Gary and Brian lie 22nd in World championship

Gueugnon for the French Grand Prix that saw them finish 8th overall behind newly crowned World Champions Etienne Bax and Kaspars Stupelis.

The local team qualified their VMC-Husqvarna 7 th fastest which gave them the all-important front row start and 14 th pick on the start gate. In the opening race they were running inside the top eight on the opening lap before dropping to tenth.

It was a position they held until a couple of teams had a coming together towards the end of the race and Gary and Brian crossed the line in ninth. In the second race a poor start meant they were just inside the top fifteen on the opening lap but with a determined effort they worked their way into tenth at the line and gained another place after another team were penalised for a noise violation.

“I am absolutely over the moon and again a big thank you to our awesome families, sponsors and supporters,” said Gary. “It was tough going but the track was amazing.

It was my type of track being really fast with big jumps. We had a few engine and clutch issues on Saturday but the team worked really hard and resolved the problems before racing.

After qualifying fourteenth I knew we had a great opportunity of a good result come race one. There was so much going around us in the opening race it

was sketchy to say the least on the first few laps. We settled into a rhythm quite early on and were still holding tenth until there was a coming together of two teams in front of us, which raised us to ninth at the flag.

That was a pretty good way to start the GP and in race two, although we didn’t make such a good start and lost a couple of places early on after hitting another outfit, braking the front disc, we got our heads down and got into a good rhythm and kept the pressure on the few in front of us. By the end of

the race we had worked our way to tenth by the flag but with a noise penalty to one of the other teams we were promoted to our second ninth of the day and another 24 world championship points which raises us to 22 nd in the world standings. It was a pity we had the front disc issue but as I said to the team brakes only slow you down.”

He laughed: “I’m feeling really motivated going into the last round of the world Championship at Rudersberg in Germany this weekend as myself and Brian are

starting to gel well on the bike and are now getting some very nice results!”