Americans beat Febvre in Japan Championships
By TMX Archives on 28th Oct 15
Americans Trey Canard and Jeremy Martin handed defeat to world champions Romain Febvre and Tim Gajser as a handful of stars from each side of the Atlantic joined the locals for the final round of the Japanese championship at Sugo.
Febvre came up less than two seconds short of Canard in the second MX1 moto after trailing in third in race one as Cooper Webb headed off Canard for the win.
"This trip to Japan has been a great experience and I'm really happy with how the race went,” said Canard.
Challenge
"Taking home the win is huge, not only for myself but for the entire HRC crew who put in a tremendous amount of work to make this happen.
"My bike was working great and I felt like I was riding well.
"Holding off Romain Febvre in the second moto was a challenge, but it was a fight to the end and I won.
"I've been a Honda rider for a long time so it was also great to be able to visit different Honda facilities, see so much history and meet the people that make my dream possible.”
Canard's Team Manager Dan Betley was almost as happy as his rider.
"I'm really pleased with how this trip went and couldn't be happier for our team,” he said.
"Trey was riding fast throughout the whole event - finishing second in qualifying and the first moto - and then battling out front during the entire second moto before taking the win.
"I really like what I see in terms of the progression and want to keep this momentum going through the off-season and into Anaheim 1.”
Gajser was the dominant force in the MX2 opener but threw away the overall in race two as he came home fifth, nearly a minute down on US champ Martin.
A minute down on the visiting stars each time, Akira Narita took a record ninth Japanese title and Toshiki Tomita completed an HRC double in MX2.
Result
MX1: 1 Trey Canard (Honda) 2-1, 2 Cooper Webb (Yamaha) 1-3, 3 Romain Febvre (Yamaha) 3-2, 4 Akira Narita (Honda) 4-4.
MX2: 1 Jeremy Martin (Yamaha) 2-1, 2 Katsuya Takeshi (Kawasaki) 3-2, 3 Tim Gajser (Honda) 1-5, 4 Toshiki Tomita (Honda) 4-3.
