World Womens Motocross Championship 2008

World Womens MX Championship - Round One - Sevlievo (Bulgaria)

Livia Lancelot took her first ever victory today at Sevlievo, under mixed weather conditions which made the second moto a lot harder than the first, as the course got more slippery.

27000 spectators attended this opening round of the FIM Women’s Motocross World Championship which will move to Italy next week for the second of five rounds.

Having started the FIM Women’s World Cup in 2005 as a privateer, current GPKR rider Livia Lancelot took her first overall win today, at round one of the first edition of the FIM Women’s Motocross World Championship.

Ending runner up to Suzuki Inotec’s Larissa Papenmeier in the first moto, Livia took victory in heat two as her rival crashed and injured her right foot. Kawasaki Elf Pfeil’s Maria Franke was second on the podium with American Ashley Fiolek rounding off the rostrum at her first ever appearance in the FIM series. Injured Yamaha Van Beers Racing’s Katherine Prumm and West Coast KTM Scandinavia’s Elin Mann rounded off the top five.

MOTO 1

Papenmeier took the holeshot and lead for the first two laps, then Lancelot moved up to first and tried to open up a gap from her German rival. The latter came back up to Lancelot’s tail to move past with four laps to go; Lancelot kept following Papenmeier who eventually won from last year’s runner up. The leading duo ran away from the rest of the field and left Fiolek battle with Franke for the third place. Franke came back up after a troubled start, moving in front of Fiolek for a lap. The American fought back to secure the third place ahead of Franke, while Prumm came back strong after a crash to round off the top five.

MOTO 2

Once again Papenmeier took a superb start but the slippery conditions saw the first moto winner let Lancelot by. Livia rode an incredible heat to take a start to flag victory but Papenmeier could not even finish the opening lap; the German crashed with Fiolek and injured her right foot. Fiolek was on fire after the crash and started to work her way up to an eventual fourth place, sandwiched in between two time World Cup winner Prumm (third) and Mann (fifth). Franke ended second after a decent start.

IN THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS STANDINGS

Livia Lancelot holds the red plate with Maria Franke and Ashley Fiolek completing the top three. Despite her right knee injury, Prumm is fourth in the Championship ahead of Elin Mann.

Double World Cup winner Katherine Prumm was not afforded a fair debut on her YZ250F after rupturing her right anterior cruciate ligament in the days leading up to the Grand Prix. Putting aside her pain and discomfort it was an uneasy weekend for Prumm who tried to compete but was clearly frustrated by the handicap and being unable to run at her normally impressive speed.

She made two mistakes in the first moto that saw her having to work hard to make fifth position, recovering from a second lap placing of twelfth. A slower and wetter second race saw her net a decent third.

The 19 year old will now have an MRI scan on Tuesday to determine the extent of the damage to her knee joint and then make a decision as to whether she can fulfil a five month campaign of races internationally and in her native New Zealand.

As with the MX1-GP and MX2-GP classes, round two for the ladies will occur next week at Mantova for the Italian Grand Prix.

Katherine Prumm, Van Beers Racing, 4th:
"I am actually disappointed with the result. My preparation for the world championship had been perfect. I was feeling very good on the bike, with my training and making good lap-times. I knew I was three or four seconds off my usual pace today. It is hard to go out there and not be able to give 100% and not feel 100% and this showed in my results. I had pain and swelling and I tried to put it to the back of my mind but it was difficult not to let it affect my riding. The world championship is what I want but if the knee is damaged then we will have to make a decision about it this week."