It was an impressive weekend for 3x World Champion Courtney Duncan, who confirmed her 20th Grand Prix win at the MXGP of Switzerland. A dominating first race followed up with a 2nd place finish in the second race secured her the overall and puts her 1 point off the red plate.
Newcomer American Jack Chambers joined the team just last week and with incredibly minimal bike time impressed everyone with his hard work and performance over the weekend.
A rocky qualifying position was overcome with a 14th in race one, and a superb start in the second race saw Chambers in 7th before eventually falling back from the series regulars, but not before he showed some impressive determination to make some passes into 12th and finished 13th overall.
Kawasaki Motors Europe, along with the Big Van World MTX Kawasaki team, would like to wish Mikkel Haarup all the best with his future career after mutually agreeing to part company as of the MXGP of Switzerland.
Courtney Duncan
Qualifying - 4th
Race 1 - 1st
Race 2 - 2nd
Overall - 1st
Jack Chambers
Qualifying - 21st
Race 1 - 14th
Race 2 - 12th
Overall - 13th
Steve Dixon — Manager
"Our first weekend where we had a full compliment of riders, with our new American rider Jack Chambers. We’re glad to have secured the services of Jack at such short notice. It’s always great to have an American in the MXGP, and even better than he’s trained by our old GP winner Zach Osborne!
“America is such an important market to our sponsors - there's already lots of buzz over there which is great, and Jack's a really likable character. It was great to see Courtney take the overall with a 1-2, closing within one point of the championship lead behind fellow Kawasaki rider Lotte Van Drunen. Courtney dominated the first race in the difficult conditions on Saturday.
“With the conditions better on Easter Monday, the racing was more open and even, where the Kiwi finished in 2nd to take the overall. Jack, having only really spent an hour or so on the Cosworth DRT Kawasaki 250, impressed everyone finishing 12th and 14th to finish 13th overall respectively for his first MXGP weekend.The next race will see Jack tackle Arco di Trento in Italy next weekend, and we will see Courtney once again in Spain for round three of the WMX at intu Xanadú."
Courtney Duncan — WMX
"I'm pretty proud of this weekend's performance to have taken the podium with two solid results in the sand. We know sand is not my strength so to come away with 4-3 motos and a podium is like a win.
“I just didn't have my rhythm at the start of the second race this morning but we pulled it back to take fourth on the second-last lap. It's a solid start to the season and has put us on the front foot for Switzerland in two weeks' time; it's all looking upwards from here on in."
Jack Chambers — MX2
"The riding style and the tracks over here in Europe are different to the US and I haven't ridden outdoors since last June so the first thing is to have fun, gain experience and learn from the GP regulars, but I'm thankful for this opportunity.
“I only flew in on Monday but I had two days on the bike before we got here and already feel at home on the KX250."
WMX Championship Standings
3rd Courtney Duncan - 38
MX2 Championship Standings
18th Jack Chambers - 16
