Jitsie factory Beta rider, Jack Sheppard had what could at best be described as a mediocre day at the Grand Prix of Italy, the sixth and penultimate scoring round of the 2012 FIM Trial World Championship held in the small mountain ski resort of Santo Stefano d'Aveto, some seventy five kilometres north of the coastal city of Genoa. The Suffolk teenager finished the event in seventh position, one place better than he scored in the UEM Championship event at the same venue the previous day.
Jack’s day didn’t get off to the best of starts when, despite cleaning the opening section, he dropped a total of nine marks over the next three sections, including a five in the third. This was followed by another five in the sixth section and a pair of twos in the seventh and ninth sections. Settling into his rhythm, the youngster then enjoyed a run of cleans up to the final section of the lap where another five was to put him in a lowly tenth position at the end of the first half of the competition.
The second lap saw a much-improved and more consistent Jack emerge, dropping just four marks over the opening six sections compared to fourteen lost on his first visit. Scores of three on the seventh and tenth sections were to be the only low points on what was a vastly improved second lap score of just ten marks, putting Jack on an overall score of twenty-three for the day and raising him from tenth to seventh position.
With now just two days of competition remaining, both at Jack’s home round in Britain at the end of July, he is in fifth position in the overall championship standings, thirty-seven points behind fourth-placed Frenchman, Benoit Dagnicourt.
Speaking about today’s event, Jack said “I had a bit of a wobbly start to the day. I felt I was riding better than yesterday, but had two fives early on which left me with a hill to climb to try and come back. Another five at the end of the lap didn’t help either.”
Jack continued, “The second lap was obviously much better. I had a couple of threes, but cleaned most of the hard sections and was far happier with my riding. I guess I just left it too late to mount any kind of comeback.”
“Whilst it has not been the best result today, I am surprised and really pleased at how well my wrist has held up. There have been a number of big drops and heavy landings, but it hasn’t caused me any problems. Also, as always in Italy, the laps have been long and it has been travelling between sections where I’ve felt it most at previous events, but it has actually felt okay this weekend.”
“My plan now is to get back to Britain and get as much time on the bike as possible between now and my home Grand Prix. My aim is to be on the podium both days in front of my home crowd” ended Jack.
2012 FIM Trial World Championship Round 6
Team Jack Sheppard