In his first race appearance on Belgian soil since 2005, New Zealand’s Ben Townley showed at the weekend that he was well on the way back to full fitness with a podium performance.

He didn’t make it easy for himself either, taking on the sand specialists of Steve Ramon and Ken De Dycker at the ‘Molenbergen’ international motocross held in Wuustwezel.

Soaring temperatures challenged a strong field of riders who turned out for the international event, and it was CLS Monster Pro Circuit Kawasaki racer Townley who had the partisan crowd cheering as he challenged Ramon for a well-deserved second place finish in moto one behind the former world champion.

A holeshot in moto saw Townley take an early lead which he held for 10 minutes.  He chased De Dycker and closed the Belgian giant down on the final laps as the two crossed the line a second apart.

The third and final moto almost saw another Townley holeshot. However he battled to keep the front end low and lost the advantage going into the first turn.

A small mistake on lap three forced Townley to have to restart his bike losing valuable positions.  Taking longer than normal to get going he rejoined and fought back to 6th position to claim third overall for the day.

“Overall, it was a really good day,” said Townley. “I’ve felt some good improvements since Valkenswaard which was only a few weeks ago.  I feel much better on the bike although there is still a long way to go with my condition but I can see big improvements and that’s what the team and I are working towards.  I had two decent motos that I was really happy with.”

Overall results:

1       RAMON Steve      70

2       DE DYCKER Ken   63

3       TOWNLEY Ben     60

4       BOISSIERE Anthony     56

5       VAN DAELE Marvin        49

Photo by CDS