Mangakino’s Kayne Lamont is having the time of his life in Europe.

The 2010 double New Zealand Junior Motocross Champion has been based in Belgium while he tackles the EMX125 motocross championship and, while he is yet to score a point in racing itself, he has impressed with his solid performances in France and Germany.

This week the BikesportNZ.com rider heads for training in Sweden, ahead of the next round of the series at Uddevalla, Sweden, the fifth round of seven in the championship.

“We left Belgium Thursday afternoon and arrived in Teutschenthal, Germany, around 8.30pm, so we had to find somewhere to stay  … another night in a supermarket car park.  We arrived at the track around 7am to find a line of vehicles waiting to get in and finally got pitted around 9.30am.

“We had to collect my race motor and also get mousse tyres fitted to my bike before going through technical inspection in the afternoon.  We got the motor fitted and were waiting for HGS pipe and V-force but unfortunately they weren’t going to arrive until Saturday morning so we put the bike through technical and organised to noise test on the new pipe in the morning.

“On the Saturday the track had been heavily watered and we were first practice. I was in Group B and so by the time I practiced the track was still very muddy and no lines had formed.

“My pipe had arrived, so we fitted it and went and got noise tested so everything was ready for the pre-qualifying race after all the practices had been completed.

“The bike had a lot more power than the stocker I rode in France and I was looking forward to pre-qualifying.

But that is when things turned pear-shaped for the young Kiwi.

“Things went wrong after the third lap. As I went into a hairpin on my fast lap I had to dodge a slower rider and went down in the biggest puddle on the track, head first, covering everything with mud. By the time Phid went back to get another helmet goggles and gloves I only managed to get one more lap in so only set the 17th fastest lap.

“This gave me 17th pick for my qualifying race which is not good in Germany as the start is set out for the gate one to have the best advantage and you are heavily disadvantaged any further away from the first 10 gates.

“My qualifying race was the last race of the day and the track had got extremely rough and rutted and being 15min + 2 laps it was going to be a tough ask.

“As predicted, my start from position 17 was not good and I was approx 14th, I made my way through the pack to finally finish 5th which I was really stoked with that.

“Once both heats were combined I qualified in 10th, which gave me a reasonable gate pick. Also I was very pleased with the power of the bike but it is going to take a bit to get used to.

“After qualifying, (fellow Kiwi) Jeremy Long introduced us to Willy from Showa Suspension and he checked and adjusted the suspension ready for the next day’s race, also Patrick who did the engine mods, checked the engine and done some fine tuning so that I should have a very good bike for race day.

“Sunday race one for me was the first race after the free practice sessions and after the track had been groomed and heavily watered over night it had deep long ruts and braking bumps for my race.

“I didn’t get a good start and was in 14th when I  got pushed into the fence and got the fence hooked around the back wheel. By the time I got going again I had dropped to 34th.  I raced as hard as I could and by the 25-minute mark and 2 laps to go I had got back to 21st, unfortunately I went down twice in the final laps and dropped back to 31st.

“I was very disappointed with the final laps as I had worked so hard to claw back so many positions.

“Before race two, Willy made some minor changes to the suspension ready for my race.

“I got the best start so far and was in 5th when my throttle stuck open in the roller section and I had to run off the track through a small gap in the fence and into a stunned crowd. Luckily I never hit anyone but a lady that was videoing got an extreme close-up of me, as she had to jump out of the way. After wriggling the throttle cable, I managed to get back to pit lane where Dad and Jeremy tried to fix it. I did another lap but it stuck several times and was too dangerous so I went back to the pits very disappointed again.

“Dad and Jeremy pulled the carb off and found that the small plastic locator for the cable had shifted and was jamming the throttle slide; they fixed the problem.

“So this was another weekend with a DNF and no points but again a lot of positives with my qualifying race and the support given to us from Jeremy Long. Also having Showa setting the suspension and Patrick fine-tuning my engine.

“We are looking forward to Sweden on July 4. Hopefully things will go better there.

“After the racing was complete, we meet up with Jeremy, Patrick and his wife and the team at TM to discuss the day’s event, etc, Roy from Teka Suzuki joined us later, they all complimented me on the day’s events especially the qualifying race and how I worked my way back through the pack in race one.

“They are looking forward to watching me race in Sweden.”

This was all good positive feedback for the Kiwi contingent after a weekend that had a few low points and the camp now looks forward to Sweden and securing some points in this GP.

© by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com