2007 Trial World Championship Round 10

Hawkstone Park, United Kingdom 29/7/2007 - Attendance:7,000

Back on Podium, yet Victory out of the Reach

Finishing fourth to miss the podium for two consecutive rounds, Fujinami arrived at the Hawkstone park aiming to take his longing first victory in the season. The Hawkstone park has hosted the trial events for some years as well as some motocross events, and it became the home of the off road competition. Expected rain stopped before the morning on Sunday, and the surface rapidly dried up. Change in condition brought the severity of the hazards lower than it was originally planned to be.

In UK, Fuji concentrated on keeping his pace without caring the progress of the other competitors. Fuji's lap started well with three consecutive cleans; one of only two riders to be able to do so, and he soon found himself well ahead of the fields with only Lampkin competing closely together. It was a fast pace, but Fuji felt well and riding the way he liked. However, being the first rider at the opening lap put him in a dangerous situation when he was at the section ten. There were two choices to conquer the section; a straight forward rock climbing line, and a detouring line to go around at the left of the rock. Fuji chose the later line as he thought it was less risky. He started his ride, and the ground suddenly broke up when he was on top of it. He fell down together with dirt and rocks ending up dropping five points. Luckily he was ok, and he continued his way ahead of the rivals.

As the Lap1 was over, Mr. Cirera, the team boss advise Fuji to slow down. It would also allow him to observe how the other were doing, but, Fuji wished to keep the fast pace in the latter lap too. Fuji dropped another five, and it came at the beginning of the Lap2. It was supposed to be a very easy section, almost a simple trail ride along the sloped surface. Fuji's rear tire stepped out, and the tip of the handle bar touched the wall when he tried to take the control back. He thought it was one of those small mistakes to drop a single mark, but the main observer called it as a full mark error. He said the surface Fuji touched with the handle bar was the ground going up the hill. Although Fuji thought it was an impossible call, knowing the co-observer called it as one point error, he was confident that the score could be altered later upon his protest. He proceeded to the next section, but he sighed about another misfortune with a questionable judgement,
which had been haunting him lately.

Fuji heard the competition report, for the first time for the day, before the section 14. He found out that it was not likely for him to better the position as he was third with more than ten points behind Bou, the leader, and five points behind Raga, who was second. Fuji also knew that his position would be safe, unless making disastrous mistakes at the two sections at the end, as he was seven points clear of Cabestany who was fourth. Fuji dabbed a single mark at the section 14 and marked clean at the final section to finish the lap and the day's competition. Apart from the error at the beginning, Fuji rode solidly at the Lap2. He dropped two points at the section five and a single point at the section 14 only, so if the mistake at the section one was a single mark, it was the record score for the day.

The results show that Fuji dropped two fives in the afternoon, and he had no chance to finish in the better positions at the Hawkstone park, even he could save one of two fives. Yet, clearly making such mistakes prevents Fuji from taking victory this year. There are two rounds left before 2007 season is up, which means there are only two more chances for Fuji if he wants to take a victory or two. Fuji's team-mate Lampkin is only a victory short from cerebrating 100th victories too, so it is going to be very important two rounds for both Montesa riders.

Quote from Fujigas:

I need to be more cautions not to let my mistakes ending up with five point errors. I have been having some questionable calls from the observers, but I think it is my fault to provoke such calls by my 'misleading' rides. I am glad to be back on the podium this time, yet I should not be too happy about it because there are two more e steps to go.

pix: Mario Candellone, Agnese Andrione

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