Monster Energy Kart-Off
By TMX Archives on 9th Aug 10
Took place at the Indoor Karting facility at Lommel on Friday 30th July. The circuit was less than 500 metres from the start gate at the motocross grand prix track.
All ten Monster Energy Motocross riders hung out together for the first time. They were: David Philippaerts and Gautier Paulin (Yamaha Monster Energy MX Team), Gareth Swanepoel and Evgeny Bobryshev (CAS Honda), Steven Frossard and Jeremy Van Horebeek (CLS Kawasaki), Christophe Charlier and Harri Kullas (Yamaha Monster Energy Gariboldi), Ken De Dycker and Alessandro Lupino (Yamaha Monster Energy Ricci MX Team). Loic Larrieu was injured and did not attend and De Dycker was nursing a sore shoulder and therefore did not race a Kart.
The race lasted for 15 minutes and 18 laps and was won by Harri Kullas (Finland), in front of Alessandro Lupino (Italy) and the pair had a good battle and Evgeny Bobryshev (Russia). Kullas was victorious despite taking pole position and being made to start at the back of the grid!
Monster Energy Karting Event from Mike Neale on Vimeo.
Kullas: "It was a lot of fun and although I was annoyed at having to start from the back it made for a busy race. It is cool to have us altogether like this and I was surprised how much media there was.”
The top three won numerous prizes including DC caps and hoodies and Skull Candy headphones.
South African Lommel resident Gareth Swanepoel had even been making some pre-event practice but insisted his last position was the fault of a slower Kart!
Media from Belgium, Holland, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, Germany and the UK then took part in two races for prizes and trophies with Arno Van Den Brink from Dutch website www.motocrossplanet.nl winning an expenses-paid trip to Ibiza for the fastest lap
Special Monster Energy trophies were made for the event.
The ‘Kart-off' could be extended to three events in 2011 with bigger prizes up for grabs.