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:
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 |
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