Bassano del Grappa (VI), January 31, 2023– The creation of a new association and the filing of the first trip away with a podium, albeit suffered, can only be taken as a positive sign in the Jteam house at the end of a complicated debut in the snowcross world.
The Bassano del Grappa team, which took part this year in the Central Europe Snowcross Trophy and in the Italian Snowmobile Championship, relied heavily on Michele Donazzan who, despite being penalized by a less than lucky qualifying, showed the courage of a true champion.
The Romano d’Ezzelino rider, aboard his new Ski-Doo MXZ 600 RS, started last Saturday at the Les Mosses circuit in Switzerland and secured fourth place on the grid, but remained partially unsatisfied with his personal performance ahead of the three races.
“Let’s just say it didn’t go as well as we would have liked.”– says Donazzan – “because the start was half iced over. After qualifying in fourth place, I found myself on the worst half of the track. We also tried to put some snow to improve the situation but it didn’t help. Our starts were not the best.”
The fears of the previous evening materialized at the start of the first run of the race with the Vicenza Federation carrier, also supported in the program by Sled Tech, who soon ended up at the bottom and only managed to confirm fourth place thanks to a strong recovery .
A similar situation to lap two, when Donazzan again got off to a disadvantaged start, losing three positions to be forced to rebuild a climb that allowed him to conquer the bottom step of the podium at the finish line. sharpen his weapons for a third run to survive the whole attack.
If the start had become a consolidated Achilles’ heel, the determination that he had translated into a high-level step in that first appearance of the season allowed him to climb to the top positions also in the final challenge after penultimate place, but a daring final forced him to raise the white flag.
“Because of the ice on the starting grid”– adds Donazzan – “I always ended up on the heap and could never express myself optimally. In the first race I was third from bottom and caught up to fourth, while in the second I got off to a slightly better start, dropping only three positions and taking home my first podium of the year. In the last race I was fighting for third place again after coming in from the back of the group, but unfortunately a rider overturned after a jump. The commissioner didn’t report it and I ended up on his motorbike. Luckily we didn’t do anything. I probably expected more from this weekend but given the bad luck at the start I would say the race pace was good and the bike isn’t bad either. From here we have to grow because I want to bring out all the people who believe in me, starting with Jteam to continue with Sled Tech, with Carbofuel and with all the partners that support me this season.
