Only one week after his home race in Lommel, Liam was present in Latvia to compete in the fourth round of the EMX250 championship, held at the local track of Kegums. Both in free practice as in the official timed qualifying practice, Liam didn’t found a pace high enough to fight for the top spots. Eventually the 17 year old KTM-rider qualified in eleventh.
When the gate dropped in the first heat Liam took a decent start. The youngster tells us: “The reaction at the gate wasn’t that great. But I could run a nice line going into the first corner, this first corner is always a little dicey, so coming out in fifth or fourth was great. A few corners later I tried to overtake the man in third, while doing that I saw that just in front of us the two leaders came together and suddenly I went to the lead.”
Liam rode great lines and smooth but one little mistake in lap four made him lose the lead and drop back to seventh. He quickly picked up the bike and restarted the race, within no time he was back at the same rhythm as before the crash. Fighting his way back up, making up for the lost time. But then Liam made again a little mistake. This time no places where lost, only valuable time. Time he could’ve used at the end of the race. Now Liam would finish in fifth in the first heat, missing the fourth place with only two seconds. What could’ve been…
In the second heat Liam came already off the bike in the first corner, this in freestyle “NAC-NAC” style without going down. A few corners later he still decided to bound with the Latvian ground, and to crash. The Foodmaker-KTM rider dusted himself off and restarted his race, a quest to points. In a few laps he gained more than 10 positions. Sadly a big crash would end this rush to the front, Liam explains: “A few laps in the second moto I had a massive crash. Besides the time I lost by the crash I also needed to deal with a bike that was all bend up. If you look at it I still came awfully close to scoring points. Maybe. No not maybe, most certainly the most important point is that I walk away uninjured after such a huge crash”.
Liam would cross the finish in twenty-second position. However due to the damage on his bike by the crash, exhaust included, he failed the post-race noise inspection. The penalty, being a loss of 5 places, dropped Liam back to the twenty-eight place in the second heat.
In the overall EMX250 Grand Prix result of Kegums, Liam found himself just outside the top ten in twelfth. In the EMX250 championship standing he’s still in fourth with 108 points.
The next race will be the Belgian classic in Balen at the Keiheuvel.
Credit Picture: Samo Vidic / Red Bull Content Pool
