Great Britain, first shot for Toni Bou at a twelfth TrialGP title

The seventh round of the FIM TrialGP World Championship will be held this weekend in the British town of Silsden, giving Repsol Honda Team rider Toni Bou the opportunity to seal another new world title.

After a well-deserved summer vacation, this weekend sees a return to action for the Repsol Honda Team Trial. This coming Saturday and Sunday, the English town of Silsden plays host to the seventh TrialGP event of the season. Toni Bou and Takahisa Fujinami both eagerly await this decisive penultimate trial of the 2018 world championship campaign.

With five victories out of seven trials so far this season, Toni Bou arrives at the event with a hefty points advantage in the championship battle. Furthermore, in Silsden, the Repsol Honda Team rider could mathematically renew his current status as world champion. This would mark a twelfth outdoor world title, which added to the twelve that Bou holds in the indoor contest, would amount to a formidable tally of twenty-four individual title triumphs.

To do so, Toni Bou, will be required to maintain the difference over main rivals Jeroni Fajardo and Jaime Busto whom he leads in the overall rankings by 23 and 26 points respectively. Bou can either claim the prize by winning or taking runner-up spot. Provided Fajardo doesn’t win, Toni could even be crowned champion with a third place finish, depending on the mathematical outcome of the final results of his closest adversaries.

Meanwhile, Toni’s team-mate at Repsol Honda Team, Japanese Takahisa Fujinami, arrives at the Silsden event fired up after having recently made it onto the podium in the trial in Belgium. ‘Fujigas’ hopes to continue in this fashion and holds a fine string of previous results in England.

Since 2012 Toni Bou has won every one of the eleven trials held in Great Britain, as well as four clinched in 2007, 2009 and 2010, making a total of fifteen victories on the island. Fujinami has twice climbed onto the highest step of the podium, in 2006 and 2010, and on eleven occasions has finished in podium positions in various trial events in Great Britain.

Once the scrutineering is out of the way on Friday August 31, Saturday will be a day of training and qualification. Q1 kicks off at 13:00 hrs (local time) with Q2 scheduled to take place at 15:00 hrs. On Sunday, September 2 the action starts at 09:00 and concludes at 15:20 hrs approximately. The final podium will be held at 15:45.