ANOTHER EUROPEAN LOCK-OUT?
Last year’s Junior Manx Grand Prix saw a mainland Europe lock-out as Spanish and Italian riders, Victor Lopez, Andrea Majola and Maurizio Bottalico filled the podium places.
Although race winner Lopez – the first Spanish rider to win at the event – has moved on, the Italian duo of Majola and Bottalico return and will start as favourites in the four-lap race.
Both riders were Paton mounted twelve months ago, and despite still being in the infancy of their Mountain Course careers, impressively lapped at more than 116mph.
The race was nip and tuck for the first two laps and although Lopez edged away in the closing stages, only 15s covered them at the chequered flag.
That shows how competitive and evenly matched they were and highlights the quality in the mainland Europe riders that are now contesting the Manx, and then moving on up to the Isle of Man TT Races as the French pairing of Amalric Blanc and Eddy Ferre have done recently, and to great effect.
Majola, who made his MGP debut in 2019, and Bottalico, whose first appearance came just two years ago, have a similar background with regular appearances in the European Hill Climb Championship where they’ve both excelled, although particularly the latter.
Like Stefano Bonetti and others, they’ve brought that form to the Mountain Course and now aim to the follow in the footsteps of Lopez and claim the top spot this year.
Majola continues on Paton machinery for the highly experienced VAS Engine Racing team for their fourth successive MGP, the team having also won the 2022 Supertwin TT Race with Peter Hickman on board and finished second a year later with Frenchman Pierre-Yves Bian.
That may give him the edge over Bottalico, now fully recovered from the injuries sustained at Motorrad-Bergrennen Landshaag in April, with the Italian switching from the Team ILR Paton to Kawasaki power and the Venditti/Seipa team.
Either way, if both riders continue to make the progress shown already, another close race lies in store with the firm possibility of the Italian national anthem being played on Glencrutchery Road once more.
If you want to see Majola, Botallico and the rest of the MGP entry take to the Mountain Course this year, check out Duke Travel for packages from the UK and further afield, Horst Saiger for German Tours and the Isle of Man Steam Packet for race day day trips.
