses the Atlantic to contest the US Supercross on the West Coast next season with Team Bud Racing Kawasaki Monster Energy.
With two wins and two second positions during the four SX2 races, Maxime Desprey posted the best performance of the weekend in this class and claimed the ‘Prince of Lille’ title of the second consecutive year.
Racing just a few days before he moves to the US to join up with his new team-mate Darian Sanayei, Maxime didn’t get out of the gate well on two starts, but each time he came back strongly to finish second.
Maxime was a comfortable winner of the other two races. Darian, the young American who will also race for Bud in the US Supercross on the West Coast in 2016, was competing in his first Supercross for his new team.
Fast and technical, he missed out on a good overall result as he crashed in two races – he was leading the first race on Saturday until he crashed in the whoops and then on Sunday he was again leading when he fell in the sandy section.
For sure the new recruit to the team, who was eventually classified seventh overall, has great potential and he will return to Europe to contest the European MX2 series alongside Nicolas Dercourt, while Maxime will switch to a 450 Kawasaki to race the French Elite series and selected events.
Speaking after the second night in Lille Maxime Desprey said: “It’s always cool to win this event, even if I didn’t win all the races this year. The first night I made some mistakes – I got a bad start in the second race and I was too nervous, going off the track once, but in the end I won the first night with a heat win and then a second place.
“On Sunday it was better; I was more focused and made less mistakes; in the first race I got a good start and quickly made a gap to the other riders, then in the second one my start was not as good but I knew when I recovered to second that it was enough to win the event overall so I didn’t take any risks.
“For me the track design was better than last year, but the ground was soft and you had to be careful in the whoops section. It was a good training before moving to the US but I will keep my feet on the ground. I know that in the US it will be different, but for sure it’s good for my confidence to win here.”
Darian Sanayei enjoyed his taste of Euro supercross: “It was a good experience racing here in Lille – my results were not so great but I had good speed, my starts were all right, I led some laps and for sure I gained some more experience coming to this race.
“The entire event was awesome, but the track was definitively a little bit soft and you had to be 100 per cent focused on it. I had some crashes – one in the whoops on Saturday when I went over the bars, and another Sunday in the sand section while I was leading the race. I made some mistakes, sorry for that!
“Now we have seven weeks before Anaheim 1 – we’ll go back now to the USA and prepare for this series.”
