Billy Bolt Takes Round 2 of the 2025 FIM SuperEnduro Series
Story: Noel Flatters - Editor - The Enduro Bureau
January 04, 2025
Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Billy Bolt in action at Round 2 of the FIM SuperEnduro Championship in Riesa, Germany.
Image Future7 Media, courtesy Husqvarna Factory Racing.
Round 2 of the 2025 SuperEnduro Series went off in Riesa, Germany, this weekend and it was Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Billy Bolt running the table for a perfect night and maximum points over Dominick Olszowy (Rieju Factory Racing) and Jonny Walker (Triumph Factory Racing). While Bolt dominated the win column, Round 2 still showcased great racing, drama, and perhaps some signs that the front end of the field might be closing the gap to Bolt. Read on to find out more…
Dominik Olszowy, Billy Bolt, and Jonny Walker (l-r) on the SuperEnduro Round 2 podium.
Image courtesy Rieju Factory Racing.
Key Points
Billy Bolt had a perfect night, winning the Super Pole and all three motos to finish with maximum points and extending his overall championship lead to 22 points over Dominick Olszowy.
Olszowy had another great night in Germany, going 4-2-3 for 2nd overall. This was a ride that highlighted his speed and newly found consistency.
Jonny Walker had another dramatic night, with a DNF in Moto 2 resulting from a crash while trying to make a pass for the lead. He did show very impressive speed all night and was substantially closer to Bolt’s lap times than we saw in round 1. Walker did enough in Superpole and Motos 1 & 2 to finish 3rd on the night, but his overall championship hopes took a hit as he is now 44 points down on Bolt.
Sherco USA’s Cooper Abbot made the most of Motos 2 & 3 to finish 7th on the night, just 1 point behind Eddie Karlsson (Stark Future) and Mitch Brightmore (X-Grip Racing Team).
Super Pole
The Super Pole competition was an exciting one at Round 2 with great battle for the P3 spot, which is worth 1 Championship point, between Olszowy, Ashton Brightmore (X-Grip Racing Team), and Karlsson. When the dust settled it was Karlsson who picked up the position and the single point.
In the top two spots it was Billy Bolt taking a very impressive 1.589 second win over Jonny Walker after Walker had a somewhat sloppy ride with a tough inside line through the first corner (a 90 degree deep sand turn), and a bobble in the rock garden.
Ashton Brightmore, Olszowy, Mitch Brightmore (X-Grip Racing) and Will Hoare (TTR Squadra Corse) rounded out the Super Pole finishing positions.
Moto 1
The first moto of the night saw Bolt take the holeshot just ahead of Olszowy. They were joined by Walker and Karlsson, and this group of 4 quickly separated from the rest of the field. This didn’t last long, though, as the Bolt and Walker dropped the other two riders, eventually extending their gap out to approximately 16 seconds.
From there it was all Bolt and Walker. While Bolt never looked like he was in danger of losing the lead, Walker managed to stay within a second of his lap times for all but one lap of the race. This was huge improvement for Walker from Round 1 and, most importantly, it allowed him to apply pressure to Bolt for the entire moto as any time that Bolt can build a lead he’s impossible to beat.
Another important point to make here is that we believe that Walker is still not running a factory motor on his Triumph. For him to stay this close to Bolt without the factory motor has to be a great confidence boost, and it also would seem to indicate that we might see some fireworks when he does get that motor installed in the next round or two.
Olszowy and Karlsson battled for the P3 spot through the first half of the race, until Olszowy made a mistake coming into the Riesa track’s signature flyover that dropped him back to P5 behind Will Hoare. This allowed Karlsson to secure third in the moto, which was also Stark Future’s first race podium in SuperEnduro.
Olszowy was able to come back around Hoare and open a small gap for a P4 finish, with Hoare rounding out the top five.
American Cooper Abbott (Sherco USA) had a tough first race of the night, riding around P10 for the most of the moto before finishing P11.
Moto 2
Moto 2 had a ton of action and big drama. In the reverse gate start it was Abbot coming from the far outside of the front row all the way to the inside on his way to grabbing the holeshot. Olszowy had an incredible Moto 2 back row start for the second straight round, emerging in P2 ahead of another fast back row start from Jonny Walker. Billy Bolt played it safe in the chaos and came out in P9.
