Rotorua’s John Phillips raced at a round of the Dutch championship at Gemert at the weekend, with deep sand and a tight track testing him to the limits.

“The track had quite a few tricky jumps too,” he said.

“For qualifying, I learned the track pretty good and got in an okay time early. I tried to put in some quicker laps after that but I got some pretty bad arm pump and kept on making mistakes.

“As qualifying went on I slipped down the list, coming out with 24th gate pick. I was really disappointed with that time because I knew I could go faster and push harder.

“In the first race, I came out of the gate good but got pushed wide coming into the first corner, I braced and stayed up. I dropped to the back of the pack trying to dodge a few bikes that went down. I made my way up to around 24th before drama when my roll-off’s had a malfunction and I had to call into pit lane to pick up some new goggles, this set me back to around 30th position.

“I knuckled down and worked on riding solid, picking off riders throughout the rest of the moto to get up to 18th by the end of the race.

“The second race I got an even better jump out of the gate, got taken wide again on the first turn, but I was still inside the top 20.

“I made a my way up to 13th by the 10-minute mark, then slipped back a couple spots throughout the moto to 15th. I nearly got 14th back on the last lap, but I had to settle for 15th.

“It wasn’t the best result I have had before, but I took lots of positives out of the day; I know I can hack the long motos, I know my sand technique still needs a lot of work, and I need to do more sprint laps and speed work on the practice track.

“A big thank you to Team DBG and Rex Michau for all the support. Massive thanks to Cam, my mechanic, for all his help on the day and during the week.”

Dutch Motocross Championships, round 3 at Germert

MX1 Moto 1
1. Shaun Simpson TM
2. Marc de Reuver KTM
3. Mike Kras Suz
4. Filip Bengtsson KTM
5. Augusts Justs Hon

MX1 Moto 2
1. Tanel Leok Hon
2. Shaun Simpson TM
3. Mike Kras Suz
4. Filip Bengtsson KTM
5. Stuwey Reijnders Hon

MX2 Moto 1
1. Jeffrey Herlings KTM
2. Glenn Coldenhoff KTM
3. Jordi Tixier KTM
4. Brian Bogers KTM
5. Jeffrey Dewulf KTM

MX2 Moto 2
1. Jeffrey Herlings KTM
2. Jordi Tixier KTM
3. Glenn Coldenhoff KTM
4. Ceriel Klein KTM
5. Petar Petrov Yam