Thursday, April 4: In sports like football or rugby union, pundits and commentators normally nominate a ‘Man of the Match’ – someone who stood out from the crowd during the game and had a major influence on the outcome.
The sport of aquabike racing does not award such trophies or honours but, if it did, no one would be more deserving of the ‘Racer of the Week’ award at the inaugural Grand Prix of Bình Định-Vietnam than Belgian sensation Quinten Bossche.
The 29-year-old qualified in second position during the pole position stint for Ski Division GP1 honours but that was as good as it got for his main rivals. The Ostende racer then went on to completely dominate all three Motos to earn a maximum 75 points from his trip to Quy Nhon and carve out an early season lead of 11 points over Austrian Kevin Reiterer in the World Championship.
‘The Bomber’s’ explosive pace and determination were relentless and it devastated his rivals. In Moto 1, he showed a clean pair of heels to everyone, eased his pace somewhat on the last lap and reached the chequered flag 11.459 seconds in front of Reiterer with Morgan, Mickael and Jeremy Poret unable to answer the call in third, fourth and fifth in the classification.
Bossche himself admitted that he wasn’t sure if the opening Moto win was a flash in the pan but he shouldn’t have been too concerned. He stormed off into the distance again in Moto 2 to beat Reiterer once more – this time by 10.298 seconds. Morgan Poret rounded off the podium places for the second time with Oliver Koch Hansen and Jeremy Poret in fourth and fifth.
Despite admitting to being physically tired after the second energy-sapping Moto in the heat on Thi Nai Bay, the determined Belgian set his sights on a clean sweep of all three Moto wins in Vietnam. He pushed hard throughout the nine-lap race and was able to fend off Koch Hansen’s persistent challenge to seal the third Moto by just 3.314 seconds and inflict maximum damage to his rivals’ title aspirations.
Bossche said: “Honestly, we didn’t train that much this winter. We came here and the first Moto I got the win. Maybe I got lucky but then I got a win in the second Moto as well. So, I thought that maybe I am in shape enough to win Moto 3. That’s what we did. We had another amazing race. Koch Hansen was there the whole way. I had to push hard and that was a little bit out of my comfort zone. But I managed to keep him behind me. I am so happy for my team, my family, my girlfriend and everybody back home.”