FRANCE GP JET TEAM

FRANCE GP JET TEAM

Last weekend the first GP of this particular season took place with the French race opening the World Championship. As always, a race at the height of a world event with selective special stages and a challenging course. Great organizational effort to follow the protocols imposed by the pandemic situation which, however, did not discourage the large audience. The small village of Requista, in the Massif Central area, hosted the premier of the Enduro World Championship and the Jet Zanardo Team was almost complete, at the moment the only absent rider is the Chilean rider Enzo Pellegrini who has decided for the health situation to postpone its presence in Europe. Team Jet Zanardo’s line-up for the French GP was therefore made up of Joe Wootton in the E2 class with the Husqvarna FE 450, Ruy Barbosa on the Husqvarna FE 250 in the Junior class and the Portuguese rider Tomas Clemente in the KTM XC 125 Youth category. On Friday evening, during the usual SuperTest, Ruy Barbosa recorded the third overall time and the best time in the Junior category. On Saturday Ruy Barbosa ran an excellent race going to the podium in the Junior1 category. Returning to Europe recently, our Chilean rider recorded excellent times in all the special tests and at the end of the day of competition he took a second place after leading the race on the first lap. Then the tension for the leadership made him commit several falls that made him lose valuable positions.Having started with too much desire to recover by taking the victory, the Chilean rider made too many mistakes in the various special tests, losing a lot of time especially in the special one where he had dominated the previous day. Visibly demoralized, Ruy Barbosa promises redemption for the Italian GP. Arrived in France with a bronchitis that he was treating,, Joe Wootton’s condition worsened by the day. The English rider tried to compete and on Saturday he raced in a state of not optimal form, ending the race day anyway but very far from his real possibilities. Unfortunately, on Sunday Joe Wootton decided, in agreement with the team, not to take the start in order not to take too many risks and and do not prejudice his performance at the next Italian GP. The next appointment is scheduled for Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 September in Spoleto for the Italian GP.