Photo: Ray Archer
LS Motors Honda rider Dennis Verbruggen (22) took his first ever GP podium by finishing third in today’s GP of Limburg- Belgium in Lommel. A fifth and third place in the heats meant Verbruggen ended up on the third step of the podium behind Joël Roelants and Marvin Musquin.
As often Verbruggen experienced some problems during the opening stages of the first heat. Laying in 27th after the first lap, the sand specialist cut once again through the field. Lap after lap Verbruggen gained some valuable positions to finally finish fifth. In the second heat Verbruggen found himself fourteenth after lap one. “Crusty” would once again work his way up to the top 5, whilst duelling with KTM Factory Rider Rui Goncalves in the process. In the final stages “Crusty” got rid of Gonçalves, who wasn’t capable of keeping up with the Honda rider’s speed. In the very last lap “Crusty” even passed Nicolas Aubin to take third in the heat and third overall. Dennis Verbruggen his now 15th in the World MX2 standings, just 4 points off 13th placed Anthony Boissière.
Dennis Verbruggen “I’m really happy with this result, to take your first podium in front of your home crowd is unbelievable! However I don’t think this is just because I’m strong in the sand. My riding has consistently improved over the last few months and my fitness has never been better. So I think I can aim for a strong result in Loket as well. Today it was the battle of the fittest out there, especially the first race was hard with my bad start and the rain. I had to take off my goggles early on, but I kept on pushing. In the second race I was gaining ground on Musquin and Roelants, unfortunately I crashed and lost all the time that I had made up. That’s when I decided to settle for my podium finish.”
Heat 1: 1 Musquin, 2 Goncalves, 3 Roelants, 4 Van Horebeek, 5 Dennis Verbruggen (BEL-LS Motors Honda), 6 Roczen, 7 Guarneri, 8 Jorgensen, 9 Monni,
10 Larrieu / Heat 2: 1 Musquin, 2 Roelants, 3 Dennis Verbruggen (BEL-LS Motors Honda 4 Aubin, 5 Schiffer, 6 Roczen, 7 Jorgensen, 8 Goncalves,9 Guarneri, 10 Monni
GP of Limburg classification: 1 Musquin 50, 2 Roelants 42, 3 Dennis Verbruggen (BEL-LS Motors Honda) 36, 4 Goncalves 35, 5 Roczen 30, 6 Jorgensen
27, 7 Aubin 26, 8 Guarneri 26, 9 Monni 23, 10 Van Horebeek 23
MX2 World Championship standings: 1 Musquin 421, 2 Goncalves 383, 4 Paulin 372, 5 Guarneri 357, 6 Frossard 284, 6 Roczen 269, 7 Aubin 229, 8
Roelants 222, 9 Moni 222, 10 Boog 197, 15 Dennis Verbruggen (BEL-LS Motors Honda) 143