By lap 2 Abbott, Walker and Olszowy had built up a lead over the pack, but things changed quickly as Walker went down hard after washing out his front end trying to get past Abbott. He got up but had to abandon the moto with appeared to be some front-end damage to his bike.
In short order Bolt made his way up to P3 by running lap times 2-3 seconds faster than Olszowy before making the pass for the lead on lap 5. From there Bolt never looked back on his way to a commanding 9.998 second win over Olszwoy, who was followed by Mitch and Ashton Brightmore, and Abbott in P5.
Walker’s DNF dropped him down to 4th overall in the Championship standings, 4 points behind Ashton Brightmore, and just 1 point ahead of Eddie Karlsson.
Moto 3
Moto 3 brought us one of the most exciting races of the night. Walker wasn’t just able to continue racing after his Moto 2 crash, he came back with a lights-out performance. He came off the line at warp speed, easily taking the holeshot ahead of Olszowy. Another fast starter was Cooper Abbott, who looked very confident coming off of the back row and making up 4 positions before the first corner.
On lap 1 it was a Walker, Olszowy and Bolt train pulling away from the field, but it was Walker who seemed to have the afterburners turned on as he built up a 4.5 second lead. Although it was Bolt setting the fastest lap times through the 10-lap moto, we again saw Walker nearly equal to Bolt, staying within a second and often with just 1-2/10ths.
In the mid-pack we saw a tremendous battle for P4 and P5. Abbot’s quick start had put him just behind Eddie Karlsson, but Karlsson struggled on laps 5 and 6, and Abbott took advantage to take P4. Mitch Brightmore pushed hard and got past Karlsson, too, but couldn’t catch the smooth riding Abbott.
Back up at the front of the race, it came apart for Walker it came apart on lap 8 as he struggled in the exit of the rock garden corner. This mistake allowed Bolt to close a 2.5 second gap before making the pass for the lead a short while later on the same lap. Once Bolt took the lead it was all over. On lap 9 Bolt made 6.2 seconds on Walker, allowing him to cruise to the finish to complete his perfect night. Walker went into race management mode to finish ahead of Olszowy in 3rd, Abbott in 4th, with Mitch Brightmore rounding out the top five.
Analysis
In the end, Bolt was unbeatable on the night. His combination of confidence, speed and consistency is almost impossible to beat, but we may be seeing some chinks in his armor.
Walker was impressively close to Bolt in terms of lap times through the 3 motos, and we saw Bolt under some consistent pressure for the first time in a long time. What’s more interesting about this is that Walker still does not a Factory race motor installed on his bike. From speaking with Jonny we think that this will be rectified in the next round or two, which could lead to some even more exciting racing.
Ultimately, though, Bolt is quickly building up a substantial lead in the overall Championship standings. After Round 2 he leads Olszowy by 22, and Walker by 44.
Walker has had a terrible moto in each of the first two rounds, which has impacted his overall position in a serious way. This does, though, perhaps allow Walker to race more aggressively and chase moto wins over the remaining 5 rounds, which would obviously be great for the fans.
For North American fans, Cooper Abbott sits in a tie for P6 with Mitch Brightmore, just 4 points behind Eddie Karlsson. If he can build a bit more consistency and race like he did in Motos 2 and 3, he’s got a real chance to finish the season in the top 5 of the Championship.
Track Notes
The track in Reisa was an interesting one. It’s a smaller arena with tight floorspace, and the track featured 4 straight lanes with 180 degree corners at the ends.
On the race broadcast riders noted that the track hadn’t been groomed ahead of the night show, and that it was really rough. No single feature stood out in terms of insanity, but there were some interesting sections. A loose log ride off the start was fun to watch, as was the deep sand in corner 1. The signature Riesa bridge was there, and it provided a few spicy moments including one for Bolt. There were two matrixes on the track, with one of them being built to spell out “RIESA” – maybe a bit gimmicky, but very cool, nonetheless.
