2005 World Trial Championship Round 10

18/9/2005 Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium

Finished 3rd but secured Runner-up position in the Championship

Two weeks after the German round, where Raga clinched the series title, the final round of 2005 WTC took place in Belgium. Having 4 points advantage over Lampkin and 5 points over Cabestany, Fujinami was ready in Belgium to have one final battle to secure the runner-up position in the championship with a victory.

The round was held at the legendary Grand Prix racing course - Spa-Francorchamps. Most of the sections were man-made, and the competition was held under the indoor style, in which the team Montesa and Fuji struggled a lot in 2005 season.

Raga picked the first starting order followed by Bou, Fuji, Lampkin and Cabestany. So, Fuji was the first rider in his runner-up battle. On the lap 1, Fuji had his first five at the section 9. It was one of the hardest sections with a big challenge at the middle of it. All the riders except Lampkin failed to ride through the section. Fuji cleared the challenge at the middle, but made a mistake at the end to five. Cabestany also cleared the middle of the section, but failed at the end. Lampkin succeeded to go through the whole section, but he too couldn't get away from penalty, adding three points there.

The most difficult section in the event was the section 11, and all the riders except Lampkin chose to escape. On their observing session on Saturday, riders appealed that severity of the section was too high. They put marking stones so they could at least try to attack. Sunday came and they found all the markers were removed by the organizer, who tried to hold a fair and justifiable competition. However without any reference markers, competitors knew it was impossible to ride, so they gave a cold shoulder to the section. Lampkin tried to attack but only to get the maximum penalty points.

Both Raga and Fuji finished the lap 1 with 27 points, but Fuji lost the top spot with number of one point. Lampkin was next to finish 3rd with 34 points and Cabestany being 4th with 36 points. It looked at the time it was going to be a favor of Fuji, but it didn't go that easy on the later lap.

As Lampkin commented after the event that his performance got better as the surface became dry, he bounced back on the lap 2. Although there was a questionable scoring at the section 10, he rode well especially in the second half of the lap.

Fuji made some mistakes on the lap. At the section 7, he spent too much time trying to score clean. At the long sections like there were in Belgium, communication between the minder and the rider sometimes became difficult. When he heard a call from the minder, there were only 10 seconds to go, so he had no choice but to muscle through the section to add three points.

Fuji was one of a few riders to conquer the challenge at the middle of the section 9 on the lap 1, but on the lap 2, he made a mistake there to add five points. Both Raga and Lampkin managed to ride with a single penalty point, and it was the decisive error for Fuji for the overall result.

As the day was over, Fuji was 3rd with 50 points. Lampkin finished 2nd with 48 points following day's winner Raga with 47 points, but finishing 2nd wasn't enough to bring himself ahead of Fuji in the standing. Fuji stood on the 3rd spot on the final podium of the year, being pretty much frustrated, but at least securing the runner-up position in the championship.

Quote from Fujigas:

I had some mistakes on the lap 2, but I figured that I would be about 3 points down from Raga to finish 2nd for the day. It turned out that I was 3rd. I was very frustrated on the podium because I wasn't happy with the results today. The crews told me that I should've been happy to finish 2nd in the season, but I tell you it was the worst 2nd place in my career. I had bad results this year, but I know I should've been finishing like today even things were tough. Off-season testing will start soon. There have been so many frustrations and agonies in this Outdoor season, so I will waste no time to be ready to fight back in the next season.

World Championship 2005
Spa-Francorchamps
Sunday
  Rider Make L1 L2 TO Pts CL
1 Adam Raga GasGas 27 20 0 47 13
2 Dougie Lampkin Montesa 34 14 0 48 11
3 Takahisa Fujinami Honda 27 23 0 50 13
4 Antonio Bou Beta 37 22 0 59 15
5 Albert Cabestany Sherco 36 28 0 64 11
6 Jeroni Fajardo GasGas 46 32 0 78 9
7 Graham Jarvis Sherco 49 33 0 82 8
8 Kenichi Kuroyama Beta 44 40 0 84 6
9 Marc Freixa Montesa 47 44 0 91 5
10 James Dabill Beta 54 54 0 108 3
11 Fumitaka Nozaki Scorpa 57 54 0 111 1
12 Sam connor Sherco 60 55 0 115 1
13 Shaun Morris GasGas 63 56 0 119 3
14 Christophe Bruand GasGas 58 61 0 119 3
15 Michele Orizio Scorpa 75 55 0 130 2
L1: Lap1 L2: Lap2 TO: Time Over Pts: Penalty Point CL:Clean
Ranking
1 Adam Raga GasGas 255
2 Takahisa Fujinami Honda 220
3 Dougie Lampkin@ Montesa 218
4 Albert Cabestany Sherco 210
5 Antonio Bou Beta 175
6 Marc Freixa Montesa 164

Pix : Mario Candellone Official Results PDF- Sunday
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