A warm summers day once again greeted the competitors, teams and fans alike on the Sunday morning of Round 3 of the 2025 EMX European Quadcross Championship in Poland, but there was only one thing on all their minds, and that was to ask who would come out on top within the two points-scoring races?
Race Report by Bradley Hix – Images courtesy of EMX Quadcross
Race 1
Turrini with the 16th gate pick would put him the first rider on the second row, and he slotted in directly behind qualifying race winner, Karl Robin Rillo. Manfred Zienecker would have the 31st and final gate pick, and that saw him line up in, arguably, the worst position on the left-hand side of the gate, on row 2.
Karl Robin Rillo led the way from the gate, but would slide wide and slip into 6th position as they rounded turn one. With this, Walker would take second position behind Roman Gwizda, much to the delight of the local crowd and a storming start from Turrini meant he followed Rillo into turn 1 and, as the Estonian went wide, he remained on-line to take 3rd position – an absolute dream start for the former champion.
Walker would soon find a way through on the #416 of Gwiazda, to take the lead of the race on the opening lap with Turrini looking in supreme form and already eyeing up a challenge on the man who took the holeshot, Roman Gwiazda. This was a prime position for Harry Walker as, with 3 points separating himself from Turrini in the championship, he knew that if he could win this race, he would be level with the Italian at a minimum.
A fantastic battle would rapidly develop between Karlis Neija, Mike van Grinsven, Reinis Bicans, Mark Mclernon and Manfred Zienecker who, similarly to Patrick Turrini, would slice his way through the pack in the initial stages to put himself into solid points-scoring position. Laurynas Mikaluaskas, who was 4th by the end of the opening lap, would fall by the wayside and drop outside of the top-10 placings as the laps ticked by, but still, plenty of points would go his way for the championship.
Gwiazda would succumb to the pressure of Turrini, who showed impressive speed to close the gap to Walker, and only a handful of laps later we would see Rillo move past the home hero of Gwiazda for 3rd position. Frustratingly for the Estonian, he could match the pace of the British and Italian duo at the front, but with over 5 seconds gap, it would appear to be too much of a tall order.
Backmarkers would soon come into play, and it would be Walker who would get to them first and, remarkably, neither of them would work for or against the former champion and the reigning champion – this was a 2-way battle with no outside input. Whilst Rillo was seemingly secure in 3rd, a broken rear-left wheel would put him out of the points and, more importantly, out of the race, which is exactly what he was hoping against coming into this weekend’s racing action. This would promote Gwiazda back into the podium positions.
Into the final couple of laps, and there was nothing to separate Walker and Turrini and Turrini was evidently trying to experiment with different lines to find just one opportunity to place his Yamaha past his great rival but, as the chequered flag waved, it was to be to no avail as Walker resisted the challenge and took victory by less than half a second over Turrini. Roman Gwiazda would complete the podium with 3rd position, which was a very welcome result in front of the local supporters.
5 races down, 5 races to go in the European championship and, surprisingly, Walker and Turrini are both on 104 points each!
Race 1 – Result
Race 2
No one knew better than Walker and Turrini that this race would either boost their confidence and momentum going into the 2-month break before Madona or leave them asking what more could’ve been done. Level-pegging after 5 races and, with 5 to go, both riders will have their work cut out.
A chain-reaction incident would unfold involving the second row as the pack raced towards the first turn, but the chaos would not stop Tarald Hellebust from claiming the holeshot, with Rillo and Walker almost locking wheels and Turrini taking the widest possible line from the left of the front row, to put himself into 4th position as they exited the first turn. Manfred Zienecker would also make a good launch from the second row.
The white flag with the red cross would greet the riders as they made their way into one of several tight left hand turns, with Gwiazda defending the second position from Rillo, but out of the affected area, Rillo saw an opportunity to sneak by and with a quick burst of the throttle, Rillo was promoted one more position. Whilst this was developing, Hellebust still led the pack on his #32 Yamaha but Rillo had clear track, and knew what he had to do to get himself into prime position. No points scored in race 1, but he was going all out for 25 points in race 2.
Such was the pace of Hellebust and Rillo, that they had extended their leading margin by over 5 seconds before the halfway point in the event. Walker made a move on the home hero of Gwiazda to be promoted into 3rd position, but the gap was seemingly too much to overcome – naturally, no one had told Walker this as he set about reducing the deficit. In the meantime, Turrini was experimenting with lines once again to put a move on Gwiazda. It took a couple of attempts, but the former champion would pull off the move to limit the damage being inflicted by Walker.
Hellebust, the long-time race leader would lose control of the race as Rillo squeezed through to take the lead and increased his lead over Hellebust who was now starting to feel the pressure being applied by Walker, as the gap fell under a second with 3 minutes and 2 laps to go. Turrini was too far back to mount a challenge on Walker and Hellebust at this stage, but Hellebust could not quite match his early race pace and slipped into the Italian’s clutches, with only 2 laps to go.
With 2 laps remaining, Rillo had a 9 second buffer over the reigning champion Walker, but the same could not be said for Hellebust and Turrini as the Italian was relentless in his efforts to squeeze his Yamaha past the Norwegian rider, and his efforts would pay off as he drove the #15 Yamaha underneath Hellebust, to steal the final podium position in the final stages of the race.
Rillo took the chequered flag, and it must certainly be a weight off his shoulders as he took his first victory of 2025. Harry Walker would take second position and, with this, the red plate away from Turrini, who came home third.
Race 2 Result
In 9 weeks’ time we will be heading to Madona in Latvia for the fourth and penultimate round of the 2025 European Quadcross Championship, and Walker holds a slim margin of 2 points over Turrini. Safe to say, it will be all to play for between Walker and Turrini, with only 100 points left up for grabs.
Overall Results
Current Standings
