The 11th round of the 2023 MXGP World Championship is following quickly on from the MXGP of Sumbawa-Indonesia, as Team HRC headed west to next island of Lombok for the inaugural event at this location.
The venue is the old airport which serviced the island, which is near the city of Mataram, with the track being built specifically for this event. No one has ridden on it before so there is no data from previous years to help with setup and so everyone will be starting from a blank slate when they arrive at the track to un-crate the bikes on Thursday.
This will give Ruben Fernandez a great opportunity to forget about his toils on Sumbawa, and concentrate on learning the new circuit and getting himself on the podium. His sixth overall last weekend wasn’t what he was hoping for, so this weekend gives him the immediate chance to put that right and given how well he’s been riding previously, this Lombok track could offer him another chance to put himself inside the top three as well move himself into third in the MXGP championship.
Lombok will once again see the abbreviated schedule with an hour less break between the practice sessions and the races, so riders don’t have as long to recover in the hot and humid conditions, but having had a week to acclimatise that shouldn’t pose a problem. The main issue will be learning the layout and that will mean the first free practice session on Saturday will be extra important for Fernandez to get some momentum for the rest of the weekend, and put himself in a strong position for his assault on the MXGP of Lombok-Indonesia podium.
It is good that we have another race this weekend as it gives me a chance straight away to put in a better performance in front of all these Indonesian fans. I’ve have had a fun few days, getting to see some of the cool things on Lombok and nearby, but I’m looking forward to getting back to riding and especially as it’s at a new track. It’s always cool to be the first people to race any venue and this one in Lombok looks like it could be fun. I’ve only seen a couple of photos, so it’s hard to tell until we actually get out there but I’m excited for the weekend.
Ruben Fernandez
The last few days, the team has been able to relax a little bit and unwind after the extensive travel and then the race weekend in Sumbawa. Things didn’t quite work out as well as Ruben would have liked there, but he is still in good spirits and determined to put that right in Lombok. We don’t know too much about the track, other than it is built on the old airport, so we aren’t expecting much elevation, but they have done a good job at other flat facilities before, so it should still be a good weekend and we hope a lot of Indonesian Honda fans come out and see the racing.
Marcus Pereira de Freitas
Image Credit – shotbybavo
