Round six of the 2015 Arenacross UK saw the LPE Kawasaki Racing team head to the stunning SSE Hydro Arena in Glasgow. The long trip north would see the team arrive hoping to close the gap at the top of Pro, Rookie and Team Championships.
Inside the amazing arena the team was greeted by one of the best tracks of the tour so far, with the track holding up well during the Practice and Qualifying sessions. In the Pro class Florent Richier finished 3rd and 2nd in his two timed sessions to finish a combined 2nd fastest, while Loic Rombaut finished 5th and 6th to finish a combined 11th fastest. In the Rookies class Jimmy Margetson rode well but suffered a couple of crashes and finished 3rd fastest after the two timed sessions.
The evening show saw the SSE Hydro Arena fill up quickly as over 8000 screaming Scot’s flocked to watch the action unfold. In the opening heat of the night saw Loic Rombaut make a strong start inside the top three and working hard to push forward, while at the front Adam Chatfield crashed allowing Rombaut to move it second behind Ramette at the finish. The next heat race saw Florent produce the perfect race and take a comfortable victory ahead of countryman Coulon in second.
Next up was the Rookies final and Jimmy produced a great start and quickly moved into second place behind Osmaston. As the race progressed Jimmy was involved in some rough moves by another rider and slipped from second back to fourth, but was able to recover and return to third place and capture his first podium of the tour.
The second set of Pro heat saw both Florent and Loic line up in heat 4 and as the gate dropped Florent and Loic both made mid pack starts but within a couple of laps race leader Elliott Banks Browne crashed and in the process took out Pellegrini leaving Florent to take over the lead and the race win. Loic avoided most of the drama during the race to finish in a solid 5th place.
Next up was the Head to Head finals and for once the teams luck changed as both Florent and Loic made it to the points paying races with Loic collecting 2 points for 3rd and Florent taking a well-earned win against Ramette and claiming back four valuable championship points on the series leader.
In the Main Event the gate dropped and saw Florent round the first turn in 3rd place behind the SR75 pairing, while Rombaut was in 6th place. At the front the battle for the lead was really close but on a track that was hard to make up time, Florent had to settle for 3rd place even after a last lap charge to pass Ramette for 2nd. For Loic it was another steady race which saw him finish in 6th place.
Florent remains second in the point’s standings with Loic moving up to eighth place and closing in on a place in the top five. In the team championship the team remain in second place but with double points for grabs at the final round everything is still to play for.
Florent Richier: “Once again it has been a good and bad weekend for me, I won both the heat races and I did much better in the Head to Head and took the win. In the final I didn’t get the greatest of starts and was in third place and couldn’t find a place to pass. I’m disappointed to finish in third once again as I really wanted to get the win after such a good start to the day, but we are still in the running with two rounds to go.” Loic Rombaut: “Today I had good speed in the heat race and then I had a good Head to Head and finished third so was feeling good going into the Main Event. Unfortunately I didn’t get the best start and the other riders cut me off in the first turn. I rode steady and finished 6th which is ok but not great.”
Jimmy Margetson: “Today was okay for me but I didn’t have much confidence in the track as it was really loose, and I had a couple of crashes in qualifying. In the Main Event I thought I’ll just try and stay on the bike in the race as mistakes was easily made round this track and I was running second then dropped back to 4th before ending up with a 3rd, I didn’t think my riding was as good as it could have been but my lap time was second fastest so it made me feel better, hopefully next week goes good for me.”
Steve James: “Tonight was close but no Cigar! It was a pretty good night though with Jimmy on the Podium in the Rookies in 3rd and he is now joint 3rd in the Championship. Then in the Pro’s Loic rode good all night with a 2nd and a 5th in his heat races and 3rd in the Head to Head races. He followed that up with a 6th in the final, Loic has now moved up another place to 8th in the Championship and is closing in on the top 5. Florent was on fire tonight he won both his heat races and won the Head to Head final against Ramette so we thought tonight would be the night that we got the win in the final. It was so close that the top 3 couldn’t be separated and third was still a good result. Florent is still second in the points and still 10 points behind Ramette but with the last round at London carrying double points anything can still happen.”
