Billy Bolt Takes Win in Budapest and Pushes SuperEnduro Winning Streak to 24 Races
Story: Noel Flatters - Editor - The Enduro Bureau
February 10, 2025
Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Billy Bolt on his way to the overall win at Round 5 of the FIM SuperEnduro Championship in Budapest, Hungary.
Image Future7 Media, courtesy Husqvarna Factory Racing.
Round 5 of the FIM SuperEnduro World Championship took place in Budapest, Hungary, this past weekend and once again we were treated to seeing Billy Bolt (Husqvarna Factory Racing) continue a Championship winning streak that goes all the way back to the third round of the 2019/2020 season – 24 straight races if you’re keeping count.
This was also the most chaotic round of SuperEnduro that we’ve seen in quite a while, with big crashes all over the course through all 3 motos including, unfortunately, a season-ending injury for Alfredo Gomez.
In the end it was Bolt, Jonny Walker (Triumph Factory Racing) and Ash Brightmore (X-Grip Racing) taking the podium spots and the top three spots in the overall. Let’s dig into how it all went down in Budapest.
Key Points
Billy Bolt (Husqvarna Factory Racing) took his 5th straight win of the 2025 FIM SuperEnduro season at Round 5 in Budapest with a 2-1-2-1 night and is only 19 points away from taking the overall championship. A single moto win at Round 6 would see him clinch a fifth straight title in front of his hometown fans in Newcastle.
Jonny Walker (Triumph Factory Racing) accomplished something very few people have done over the past few years in SuperEnduro by beating Bolt twice in one night with a win in the Super Pole and Moto 2 to go along with a P2 in Moto 1 and P3 in Moto 3.
X-Grip Racing’s Ashton Brightmore had another great night in his rooking Prestige class campaign going 4-3-4-4 to finish on the podium for the second straight round and solidify his third-place position in the overall championship.
Bill Bolt (c), Jonny Walker (l), and Mitch Brightmore (r) on the podium at Round 4 of the FIM SuperEnduro Championship in Budapest, Hungary.
Image Future7 Media, courtesy Husqvarna Factory Racing.
Analysis
Another round, another night of Billy Bolt being a legend. With the win and the 59 points gained in Hungary he now has an 85-point lead with two rounds to go and a maximum of 66 points available. For him to lose the Championship he would have to see Walker put together two perfect 33-point rounds and pick up less than 15 points himself. Neither of these scenarios will happen unless Bolt gets hit by a bus between now and March 1st in Newcastle. In fact, it is virtually certain that Bolt will clinch the title after Moto 1 in Newcastle.
But we do see the rest of the field continue to make gains and put pressure on Bolt. Walker, with the new Triumph Factory engine on-board for Rounds 4 and 5, looked like a legitimate threat to the soon-to-be 5x SuperEnduro champion. He was the only rider other than Bolt to go under 31 seconds on the night and was able beat him in the Super Pole and hold him off in Moto 2. The Brightmore brothers are also performing at a high level, and by next year could well be pushing for wins along with Walker.
For that to happen, though, Bolt’s opponents simply cannot afford to give him the opportunity to establish an early lead by himself. When Bolt gets an early lead and gap, he is virtually unbeatable. This appears to be a result of lack of pressure, which allows him to focus purely on riding smooth and fast. We saw that on display here as 11 of his 12 laps were below 33 seconds. To put this in context, the only other riders to post sub-33 laps were Walker (5 laps) and Ash Brightmore (2 laps). This is a perfect example of why you can never EVER let Bolt open up a gap at the front if you want to have any hope of winning.
Super Pole
Jonny Walker fires out of the rock garden on his way to the Super Pole win in Budapest.
Image: Future7Media courtesy Triumph Factory Racing
The SuperPole contest was interesting from the start as Bolt had managed to secure only the 4th fastest result in Timed Practice where the SuperPole start order is set, as he came through with a 31.668 lap that put him behind Ash Brightmore’s 3rd place time of 31.623, and the 31.404 tie between Walker and Mitch Brightmore (X-Grip Racing).
Bolt looked fast in SuperPole but had a few ragged moments including nearly sending it off the track on a big double feature before finishing with a 2nd place 32.154 lap and 2 Championship points.
Walker, on the other hand, looked fast and was effectively mistake-free in throwing down a 31.721 lap that was good enough for the win and 3 Championship points.
Mitch Brightmore came home in 3rd at 32.216 to secure the single point.
