Billy Bolt Wins SuperEnduro Round 3 with Another Perfect Night
Story: Noel Flatters - Editor - The Enduro Bureau
January 19, 2025
Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Billy Bolt in action at Round 3 of the FIM SuperEnduro Championship in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Image Future7 Media, courtesy Husqvarna Factory Racing.
Round 3 of the 2025 SuperEnduro Series went off in Romania, this weekend and it was Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Billy Bolt finishing with his second straight perfect night to take maximum points and extend his Championship lead to what seems like an insurmountable 58 points over Triumph Factory Racing’s Jonny Walker. Let’s get into it.
Jonny Walker, Billy Bolt, and Mitch Brightmore (X-Grip Racing) (l-r) on the SuperEnduro Round 3 podium.
Image courtesy Husqvarna Factory Racing.
Key Points
Billy Bolt had his second perfect round in a row, winning the Super Pole and going 1-1-1 through the three motos. Despite showing at least a bit of mortality in the final moto of the night, Bolt utilized his speed and physical strength to, as he usually does, find a way to win for the third straight time over the first three rounds of the season.
Jonny Walker had a very solid night and, most importantly, managed to avoid the dramas he experienced in the first two rounds. He went P2 in Super Pole, and then 2-3-3 through the motos for a 2nd place overall finish.
Dominick Olszowy had a disastrous and shortened Round 3 as he had to DNS motos 2 and 3 after a hard crash in Moto 1 resulted in a trip to hospital, despite being able to finish that race. A P4 in the Super Pole meant that Olszowy came out of Romania with zero points, and has now dropped from second to fourth overall in the Championship.
Sherco USA’s Cooper Abbot had another solid night that was highlighted by a gutsy 2nd place finish in Moto 2 behind Bolt. Abbott went 10-7 in Motos 1 and 3 for 6th overall on the night, and to move into 6th overall in the championship.
We’ve learned that the key strategy in trying to beat Bolt is in application of race pressure. We’ve seen Bolt make several mistakes under pressure this season, which have provided opportunities for the field to at least have a chance at beating him.
Super Pole
We saw another exciting Super Pole competition in Romania as all eyes were (unsurprisingly) on Bolt. The brit had set the fastest lap in timed practice as the only rider to go under 30 seconds with his 29.572 effort, and there was no question that he was the man to beat.
Once the dust had settled it was Bolt who took the win as he bettered his timed practice lap with a savage 29.270 effort that was 1.522 faster than Walker’s 2nd-place time, and 1.651 quicker than Mitch Brightmore in 3rd. Bolt’s lap had actually looked very ragged, with a few obvious mistakes.
Olszowy and Ashton Brightmore rounded out the top-five, as Olszowy missed out on 3rd place’s single championship point by 4/10’ths.
Triumph Factory Racing’s Jonny Walker had a fast and, most importantly, drama-free night in Romania.
Image: Future7Media courtesy Triumph Factory Racing
Moto 1
Moto 1 started with Billy Bolt launching off the start like he had rocket boosters, as he easily took the holeshot by over a bike length ahead of Eddie Karlsson and, somewhat unexpectedly, Rieju Factory Racing’s Toby Martyn. From there Bolt quickly left the rest of the field in tatters as he built an insurmountable lead on his way to the win.
Behind Bolt it was Stark Future’s Eddie Karlsson and X-Grip Racing’s Mitch Brightmore forming the initial chase group before being joined by Walker. Walker settled into P3 behind Karlsson on lap 2, where he stayed until making the pass for 2nd on lap 6. From that point Karlsson was under pressure from Brightmore, eventually giving up the position and dropping back to 5th on lap 10.
Olszowy had an incident on lap 2 that appeared to result in bent handlebars. He was able to get moving again but had dropped from 4th all the way down to 12th place. He grabbed a place back before another crash saw him down and in obvious pain. He managed to restart again but was never able to get back to higher than 11th. After the race he went to local hospital and was, unfortunately, done for the night.
Moto 2
Moto 2’s reverse gate start always makes for exciting racing, and Round 3 was no exception to the rule.
For the second week in a row, it was Cooper Abbot who took the holeshot. Behind the American it was a battle between Alfredo Gomez and Tim Apolle. Bolt had an atrocious start, coming out of the holeshot in 11th place, just behind Walker in 10th.
Bolt really turned on the jets on lap 2, moving from 9th to 5th before getting himself up to P2 on lap 4. He was then able to make the pass for the lead, and the eventual win, on lap 5, with Abbott riding a very strong race to stay in P2 all the way to finish ahead of Walker, Gomez, and X-Grip Racing’s Ashton Brightmore.
This was a massive result for Abbott, and showed his true speed, skill, and mental strength as he was dealing with the death of his mother the previous week.
Moto 3
Moto 3 was probably the most exciting race of the year so far. Billy Bolt took his second front-row holeshot of the night ahead of Walker and Mitch Brightmore, and from there it was the three Brits battling for the race win.
Bolt led for the first five laps as Brightmore and Walker exchanged positions twice over those same laps. It all changed on lap 5, though, as Bolt went down and eventually gave up the lead to Brightmore.
Brightmore, somewhat shockingly, was able to hold off Bolt until lap 9, but took advantage of another Bolt mistake to re-take the lead just before the final lap. Despite the energy provided by the crowd, Brightmore gave up the lead for good in the rock garden as Bolt was able to leverage his strength and fitness to send it into the garden with a jump that pushed him past Brightmore.
Walker rounded out the top three a few seconds back, with Ashton Brightmore and Gomez rounding out the top five.
After the race Bolt noted that “I got off to a good start, but then on lap two, I bent my gear lever, which made it really hard to select second. In the end, I decided to just use first gear for the rest of the race, which made things tricky, and with the boys pushing so hard, it definitely wasn’t an easy win.” Certainly an impressive ride to win in 1st gear, but an argument can be made that the bent lever was a mistake resulting from pressure applied by Walker and Brightmore.
Analysis
For a 3rd round in a row, we’ve seen Billy Bolt find ways to win. He’s only lost 1 race out of 9 (including Super Poles). Despite that dominance we still believe that we’re seeing some chinks in his armor.
Most notably, if riders can stay close to him through a race we have seen Bolt make uncharacteristic mistakes in response to pressure. We saw that again in Round 3, especially in Motos 1 and 3.
In Moto 1, Walker’s average lap time over the 12-lap race was within just 0.56% of Bolt’s average lap time. In Moto 3, we saw Mitch Brightmore, Walker, and Ash Brightmore within 0.8% of Bolt’s average lap times. In Moto 3, especially, we saw Bolt make a series of mistakes resulting from the pressure being put on him. While having three riders within that 0.8% was in part due to Bolt bending his shifter early in the moto, that kind of mistake is likely indicative of the pressure coming from behind.
Bolt has also struggled, to a degree, with back row Moto 2 starts this season. Round 3 featured a technical entry to a 180-degree first corner. Bolt came off the line slowly and suffered for it as the carnage in the corner left him with a lot of work to do from 12th place. While it’s likely that Bolt is exercising a high degree of caution in these chaotic back-row starts, it still provides an opportunity for the likes of Walker and Olszowy to take advantage and put pressure on Bolt.
In all cases, if Bolt is given an opportunity to establish an early lead it is almost impossible to catch him. The strategy of hanging on to his wheel through the opening laps of a race seems to be the only win with a chance of workingTrack Notes
