De Reuver Notches Second Career Win In Bulgarian Mud Bath

Marc de Reuver claimed only his second career Grand Prix victory at a wet and muddy Sevlievo circuit in Bulgariathis afternoon. The Red Bull Champ KTM rider went 6-1 in the two motos to tie on points with David Philippaerts and Christophe Pourcel but earn the top step thanks to his better ranking.

After some hot weather during qualification on Saturday, where Philippaerts won the second MX2 heat and Jonathan Barragan registered the second best time in MX1, grey skies greeted the 25,000 spectators (weekend figure) on Sunday. The first motos of each category took place on a dry and quick layout, but over an hour of intense rainfall turned the track into a greasy and difficult prospect. High speed was prevalent in the opening sprints while an element of luck, survival and caution applied to the final sections of the race programme.

The conditions did not suit MX1 representative Barragan who could not convert his second position in the gate into a pair of decent starts. The Spaniard had to chop through the pack and his attacking style carried him to 10th place and past countryman Javier Garcia Vico but he came unstuck on a very late challenge to Tanel Leok for 9th and crashed on the whoops. The spill gave the youngster a sore head and a painful right knee, both of which contributed to his early retirement in the second moto. He is currently 6th in the series and 27 points away from Steve Ramon.

De Reuver crashed in his qualification heat and took the best time in the Last Chance session. It is unlikely that another rider will win a Grand Prix by entering the gate down in 25th position.
Tyla Rattray was 4th overall and pushed De Reuver hard for the win in the closing stages after the pair had overtaken early leader Pourcel.

Carl Nunn finished the Grand Prix with 7th and was a steady performer. KTMs dominated the top ten in MX2 thanks to Manuel Monni and Rui Goncalves helping towards a total of six 250SX-Fs on the leader-board.
De Reuver now stands 2 points away from the top of the series table after an impressive period of consistent results. Rattray trails Pourcel by 17 points.


The Red Bull team will drive down to Italythis week for the seventh stage of the Grand series where the Montevarchi circuit, just south of Florence, will play host to the Italian round.


Tyla Rattray:
"In the first race I was riding a bit too cautious. I was pushing a little bit at the beginning to try and get a rhythm and by the time I got into a comfortable speed I had lost a little bit of ground. Those guys were riding really well and I couldn’t match their speed. I sat down and had a think before the second moto but my tactic went out the window because of the rain and it was a total mud race. I am really looking forward to these next few GPs. It is time that I started putting the hammer down a bit more and taking some wins. I also need to work on my starts and I will be doing that with the team this week so that we can get the best possible bike out of the gate."


Marc de Reuver:
"My start was amazing. I came from far on the outside and had a position inside the top ten. On the first lap I passed a lot of guys. I have the intuitions of riding on a sand track, meaning I take the berms and different lines where the dirt is tacky and has a bit more grip. I had to slow down a little bit halfway through the second race to catch my breath and relax. I attacked Pourcel near the end and passed him. I made a few mistakes when I was in the lead and Rattray came very close but I could keep first place, so that was good."


David Philippaerts
"The bike is now perfect for me. Claudio and Georges have helped with the suspension set-up and some other modifications and I feel good on the KTM. Today the races were really fast and I had two decent starts which helped. I enjoyed the muddier conditions more than the harder track."


Jonathan Barragan:
"I crashed twice in the first moto after a bad start. I saw that Leok was close so I pushed to pass him but it had started to rain hard and I was caught out by the ground and hurt my right knee. I had a bump on the head also and I wasn’t feeling too great for the second race. I made a small mistake because I wasn’t concentrating and stopped."