Cardano al Campo (VA), October 1, 2023
The last seasonal appointment with the MX Prestige Italian Championship occurred at Malpensa's circuit, an old-style track with demanding uphill and downhill stretches. The Fantic Racing Team arrived at the appointment with Cas Valk, MX2 Championship leader, ready for the season's final battle.
In the time practice, Alexis Fueri and Cas Valk were in the same group and enjoyed the hard-packed ground of Malpensa. They set the first and the second-best time, respectively.
At the start of the first moto, Fueri took the race's lead, keeping it for four laps despite not fully recovering his physical shape. So, he had to lower the rhythm, finishing in fifth place.
Cas Valk was wise at the start of the heat and avoided mistakes that could have affected his race. Thanks to a solid race pace, Cas worked his way up to third place, and after making a mistake, he recovered and moved back to third place again.
Fueri’s Race2 was generous: he sprinted very well, taking the holeshot. In the second lap, his bike switched off, and he lost several positions but immediately recovered to third place. At the end of one of the most demanding downhill sections, the French got out of track and lost his position. In the final laps, he crashed, forcing to abandon the race.
Excellent start for Cas Valk, who followed his teammate. The Dutch rider made a mistake in the third corner and lost positions. He finished fifth, avoiding any other mistake for the rest of the race.
After today's results, Cas Valk was fourth overall and was crowned MX2 Italian Champion.
For Cas Valk and his Fantic XX 250, the debut season in 250cc ended positively: in addition to the Italian title, the Dutch won the EMX2T European Championship title in the GP of the Czech Republic in Loket. A week ago in England, he secured the bronze medal in the EMX 250 championship in the last grand prix of the season at the challenging Matterley Basin track.
Marco Maddii: "The victory of the Italian Championship was an excellent way to close the season, with Cas in the 250 for the first time. This confirmed his great development. We have won 9 Italian titles with Fantic, 5 in the European Championship, and one in the World Championship in the past four years after hard work. Cas is Fantic's most successful rider. We're happy to finish the season with another excellent success!".