Moto 1
Moto 1 was a wild race with chaos throughout. Off the start it was Walker with the holeshot ahead of a crash by Mitch Brightmore that also took down Rieju Factory Racing’s Dominick Olszowy. Bolt quickly took the lead, though, and set about doing the one thing that is fatal to the rest of the field – getting an early gap. While Walker and Ash Brightmore battled for second behind him, Bolt quickly established a lead that topped out at approximately six seconds and he would take it all the way to the finish.
When Bolt gets an early lead and gap, he is virtually unbeatable. One of the reasons for this appears to be that the lack of pressure allows him to focus purely on riding smooth and fast, and we saw that on display here as 11 of his 12 laps were below 33 seconds. To put this in context, the only other riders to post sub-33 laps were Walker (5 laps) and Ash Brightmore (2 laps). This is a perfect example of why you can never EVER let Bolt open up a gap at the front if you want to have any hope of winning.
Behind Bolt, Walker was setting lap times that saw him able to keep his lead over Ash Brightmore through the entire moto. Although Walker did have issues on laps 4 and 6, it was never enough to let Brightmore come through to take the position and they would finish in P2 and P3 respectively.
Dominick Olszowy had a rough start to Round 5 after a big over-the-bars crash forced him to DNF Moto 1 in the opening laps.
Image courtesy FIM SuperEnduro
As the chaos unfolded through the race we saw Olszowy take a hard over-the-bars crash in the early stages, which forced him to DNF. Rieju Factory Racing’s Toby Martyn had started the moto off strongly and was riding in 4th over the first 4 laps, but a hard crash into the face of the big double on left him with a P13 finish.
Moto 2
Jonny Walker takes the checkers for Triumph’s first SuperEnduro race win.
Image: Future7Media courtesy Triumph Factory Racing
Moto 2 and its reverse-gate start is always interesting. For the race leaders, they have two main tactical choices available coming out of the gate – full aggression to barge through the front-row early, or a slow start to avoid potential carnage in the first lap of the race.
Bolt famously starts very slowly in Moto 2, preferring to let the crashes happen in front of him and then use his speed to make his way to the front of the race by the last few laps. Round 5 was no different for Bolt as he noodled off the line in last place, but his plan came apart when he was caught behind a massive pileup in the rock garden early in the first lap. Bolt finished the first lap in 7th position.
Walker, on the other hand, had started more aggressively and made it through the rock garden ahead of the carnage just behind leader Will Hoare (TTR Squadra Corse) and Tim Apolle before making the pass for the lead on lap 3. From there it was all Walker to the finish.
Behind, though, Bolt was making his way through traffic in a furious attempt to reel Walker back in. He made it up to the top-3 on lap 6 behind Hoare, but didn’t get around him until lap 7. At this point Walker had a full lane gap over Bolt, but the championship leader threw down the fastest lap of the night on lap 8 with an insane 30.131 effort. Walker was able to respond on lap 9 with a similarly furious 30.844 and from there was able to manage the lead to pick up Triumph’s first SuperEnduro moto win.
Hoare was able to keep things together to finish P3 ahead of Ash Brightmore, with Olszowy rounding out the top-5 ahead of Mitch Brightmore and Abbott.
Moto 3
Billy Bolt celebrates his Moto 3 and FIM SuperEnduro Championship Round 5 win in style.
Image Future7 Media, courtesy Husqvarna Factory Racing.
Moto 3 saw the return of the Billy Bolt show. No doubt feeling less happy about losing Moto 2, Bolt launched for the holeshot and never looked back as he went wire-to-wire for the second time on the night just to remind everyone that he’s the boss.
Walker had actually looked to have the fastest start, but he lost the front-end in a self-induced error at the apex of the first corner, going down and dropping all the way to the back of the field in last. From there Walker put his head down, making up six positions before the end of the first lap. He did get caught in P6 for four laps until he was able to make his it all the way onto 2nd place finisher Mitch Brightmore’s wheel at the line but had to settle for 3rd in the moto and 2nd overall.
Behind Walker it was Ash Brightmore in 4th which was enough for him to secure 3rd overall on the night.
Billy Bolt: “Overall, I’m really happy with how the evening went. I was frustrated after race one, because I knew I could have ridden better. Then, even though I came second in race two, I was a lot happier with how that race went – we were able to make some changes to the bike and I tried out some new lines, and that all seemed to pay off. In race three, everything came together and I felt really comfortable out there. It feels great to take another win, and now I’m looking forward to my home race in Newcastle in three weeks’ time.”
Jonny Walker: “There were definitely some positives to take away, and of course we are going to keep working hard ready for Newcastle in three weeks for my home race which I’m really excited for. The bike was perfect tonight and I have no complaints, so we’re just going to keep making steps every race and well be on that top step soon.”
