Lotte van Drunen of the KTM Youth MX team claimed a sixth place at the first round of the North Italian championship series at Cremona. Van Drunen immediately made her mark by qualifying in pole position. She battled with her starts during the races on Sunday, which meant that she had to push forward in both races. She managed to finish fifth and eighth in the heats respectively, which gave her sixth overall.
Kjell Verbruggen was in action at the international event at Arnhem, Kjell and his team decided to move up to the 250 class a few months ago. He was extremely motivated to make his mark in the bigger class and had put in many training hours getting familiar with the bike. An emergency tonsillectomy set him back, however, his condition suffered as a result of the anesthesia and recovery time. He only managed one week of training before the Arnhem event, and it was to show.
The track was slippery during qualifying, which made it tricky. Despite the presence of numerous GP stars, Kjell still managed to post the 15th time.
Kjell got a good start in the first race, but then a setback struck. “A rider fell in front of me, and that cost me a lot of time. I recovered my rhythm and finished 21st. I started well in the second race, but another rider rode into me and I crashed, injuring my shoulder. I still came back from 40th to 24th. We’re still building, and I hope to be in shape to participate and do well in the EMX 250 series,” Kjell said.
Lotte will be in action at the second round of the North Italian Championships next weekend, and Kjell will be rolling out at a Dutch international at Axel.