The Netherlands‘ Finn de Bruin (18), Italy‘s Kevin Sabatucci (20) and Jacopo Facco (19), France‘s Andy Verdoïa (16), and Spain‘s Beatriz Neila (17) needed little time to get up to speed on the third day. The riders reunited with flat track expert Marco Belli to further build on their control when sliding the bike and were quick to pick up the pace after a few practice laps.
Noticing the great progress the riders had made, Belli suggested to end their flat track training in style with an Americana race. It was a close battle, but in the end it was Sabatucci who took the chequered flag ahead of Verdoïa, with Facco taking third.
After the morning session at the VR46 Motor Ranch, the six students‘ efforts were rewarded with a lunch at the Ristorante e Pizzeria da Rossi in Tavullia, but soon the young hopefuls had to rush to their next appointment.
They hopped into their van and hurried to the Galliano Park MiniGP track, where six YZ85s waited, nicely lined-up. The riders were soon asked to join a rider briefing on the track‘s lay-out with yesterday‘s instructor Niccolò Antonelli, before they could change into their leathers and rev up the 85cc-engines.
As Galliano Park is quite twisty and technical, the riders needed a few laps riding behind Niccolò, but they quickly got the hang of it and started to have fun during a couple of free practice runs. The timing showed the young talent made great improvements as they began to make the connections between what Antonelli explained and what they had learned yesterday at the VR46 Motor Ranch and at the Autodromo di Modena. Facco set the fastest time, ahead of Verdoïa in second and Sabatucci in third place. De Bruin was the rider that improved the most, finding 1.6s over the course of the afternoon.
The proud teacher of the day stated, “I rode a lot with them on the Galliano Park track on Day 3, to help them learn the right lines – or at least the lines that I think are good, because even I can improve here.
Still I saw them make a lot of progress, and when they were riding behind me, they really understood. I showed them the lines and also some places where they could overtake, and they learned from it and maybe even picked up a bit of my riding style. Especially Finn, the Dutch guy, learned a lot and made a big step, so I‘m really happy about that, and I hope they all enjoyed the riding experience with me.”