Battling Brit Brad Anderson has now taken the overall win in all three EMX300 two-stroke rounds after taking the second moto win and the overall at Ottobiano in Italy as his arch rival Mike Kras went down.
In the opening moto yesterday, the former British champ took second place behind fellow Brit James Dunn as champion and Ando’s title rival Mike Kras took third.
But in Sunday’s second moto, Dunn went down in the first turn and started dead last as Greg Smets led from Plessers and Michael Hool with Ando and Kras right behind.
Ando had a hard landing from a jump and Kras saw the opportunity and went to stuff it in the inside in the next corner. The pair made contact but Kras came off worse and flew off the track.
Ando was left shaking his head at Kras’ mad move, but later Kras had a pop at him on the podium after finishing third overall.
Kras, now 21 points behind Anderson after recovering to seventh in the final moto, was angry after he thought Ando had tried to squeeze him at the start. He said: “I never been so unhappy with a third place. I’m struggling with my fitness as I have to work so I have no time to train. The heat wasn’t my friend.
“I don’t mind if Brad is better than me beats me but he started cutting me off like he did last year. So what goes around comes around and we’ll take it to Switzerland. ”
Ando recovered from the incident and set his sights on the front of the pack, charging through from a ten-second deficit to the leader Smets. He was in stunning form as he reeled in Hool and then Smets – who had led every lap until Ando came through – to take the win.
But Ando wasn’t sure he’d crossed the line at the end so did a full-speed lap after the chequered flag! But he took his fourth moto win of the year and third overall win.
Anderson said: “The heat got to me in the first race but I knew Kras would get hit by the heat as well so I tried to keep in front of him. In race two I had to come out swinging and I got the hammer down. I’m so glad to come out with the win.”
Dunn made a stunning recovery and was one of the fastest riders on the track. He came through the field to take a stunning third place for second overall.
Dunn said: “Yesterday was a good race and I pulled away a bit but today I got a bad start and was dead last. I worked my way through.”
Brit Rob Holyoake was having a great race in fifth place but got punted off the track and went right over the bars. He was uninjured and carried on to take 11th.
