STORY: Enduro.Media

The Bottom Line Up Front

• #57 Billy Bolt (Husqvarna Factory Racing) continued normal operations for the most part, winning the round. The only service interruption for Bolt was losing the second moto to #22 Jonny Wallker, which was his first moto loss of the series.

• Walker went 2-1-2 for P2 on the night, with the moto 2 win being the highlight. Walker was pushing Bolt hard all night long, and it looks like the two week gap between Rounds 1 & 2 gave him a chance to get his feet back under him after a difficult US Endurocross campaign that ended the weekend before the start of the SuperEnduro season. Walker really came alive yesterday, and looked like the championship quality rider that he is.

• #80 Will Hoare (Beta) established himself as a leader in the series with his second P3 round in a row on the strength of a 3-3-4 night. The 2019 Junior SuperEnduro world champion has looked very solid over the first two rounds.

• #304 Mani Lettenbichler struggled a little bit again in Poland after a rough outing in France, but the 2023 Hard Enduro world champion showed progression on the night with a 5-4-3/P4 finish. If he can dial in his starts a little more, Lettenbichler will be challenging Bolt, Walker and Hoare much more consistently.

• It was a solid night for home crowd favourite #501 Dominik Olszowy (Rieju Factory Team), going 5-4-8/P5. The young Polish racer (and 2022 Junior SuperEnduro champion) looked smooth and composed for the most part, apart from some offs in the final race, and clearly has the makings of top-level Enduro rider in the Prestige Class. I wouldn’t be shocked to see him grab a podium finish at some point this season.

• #7 Ashton Brightmore (TTR Squadra Corse) took charge of the Junior class, taking over the red plate after a 1-2-1 overall Round 2 win. The young British rider consistently rode fast and calculated motos yesterday, and put former red plate holder #47 Suff Sella under pressure that Sella didn’t have an answer for in Krakow.

PRESTIGE Class

Although Billy Bolt was the big winner yesterday in Krakow, the real story of GP Poland was the return to form of Jonny Walker. Walker had looked solid at Round 1 in France, with a 2-2-2/P2 result behind Bolt’s 1-1-1/P1, but he really didn’t seem to be in a position to really challenge Bolt or put him under pressure. Round 2 was a completely different story.

A little bit of context on this. Walker had gone into the first SuperEnduro one week after finishing what had turned into a difficult, and what had to be a physically and emotionally draining, two month Endurocross series campaign in the US. He had started the series perfectly over the first two rounds in Everett, WA, and Prescott, AZ, with 1-1-1/P1 results in both rounds and looking dominant in the process in beating the likes of Trystan Hart, Cody Webb, Taddy Blazusiak, and other top level riders. The rest of the series, though, was a different story. Walker had struggled hard in Round 3, and failed to win another moto there, or at any of the last three other rounds. He had gone into the final hanging onto a slim lead over Hart, and still controlled his own fate, but wasn’t able to rise to the occasion and lost the championship to Hart. I was at the last four rounds of Endurocross, and while Walker was his normal cheery self on the outside, you could really sense how progressively more tired he was getting as the series progressed. When I spoke with him at the final in Reno my impression was that while he was happy to be heading back to Europe, the mental weight of the upcoming SuperEnduro season and having to race in France the next weekend was hitting him. I was really curious as to if he was going to be able to turn his mindset around for Round 1 given the travel, jet-lag, and prep that he was going to have to deal with prior to lining up in the start. One my big questions in our Round 2 race preview was if the two-week gap between France and Poland would allow Walker to get his feet back under him.

The answer to that, as it turns out, was unequivocally ‘Yes.’

SUPERPOLE

Superpole was a fairly straightforward affair. The big questions were if Lettenbichler would show his true race speed, if Olszowy could do something special for the home crowd, and if Walker (or anyone else) had an answer for Bolt’s raw speed. Here’s the quick answsers: No, Lettenbichler wasn’t able to put together a particularly fast lap and ended up P5. Olszowy also wasn’t able to really light it up, coming in P4 approximately 3 seconds behind Bolt’s winning time. And, no, nobody had an answer for Bolt. Walker was closest in P2, but was still about 1.5 seconds back. It was a pretty spectacular ride by Bolt!

MOTO 1

The first final started somewhat predictably with Bolt taking the holeshot, just ahead of Walker. Olszowy delighted the Polish fans by coming out of the gates in third, while Lettenbichler failed to show his speed off the line. By Lap 2 Bolt and Walker were right together and already extending away off the front. The most exciting moment of the race, and possibly on the night, came on Lap 3 when Bolt left an inside line wide open for Walker after a 180 degree corner transitioning between lanes. Walker made an aggressive move trying to take advantage of this potential gift, making solid contact with Bolt but wasn’t able to seal the deal. Given their friendship, it wasn’t surprising that Walker didn’t go into ‘Vince Friese mode’ and clean Bolt out, but a clear message was sent to Bolt and the crowd that he meant business in Krakow.

A little later in the moto Walker got briefly caught out by a lapper in the rock garden and lost about two seconds to Bolt. Impressively, though, he was able to make that gap up and regain contact later in the race. For me, this was another telling moment. Watching Walker in the US at the Endurocross series from trackside, it had seemed he was struggling to deal with adversity. If something went wrong in a race it seemed to really throw him off and impact his ability to keep his mind in the game. Not so in Krakow. Walker shook this moment off, went on a charge, and successfully bridged back up. Let’s not minimise how hard it is to bridge up to a rider of Bolt’s strength on a SuperEnduro track. Al of a sudden it seemed possible that Walker could not just hang on to Bolt’s wheel, but that he could beat him.

