Sunday, 8 June: Jeremy Perez and Chris MacClugage produced two outstanding performances and cruised to victory in heat 2 in their respective categories Runabout and Ski to win the Grand Prix of Italy, with Jennifer Menard lifting the title in Ski Ladies and the imperious Rok Florjancic extending his remarkable unbeaten run to claim the Freestyle title.
After taking his first UIM-ABP tour win yesterday the Frenchman was fired up and looking to complete the double, but despite starting from P1 was outgunned at the start by Andrzej Wisniewski, his race ending on lap 4, and trailed the Polish rider for the opening laps before hitting the front on lap 3, with Qatar’s Mohammed Al Heidus in third.
The Qatari stayed within a couple of seconds of the leader for several laps before Perez started to pull way extending his lead lap-by-lap to run out a comfortable winner by over 25.6 seconds, the lead two lapping the entire field of 16 finishers from a starting grid of 25. “For sure that was not as hard as yesterday,” said Perez. “I was able to catch and pass 25 after a couple of laps and pushed quite hard till about halfway and then eased off. The bike ran really well and winning both races has put me back in the fight for the title.”
Qatar’s Thamer Al Darwish was running strongly in third spot but hit trouble on lap 10 and dropped down through the field, with Teddy Pons fighting his way back from lying in ninth at the end of lap 1 to finish third.
But a post-race one lap penalty handed out to a raft of riders for jumping the start, including Al Heidus, dropped him to fifth and elevated Pons to second and third overall, with Hungary’s Rainer Eidner up to third in the heat ahead of battling Mattia Fracasso.
In Ski MacClugage led from start-to-finish to banish the memory of seeing the Qatar Grand Prix title agonisingly slip away from him when he broke on the last lap.
This time the American made no mistake, getting the perfect start and stealing the advantage of starting from pole position away from rival Jeremy Poret immediately, and form that point was in control of the race, going on to close out the eleven lap race and take his first victory on the UIM-ABP tour, winning by 4.96 seconds. “I really won it at the start, the bike launched like a bullet from a gun. I think it was having my family here that really fired me up to get this win,” MacClugage said. “I kept on eye on Sousa throughout the race and he did a great job holding off Jeremy [Poret]. To win racing the best today makes me feel like the best in the World today.”
Portugal’s Tiago Sousa also jumped Poret at the start and held of a sustained challenge from the Championship leader, but third place for Poret was good enough for second overall, Sousa third.
Behind the lead trio Alberto Monti was the best of the Italians finishing in fourth, with Tomaz Kete moving up from seventh mid-race to finish in fifth ahead of Alex Barret.
Jennifer Menard produced a gutsy performance racing with a heavily bruised hip after yesterday’s coming together with Julie Bulteau, and despite taking the chequered flag in second place was the race winner after Sweden’s Emma Ortendahl, who led from the start, was given a one lap penalty for jumping the start, the same penalty handed to Estonia’s Helen Lauri dropping the pair to sixth and seventh respectively.
After yesterday’s brilliant win, today went all wrong for 18-year-old Estelle Poret on the start lap, dropping the bike twice but she recovered to take second and second overall with the returning three-time World Champion Julie Bulteau in third and claiming the final slot on the Grand Prix podium.
After an impressive set of tricks by Nac Florjancic, he then had to sit back and watch a stunning routine by elder brother Rok, who produced another stunning performance scoring 94 points to extend his unbeaten run to 20 and ten consecutive Grand Prix titles, with Italy’s Valerio Calderoni third.
Runabout GP1 – heat 2
1. J Perez (fra) - 0:00
2. T Pons (fra) + 1lap
3. R Eidner (hun)) + 1lap
4. M Fracasso (ita) +1lap
5. M Al Heidus (qat) +1lap
Grand Prix of Italy – overall results
1. J Perez (fra) 50pts
2. M Al Heidus (qat) 27pts
3. T Pons (fra) 20pts
Ski GP1 – heat 2
1. C MacClugage (usa) - 0:00
2. T Sousa (por) + 4.96s
3. J Poret (fra) + 8.85s
4. A Monti (ita) + 17.93s
5. T Kete (cro) + 1m.21s
Grand Prix of Italy – overall results
1. C MacClugage (usa) 45pts
2. J Poret (fra) 41pts
3. T Sousa (por) 36pts
Ski GP1 Ladies – heat 2
1. J Menard (fra) - 0:00
2. E Poret (fra) + 44.62s
3. J Bulteau (fra) + 1:01s
Grand Prix of Italy – overall results
1. J Menard (fra) 45pts
2. E Poret (fra) 45pts
3. J Bulteau (fra) 29pts
Freestyle – heat 2
1. R Florjancic (cro) - 94pts
2. N Florjancic (cro) - 88pts
3. V Calderoni (ita) - 80pts
Grand Prix of Italy – overall results
1. R Florjancic (cro) 50pts
2. N Florjancic (cro) 40pts
3. V Calderoni (ita) 32pts– overall results
For the full set of results go to aquabike.net