26-06-2025	MXGP News
A difficult weekend for Valk at Matterley Basin

The twelfth round of the MX2 World Championship took place at the iconic Matterley Basin circuit in the UK – a track that usually ranks high among richequeredourites. However, this time around, the conditions were quite different from a typical Matterley Basin circuit. 

With the season so far being largely wet, the dry and hard-pack nature of the Matterley circuit on Saturday was a big shift. The speed and slick surface made starts more crucial than ever – Cas Valk struggled with in the qualifying race, finding himself buried down in fifteenth after the opening lap. A couple of mistakes didn’t help his cause, and the Dutch rookie had to settle for a frustrating seventeenth.

Overnight, the organisers watered the circuit heavily, which transformed the track for Sunday’s racing. Ruts began to form, and the surface became more technical, but despite that, it was largely one-lined, meaning a good start was still vital.

In the opening moto, Valk showed clear progress. After his disappointing qualifying, he bounced back to ride a much better race, bringing it home in eleventh – a positive step forward.

Unfortunately, the second moto didn’t go as smoothly. Another bad start left him outside the top fifteen and, after a mistake that pushed him further back, he regrouped to recover to sixteenth at the chequered flag.

It wasn’t the weekend the Van Venrooy KTM rider was hoping for, but it’s all part of the learning curve in what is his rookie MX2 World Championship campaign. With two weekends off before the series resumes in Finland, Valk will no doubt be looking to regroup and come back stronger.

Cas Valk (13th overall): Thirteenth at Matterley Basin is not the result I was going for. After two bad starts on a track where you needed to take good starts, it wasn’t easy. I am looking forward to Finland to bounce back. Thanks to my team for all the hard work they do. 

 

Fotos: Juan Pablo Acevedo

Online: Stefan Uhlmann