2013 Trial World Championship Round 1 Day 2

Takahisa Fujinami – Repsol Montesa claimed a sensational win in front of his home fans on the second day of the Japanese Grand Prix, his first since he last won in Great Britain back in 2010. Fujinami produced three consistent laps to finally edge out Jeroni Fajardo – Beta who had held the lead for two out of the three laps, before his day fell apart on the final tour. Despite his late collapse Fajardo still managed to salvage second place, as yesterday’s victor Toni Bou – Repsol Montesa had a rare bad day at the office and finished in third spot. Adam Raga – Gas Gas and James Dabill – Beta completed the top five on a day when the scores were much lower than they were twenty-four hours earlier.

Despite his opening day victory, Bou looked surprisingly nervous on the first lap today and this was not helped when he stalled his bike in section seven due to an issue with the electronic mapping. This obviously unsettled Toni and he was to quickly add another five marks to his score when his hand slipped off the throttle as he approached the final step in the very next hazard. Bou’s lap one total of eighteen marks put him down in eighth and a long way behind the early leader Fajardo who only dropped four marks over his opening two laps.

With much ground to make up Bou mounted one of trademark fight backs and dropped only two further marks on his closing two laps, but on this occasion this was only enough to elevate him to the lower tier of the podium. With the sun shining overhead for the second day in a row the much drier conditions saw the scores tumble compared to Saturday’s totals. Although Fajardo looked to have the victory within his grasp Fujinami kept him under pressure with some almost equally low and consistent lap totals. With the massive home crowd behind him, Takahisa delivered some exceptional rides right when it mattered and just as Fajardo began to crack to steal an important win on Honda’s turf. Bou still leads the title race, by two points from Fujinami with Raga in third at this early stage in proceedings.

Jack Sheppard – Beta produced a stunning closing lap performance to steal the win in the Junior class from Belgium’s Maxime Warenghien – Sherco. Sheppard’s third lap score of just three marks gave him his first win in this division despite Warenghien also recording a single digit lap total. France’s Cedric Tempier – Sherco completed the rostrum on day two only one mark further back as yesterday’s Spanish front running duo of Jorge Casales – Gas Gas and Pol Tarres – Sherco could only manage eighth and fifth positions respectively this time out. Sheppard’s third place on Saturday followed by his win today sees him top the Junior standings by five points from Warenghien, which confirms the importance of consistency in this highly competitive category even at this early stage in the campaign.

French rider Kenny Thomas – Beta showed his liking for the drier conditions as he managed to hang onto a single mark win despite a spirited fight back from Bradley Cox – Beta on the closing lap. Thomas was relatively consistent over the three laps whilst Cox suffered a nightmare second tour before he posted the best lap score of the trial to finish off with. Although disappointed to have missed out on the victory, Cox was just relieved to be back in contention after he slumped to seventh spot yesterday. Saturday’s runner up Quentin Carles de Caudemberg – Beta completed a solid weekend with third place today. Thomas now heads the general standings three points clear of his compatriot Carles de Caudemberg, with yesterday’s victor Pietro Petrangeli – Gas Gas in third spot overall after he took sixth position today.

Photo Coverage

For photos from day 2 of the action in Japan, click here