Similar to Stefan Everts or Joel Smets were with their fans, the Italian has time for just about everyone. Not only a great racer on the track, but a simple, friendly kid from Sicily.

 Here is what he has to say about the last two rounds of the World MX1 Championship. Two races he won.

Last weekend we had to make our first trip to Latvia. We flew to Riga on Friday, and arrived at the track around 1pm in the afternoon. The first thing I did when I arrived was to check out the track. I could see that there were a few good places to pass, so I was already happy!

Saturday I made some good lap-times, and my feelings about this new track were very good. In Saturday's Qualification Heat I had a good start, but a few riders struggled a bit in the first corner, so I came out around tenth position.

When I found my rhythm. I was able to make some good laps, and passed a few riders. When I wanted to make a pass on Desalle, he kicked me off the track and I crashed! I really didn't expect he would do such a move on me, especially on Saturday. But it happened and I crashed.

As I tried to catch back up a few places, I crashed again with a lapped rider - on the last lap! Two times I feel is not my mistake, but this is racing! In the end, I was able to finish seventh in my qualification heat on Saturday.

On Sunday, in my first heat I had a pretty bad start ... I came thru the first lap around 11th, knowing I had still a long way to go. We still had the entire heat to race! (35 minutes plus two laps).

So, slowly I could make up some time and make some passes, and near the end of the heat I was in second position, behind Desalle. I didn't know if it was still possible to catch him, but I never gave up. I went for it, and on the last lap I was right at his back wheel and I tried to pass him before the finish, but I came short by about one meter.

I was a bit disappointed that I didn't pass him, but I also know I came away some good points for the championship, so I was OK with the second position.

In the second heat, I started in top ten, and I knew I had to hurry a bit and get going towards the front, because I didn't want the same situation as the first heat. (Both in Germany with Max, and here with Desalle, in the first heats I arrived too late!).

I found some really nice lines, and every lap I was able to make up a lot of ground on the rest of the riders, so I was able to make my way to the front - I passed Desalle for the lead, and eventually won the second heat!

My finishes of second and first made me the winner of the GP in Latvia! I was really happy, winning here on this track, the very first time we have raced here. I will be traveling from Latvia to Sweden this week, but before that, we are going to race a small race in the backyard of my teammate Tanel Leok, whol organized a friendly race on Tuesday.

It was a nice weekend, a nice track, a great event, and the crowd was great!

A week earlier after the muddy race at our last Grand Prix in Ernee (France), we finally arrived at the newly modified race track here in Germany.

I was happy to see that the organizers made the track more technical, but the most important thing for me - that everything was able to stay dry! From early on Saturday, I had a really good feeling about this weekend's event, and riding on the track.

 I second in the first practice behind the always-fast Mickael Pichon, and I was able take the first time in the pre-qualifying, and then first in the qualifying heat. When I woke up Sunday morning, I looked outside and I could see that it was starting to rain.... but after the warm-up session, the sun came out, and it stayed for the entire day!

At the start of the first heat, I came out initially in third place, behind Max Nagl and Josh Coppins. I lost a little bit time in getting past Josh, and then Max had a gap of about 12 seconds. Towards the end of this heat 1 of 2, I was slowly closing the gap on Max, and came up on him on the last lap.

We had a good battle during that last lap, but I couldn't make the pass.

In the second heat, I started in second behind Nagl, which was good enough for me, because this is what I had in mind. Max is always such a good starter, so second position was a perfect beginning for me in this second heat.

I tried to pass him on the first lap, but we were both going really fast. So I decided to wait a few laps and watch where I could possible pass him. After a few laps of watching and waiting, I made my move and was able to pass him ... and I went on to win my 29th career GP win!