An enormous turn-out of 'JG193' fans were excited to see their star Jago Geerts put on a show with a thrilling ride in the first race of the day. The 19-year-old Belgian was hit by another rider and knocked to the ground at turn-one. Starting from last position, he put in a hair-raising charge through the field, where he passed 38 riders, to finish in second-position.
Ben Watson had no expectations going into the Belgian Grand Prix. The last time he lined up for a MX2 Grand Prix, other than his solid attempt at qualifying for the MXGP of Indonesia which saw him further injure his broken hand, was almost 5-weeks ago. In his first race back, the 22-year-old Briton finished an astonishing fifth place after starting inside the top-five and fighting hard around the physically demanding and brutal circuit of Lommel to keep fifth position all the way to the flag.
A less dramatic start to the second and final race of the weekend ended in devastation for Geerts. The hard-charging Belgian emerged from turn-one in tenth, five positions behind his teammate, Watson, and after 10-minutes he had already moved into second-position.
As Geerts tried to chip away at the lead of Jorge Prado, Watson found himself in a race-long battle for third with Calvin Vlaanderen, which he ended up securing when Geerts suffered a heart-breaking issue that forced him out of the race.
Watson's efforts allowed him to mount the podium for the first time this season. Geerts second place in Race 1 was enough to round out the top-ten in the Grand Prix classification. Geerts dropped back to fourth in the MX2 Championship Standings. He needs 3-points on Tom Vialle to regain the third position. Watson remains in the seventh position.
The next round of the FIM MX2 World Championship will take place in Imola, Italy, on the weekend of August 16th.
