ONK Hummelo / Netherlands

On 10 July 2022, we headed to Hummelo, near the city of Arnhem, for the Dutch Championships. A technically demanding sand track awaited us, after we had travelled to Grevenbroich the day before to ride on sand. That was the right decision, because I had to give it my all straight away. The combined free and timed practice started in the morning in drizzling rain.

It took me about four laps to familiarise myself with the track, but I still lacked a bit of speed compared to the top riders. But with problems with the roll-off goggles, I managed to complete the tight time. Ninth place in qualifying was still a satisfactory result for us. It should also be noted that almost all of the 19 riders at the start are racing in the EMX65.

On the formation lap, I took another close look at the track conditions.Unfortunately, the start was already relatively bad. And the very strong field of riders made it difficult to overtake. In a four-way battle for eighth place, I was unfortunately brought down by another rider so that he was only able to continue the race in 16th place. At the end of race one, it was unfortunately only enough for 14th place.

Newly motivated, I started the second race in the 65cc small bike class. In a very strong field, I got away very well at the start this time and turned into the first corner in third place. Unfortunately, I lost a few places in the second corner as a rider crashed in front of me and I had to take evasive action.

During the race, a tough three-way battle broke out between Dion Brakke, Hidde Hutten (both Hutten Metaal Racing Team) and myself for sixth place. The boys battled until the chequered flag, so that after several position changes Luca was able to finish in seventh place. A very strong performance on the sandy track.

The aim was to finish in the top ten in the day’s classification, which I achieved.In total, I finished 10th in the day’s classification for both runs.