Photo: Ray Archer
The Swedish was the penultimate round in the WMX series. Replicating her MX2 team mate Dennis Verbruggen, De Winter finished the GP in eleventh on her CRF250 R. However Elien had few reasons to be overwhelmed with joy because she produced a great start in every moto. Regrettably she failed to make the best of those starts. In the championship standings she remains the best Belgian and highest placed Honda lady. The GP was won by Steffi Laier in front of Maria Franke and the Irish Nathalie Kane scored her first ever career podium. The world’s fastest girls travel to Holland, Lierop at the end of August to compete in the final round of the championship.
Elien De Winter: “Looking back on Uddevalla I’m not really satisfied. In fact I pulled off my best starts of the weekend twice, getting out of the gate in third, but this weekend I lacked the confidence needed for a strong performance. At the start of the moto my times were pretty good, then they would drop and I bounced back by the end of the race again. That’s surely something that I need to work on. On top of that, I had a hard time to find the right rhythm on this track. I’m not looking for excuses, although I have to admit Uddevalla is not a track that I’m particularly fond off! The changing soil switching from sand to hard pack or gravel stone makes it pretty difficult to read. So in that respect it was good to get the GP of Sweden out of the way!”
Heat 1: 1 Steffi Laier (Ger-KTM), 2 Franke (Ger-Kaw), 3 Nathalie Kane (IRL-Suz), 4 Mann (SWE-KTM), 5 Larissa Papenmeier (Ger-Suz), 6 Marielle De Mol (NED- Yamaha), 7 8. Sara Petterson (SWE-KTM), 9 Chiara Fontanesi (ITA-Yamaha), 10 Brenda Wagemans (BEL-KTM), 11 Elien De Winter (BEL-LS Motors Honda) / Heat 2: 1 Steffi Laier (Ger-KTM), 2 Maria Franke (Ger-Kaw), 3 Kane (IRL-Suz), 4 Larissa Papenmeier (Ger-Suz), 5 Mann (SWE-KTM), 6 Marielle De Mol (NED- Yamaha), 7 Nicky Van Wordragen (Ned-KTM), 8 Borchers (Ger-Suzuki), 9 Sarah Whitmore (USA-KTM), 10 Marie Romlin (SWE-KTM), 11 Elien De Winter (BEL-LS Motors Honda)
GP of Sweden classification: 1 Laier 50, 2 Franke 44, 3 Kane 40, 4 Papenmeier 34, 5 Mann 34, 6 De Mol 30, 7 Romlin 25, 8 Whirmore 20, 9 Elien De Winter (BEL-LS Motors Honda) 20, 10 Fontanesi 20
WMX World Championship standings: 1 Steffi Laier (Ger-KTM) 261, 2 Papenmeier (Ger-Suz) 224, 3 Maria Franke (Ger-Kaw) 223, 4 Nathalie Kane (IRL-Suz) 194, 5 Elin Mann (SWE-KTM) 191, 6 Livia Lancelot (FR-Kaw) 185, 7 De Mol (NED-Yamaha) 145, 8 Veenstra (Ned-Suz) 140, 9 Elien De Winter (BEL-LS Motors Honda) 128, 10 Nicky Van Wordragen (NED-KTM) 104, 15. Ashley Fiolek (USA-LS Motors Honda) 80
