Steven Goret led home a French one-two-three this afternoon to win the 2023 FIM Long Track Under 23 World Cup with a decisive performance on home soil at Morizès.
Competing less than thirty kilometres from his birthplace in Marmande, the twenty-two-year-old – who is also an accomplished Speedway rider – was very much the home hero as he powered to an unbeaten five wins from five starts in his Heat races before streaking to victory in the Grand Final.
Contested by sixteen riders aged between sixteen and twenty-three from five different nations, the purpose of the event was to give the next generation of up-and-coming Long Track stars a taste of the sport at an elite level and with the programme running alongside the deciding Final of the 2023 FIM Flat Track World Championship it was definitely a case of mission accomplished.
With the south-west of the country at the epicentre of Long Track racing in France, the home fans were given plenty to cheer about as Mathias Trésarrieu – whose uncle Mathieu was the FIM Long Track World Champion in 2017 and 2022 – ended the day in second ahead of his compatriot Théo Ugoni.
Trésarrieu’s three Heat wins and Ugoni’s victory in his opening Heat of the day ensured the French pair joined Goret to fill the three automatic qualifying positions for the Grand Final. The next five riders following the Heats went into the sudden death Last Chance Heat for the two remaining places behind the tapes.
With tensions running high it was William Kruit from the Netherlands who led home France’s Tino Bouin to make the cut for the main race of the day, but neither had an answer to the leading three when the tapes went up on the Grand Final.
The top-eight on the day was completed by Great Britain’s Chad Wirtzfeld, Dutchman Nigel Hummel and Louis Tebbe from Germany who were all knocked out in the Last Chance Heat.
