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Holcombe fights hard for muddy Italian EnduroGP win Beta Factory Racing’s Steve Holcombe has secured a convincing victory on the second day of racing at the FIM Enduro World Championship in Italy to maintain his EnduroGP points lead. • Victory on day two in Italy secures Steve’s overall lead in EnduroGP • Despite Sunday’s rain and mud, Steve’s Beta RR Racing 4T 350 powered him to a 24-second win • Steve also recorded his fourth-straight Enduro 2 class win of 2020 Opening his 2020 season with a double victory in France last weekend, five-time world champion Holcombe was eager to continue his winning ways in Italy. A home round for Beta Factory Racing, motivation was high to put his Beta RR Racing 4T 350 on the top step of the podium once again. However, a slow start to the opening day of racing put Holcombe on the back foot during Saturday. Riding too smoothly in the technical Italian terrain, time lost on the opening two laps proved impossible to recover. Despite regrouping for a test win on the final lap, he had to be content with second place in EnduroGP, while also winning the Enduro 2 category. Knowing his pace in the latter stages of Saturday was fast, Steve determinedly hit the ground running on Sunday to set the fastest time in the opening special test. Despite rain making things extra challenging, he pushed on. Pulling clear of the field at the midway point of the day together with team-mate Brad Freeman, one final push in worsening weather saw Steve pull clear to secure a 24-second margin of victory.
Results: FIM EnduroGP World Championship, Round 2 EnduroGP, day 1 EnduroGP, day 2 Standings: FIM EnduroGP Word Championship (After round 2) |
Steve
Holcombe: “It’s been a weekend of two halves, for the result and how I
rode. I’ll hold my hand up and say I rode too smooth on Saturday and any
chance of fighting for the win got away from me. When we sorted things, Brad
was too far gone to challenge him. On Sunday we turned it around a lot. I
attacked from the word go and was able to step my pace up when I needed to
throughout the day. I had a strong opening lap and pulled a gap on third. From
then on it was down to Brad and me for the win. I really wanted it and seemed
to step it up again on the final lap and bring the result home. Conditions
were tricky today with the rain, so proving the 350F in the mud with a victory
is awesome.”