A large crowd gathered today at KymiRing to enjoy the Finnish round of the Motocross World Championship and witness the dominance of a teenage sensation from Belgium.
KymiRing just hosted its first-ever motocross Grand Prix, which, despite prior concerns, turned out to be a great success. Spectators showed up in strong numbers, and although there were doubts about the readiness of the track before the weekend, riders praised it highly during the press conference. The facilities at KymiRing also received widespread acclaim.
– Hosting our first MXGP event was a major milestone for us, and now it’s been achieved. The overall feedback has been very positive, and we received a lot of praise from teams, riders, and the promoter. The crowd also seemed to enjoy the sunny weather, said a satisfied KymiRing CEO Kornel Öry.
Teenage sensation Lucas Coenen, 18, took a dominant victory in the MXGP class despite a crash in the second moto. In the post-race press conference, Coenen even joked that he thought everyone else had crashed on the first lap, as no one was in sight behind him. In the MX2 class, reigning world champion Kay de Wolf from the Netherlands won in similarly commanding fashion.
The best Finnish result of the day came from Kasimir Hindersson in the MX2 class. He finished an impressive 14th in the first moto and ended the weekend 15th overall, collecting 12 championship points.
– This was the first Grand Prix of my career, and I was quite nervous at the start. But over the weekend, I realized I could really compete with the others. In the second moto, I was already able to challenge some of the top riders, but physically I wasn’t quite ready for that intensity yet. I’m really happy with the weekend, and it was great to race a GP on home soil, Hindersson said.
In addition to Hindersson, Finland collected more championship points in the MXGP class through Pekka Nissinen, Kasper Kangasniemi, and Miro Varjonen. Nissinen placed 19th overall for the weekend, Kangasniemi 20th, and Varjonen 21st.
In the European Championship classes, the best Finnish result came from Arttu Sahlstén, who had a strong qualifying performance on Saturday and finished 14th in the second moto of the EMX125 class. In EMX250, Onni Jaakonsaari was the top Finnish rider, finishing 17th.
