Kawasaki Racing Team MX2's Mathis Valin raced to a brace of top eight finishes for ninth overall in the British round of the FIM World MX2 Motocross Championship at Matterley Basin.

"My start was not the best in the first moto, but I made some good passes in the beginning and was fighting with the guys who run at the front every week. The second start was much better, but I went a little too fast into the turn and ran wide. I had a good rhythm and was again battling with the top guys who are fighting for the title like De Wolf, and now I can push for two times thirty-five minutes."

Valin started the weekend well with second-fastest lap in Free Practice before earning eighth choice of gate in Timed Practice for the FIM World MX2 Motocross Championship. A ragged start in Qualifying saw him closed down immediately out of the gate and he was fourteenth at the first split. He was through to eleventh by the completion of the first lap but needed four more laps to find his way into the top ten. Another pass two laps later saw the French teenager secure his eventual ninth.

"I was feeling good already through both practices, but I had a really bad start in Qualifying. It was quite dusty, but I was able to pass some guys for P9; tomorrow is more important and I learnt where I can make passes today."

One the Sunday, the teenager quickly converted a twelfth-placed start into eighth on the opening lap of race one and held that position in a fast-moving leaderboard battle until he overshot a turn on lap ten of sixteen to surrender one position. He responded superbly to retake eighth one lap later and at the chequered flag was just six seconds from fourth. The KX250-SR shot out of the gate in race two and the French youngster powered into turn one second, but he drifted wide to come out fifth.

An incident at the end of the waves when another rider fell in his wheel tracks cost several places as he was forced to take avoiding action but he came back strongly to seventh and spent much of the race battling with the defending champion before pulling clear of the holder of the #1 plate during the closing laps. He has now moved forward to fifteenth in the series standings and heads to Finland for the next round.

Pascal Haudiquert story and image