Jeremy Seewer lifted his fifth consecutive podium in the MX2 class of the FIM Motocross World Championship with third position overall at Kegums and the Grand Prix of Latvia.
The Swiss, second in the MX2 standings with his works RM-Z250, currently defends a 37 point gap over third place and still has yet to drop lower than fifth after six rounds and 12 motos of the 2016 campaign.
Seewer had to negotiate a rutted and horrendously bumpy Latvian soil for the two 30 minute and two-lap motos run in bright conditions for the sixth stop of 18 on the 2016 schedule.
A rather drawn-out first race saw #91 end the opening lap in fourth position and then maintain the same ranking through the duration of the sprint as the top-five remained largely unchanged. The course became riddled with braking bumps and holes by the time of the second moto and Seewer made a much brighter start to enter second position behind the runaway Jeffrey Herlings. Seewer held-off a chasing Max Anstie until seven laps before the flag and motored past the line with third for a 4-3 for the day.
Seewer now has 230 points and although he trails the unbeaten Herlings by 70 he has a gap of 37 over Pauls Jonass.
In the EMX250 European Championship class Bas Vaessen celebrated a first podium on the RM-Z250 by finishing as runner-up. The Dutch youngster defied sustained pressure to capture an excellent second position on Saturday afternoon: On Sunday morning Vaessen rode strongly to recover from a mid-pack start and first lap position of 14th to fight through to fourth spot. The speed of Maxime Renaux meant that the #’98’ had to settle for fifth by the flag but was still able to crack open the rostrum champagne. Vaessen is fourth in the championship standings and just one point from the top three.
“We’re really happy with how things are going on the 250,” commented General Manager Stefan Everts. “Bas ‘kinda blew it in Valkenswaard and should have been on the podium but here he made sure. He rode smartly in the first moto and then hard in the second after a bad start. Jeremy made the top-three again and he didn’t have an easy first moto, losing confidence at one point, but got it going again. There is nothing more to say because he is really producing the goods.”
The Grand Prix of Germany, across the hard-pack cambers of Teutschenthal, will entertain round six of MXGP next weekend and will also see the hopefuls of the EMX250 category in action once more.
“The second moto was pretty good but Max was just a bit better,” Seewer says. “It was quite sketchy out there so I didn’t take any risks and kept it safe. In the first moto we had some struggles again but we are working on it, as well as the bike, and we are testing a lot. Overall it was an amazing weekend so a big thanks to whole crew. Everyone is motivated and happy and the season is long and we’ll keep trying to take results like these.”
Bas Vaessen commented: “It’s been a good weekend and I started well on Saturday and had some nice battles to get up and keep second place. I didn’t have a good start today and had to work to get back to the front. I didn’t want to ride too close to the edge near the end of the race and ‘kinda knew I had the podium but it still felt like a surprise! Overall it was great and I want to give a bit thanks to my parents and all the sponsors.”
