Kiwi Rider February Vol.2 2023 | Page 17

DIRT NEWS

SUPER ENDURO ROUND 3 GOES TO BILLY BOLT

Husqvarna Factory Racing ’ s Billy Bolt dominated at round three of the FIM SuperEnduro World Championship in Hungary . The British rider topped the SuperPole hot lap , before going on to win all three Prestige class races , the defending world champion further extending his championship lead in Budapest . Taking the evening ’ s SuperPole by almost one and a half seconds on his FE 350 , Bolt was keen to make good on that momentum when the start gate dropped for race one . Exiting the first corner in second , a hectic lap one saw him slip back to third . Recomposing himself , he went on the attack and by the end of lap two had taken the lead . Once out front , Bolt pulled ahead to eventually claim victory by three seconds . With the start order reversed for race two , Bolt cut his way through the field to reach third position on lap one . After a couple of exchanges , he took the lead on lap three and quickly opened up a healthy advantage . Looking set to claim a convincing win , drama unfolded when he got his front wheel lodged in the rock garden with three laps to go . Dropping to second , he put in maximum effort to reel leader Cody Webb back in and take his second victory of the night . Setting his sights on a clean sweep in Budapest , Bolt emerged from the second corner of race three in third . Quickly moving into the lead , Billy was determined to do no wrong this time and set about checking out . Executing precision laps on his FE 350 saw the Brit build a commanding lead to cross the chequered flag over 20 seconds clear of his rivals . “ With three wins and topping SuperPole , it was a great night at the office ”, Bolt said , “ I knew my speed was good from the off , but in the first two races I seemed to keep tripping myself up . I would get into the lead and then just make a mistake or judge the lapped traffic wrong . Thankfully , I was able to recover each time , but I really wanted to do better . I feel like race three was my best of the night . Mistakes were minimal and I was able to ride my lines with confidence . It was a great way to end the night !” Round four of the FIM SuperEnduro season sees the field head to Israel on March 2 with Bolt leading the championship with a 26-point lead over second-placed Beta rider Jonny Walker .

KIWI RIDER 17