At the end of the race it was Bolt hanging on to take P1 ahead of Walker, while Will Hoare took P3 ahead of Lettenbichler in P4 and Olszowy in P5.

MOTO 2

With the speed that Walker was showing in the first moto, Moto 2 was shaping up to be very interesting - especially with the traditional reversed start order. In a surprising turn of events, Bolt struggled off the line from the back row in this race, coming out second-to-last. Walker, on the other hand, came out strong and had moved to P1 by Lap 3 while Bolt was still battling through traffic in P5. By Lap 5 Bolt (being Billy Bolt, of course) had moved up to P2 ahead of Olszowy, but was now looking at a significant 8 second gap to Walker. Walker just needed to keep riding fast and smooth to win at this point, which he did… until the final lap. Walker dropped his bike in an unforced error, shocking the crowd and giving Bolt a glimmer of hope. It wasn’t to be, though, as Walker got himself sorted and to the line without any further dramas and handing Bolt his first loss of the Series in the process. After the race Walker commented that “I feel like I’m good now, and it was nice to get a win on Billy. That last lap I was ‘Oh shit!’ when I went down!

This was a great ride by Walker. He took advantage of Bolt’s poor start to build a solid lead. Once the race had fully settled in by Lap 5, Bolt wasn’t able to make any headway into Walker’s lead (in fact, Walker seemed to be stretching out a bit near the end of the race. Possibly Bolt was going into race-management mode and looking ahead to moto 3, but it was still a very fast and professional ride. When Walker went down on the last lap he was able to recover quickly and smoothly to hang onto a well-deserved victory.

MOTO 3

This race was looking to be pretty exciting. Assuming that Bolt and Walker went 1-2 (in either order), who ever won the moto would win the round. Bolt was back on form for the start, taking the holeshot with Walker glued to his rear wheel, followed by Olszowy and Lettenbichler a short distance behind. By Lap 2, In a repeat of Moto 1, though, the leading duo quickly extended their lead and pulled away from the pack by establishing a half-lane lead. The moment of the moto came on Lap 4, when Walker made a small mistake near the end of the matrix, failing to clear the last double. This was the opening that Bolt needed and he took full advantage, quickly turning a .7 second gap into a 2-second lead. From there Walker seemed to fade with Bolt confirming his pace to eventually take a very comfortable win. In the battle for the remaining podium position, Olszowy was riding very well in P3 and holding off Lettenbichler until the second last lap when he crashed heavily at the end of the rock garden, landing his body on the log marking the edge of the lane. Lettenbichler went through smoothly, and then Olszowy crashed heavily again coming down the bridge just before the start of the final lap. He was down for a fair amount of time and seemed to be in pain, holding his arm. He was able to remount and finish, but ended up dropping 4 more positions to cross the line in P8. Lettenbichler held on for third place and 4th overall on the night. Will Hoare came in for P4 approximately 13 seconds behind Lettenbichler, which was enough to earn the final podium spot for the round.

I checked-in with Olszowy about how he was feeling after those crashes, and he told me “It was a pretty good night for me, but some mistakes. Luckily no injury, which is good, [and] need to keep pushing. The tracks are pretty technical, so we need to find a better setup for the bike for these kinds of tracks.”

Billy Bolt: “I’m pretty happy really with a 1-2-1. I rode well in the second race – I just made a few bad decisions and took too long to get to the front. I think everyone was expecting an eruption when I got back to the pits but I was pretty chilled to be honest. I knew I rode well, but I just didn’t put myself in the right place on the track. Overall though I was happy with my riding the whole night and I got better each race, I think. I switched up my line in the rocks on the final race so I think that made a difference and gave me some breathing room on what was a difficult track that Jonny pushed me hard on all night. I’ll keep working over Christmas and come back swinging in Germany.”

Manuel Lettenbichler: “I’ve got mixed feelings about today to be honest, I was hoping for a little more. I did a lot of testing during the week to try and find a better rhythm on the bike and came here to Poland aiming for a podium. My speed has definitely improved but I’m a little way off the pace of the top two guys. I’m still riding a bit stiff, and so it’s not easy to find a good flow, especially on such a tight track. Overall though, it was an awesome event. It’s so sick to ride in front of so many fans – the atmosphere in the arena was incredible. We have a little break now, then back at it at home in Germany for round three.”

Race Notes

• The track in Poland looked was definitely more technical than what we saw in Paris. The rock gardens in particular looked challenging. If you watched Dominick Olszowy’s track preview you would have seen him treating the bridge feature as a step-up/step-down obstacle. The decision was made sometime after that to force riders to roll down the backside of the bridge. We’ll assume that this was a safety decision, and we’re certainly not going to second guess those, but it would’ve been pretty exciting to see the Prestige Class, at least, be able to navigate that as they saw fit.

• Speaking of Olszowy, he continues to impress through the first two rounds of the series. His crashes on the last two laps of moto 3 both seemed pretty heavy. Hopefully he’s ok and doesn’t have to spend the 4-week break dealing with injury. Olszowy, like Walker, raced the full AMA Endurocross campaign and only got back to Europe a few days before Round 1. As mentioned above, we wouldn’t be shocked to see him pull off a podium finish at one of the rounds this season.

• Will Hoare showed that his P3 in Round 1 wasn’t a fluke. He battled in Krakow, and looks to be on a breakthrough season in the Prestige class. He’s going to be one to watch for the rest of the series.