2024 SuperEnduro Results: “Animal” Billy Bolt wins round three in Germany

2024 SuperEnduro World Championship round three results from Riesa, Germany where a drama-filled night saw an injured Billy Bolt steal the win from Jonny Walker.

SuperEnduro Rnd3 in a nutshell:

If there’s one thing you can guarantee in the best of SuperEnduro seasons it is unpredictable and dramatic racing.
Round three of the 2024 season was on the money with a night no-one could have written: the world champion badly injuring his knee in practice, his main rival fastest on the track handing over the win on a plate, and a fight for third no-one wanted. Shakespeare couldn’t make this stuff up.
Drama number one was Billy Bolt’s injury. The champ hit a jump badly in timed practice, injuring his left knee enough for the big man to be on the floor in serious pain. The damage will only be revealed when Bill gets a scan nex week but on the night he was, “either coming out of here with a result or being carried out”.
For the record it didn’t go too well for Norbert Zsigovits either who broke a finger in a crash.
So far this season Jonny Walker has been the only rider to challenge Bolt – he’s no stranger to racing injured himself – and this was his chance to capitalise. Superpole was run at a blistering pace with no-one wasting time and Walker duly delivered the fastest time with a smile.
Moto one and Jonny got the holsehot only for four-stroke power to rip Billy past him on the back wheel through the rock section. It took Walker a couple of laps to slip past though and it looked like a done deal with Bolt riding on one and a half legs.
The drama was about to happen though as Walker’s Beta took a hit to the rear brake pedal with two laps to go, and Bolt sucked up the gap to take back the lead and remarkably win with the fastest lap to boot.
Moto two saw the reverse grid start and, weirdly, a Beta one-two-three for a while with Tim Apolle ahead of Walker and Will Hoare with Bolt picking his way through the chaos to eventually take second mid-race.
With a massive lead it should have been a win for Jonny but he messed up big time two laps in a row on the big tyres and basically handed it to Bolt on a plate. Injury or not, lady luck was shining on Bill.
Moto three finally saw Walker deliver on the promise with a start to flag win (just!) but he will reflect the lost opportunity and, once again, it was Bolt’s night. Walker meanhile admits he threw away what should have been a good night.
Third overall meanwhile was a real contest. Mitch Brightmore and Will Hoare duked it out with home-hero Mani Lettenbichler and they all traded places and paint work across the three motos. In the end it was a 4-3-5 result which brought third scratch for the Hard Enduro World Champion in front of his home crowd.
The Juniors were again a contest between championship protagonists Ashton Brightmore and Suff Sella.
The technical track showed who was boss and in the Juniors (at least), with a clear difference between riders who had this sport nailed and those who do not – the Riesa track’s trademark bridge section causing result-affecting traffic jams and errors along the way, adding to the drama in all races.
Brightmore took moto one but was slow through the pack in reverse grid moto two while Sella capitalised for that win for one apiece.
Junior moto three saw Sella quickly leading and pull away while Brightmore got into a tussle with Milan Schmueser and Roland Liska. Eventually Ash got through but Sella, despite his rival seemingly being better suited to technical tracks, was clear for the win and the overall. The result closes the championship back into the Israeli’s favour, 160 points to 158.
The European Championship also supported the night in Riesa with Spain’s Xavier Leon taking a 1-2 result for the overall.