COVINGTON WINS, JONASS
TAKES MX2 CROWN
T
he only major motocross
championship left to hand
out in 2017, the MX2 World
Championship, was set to fall
to Red Bull KTM's Pauls Jonass
at the finale, held at the Villars
sous Ecot circuit in France, Sep-
tember 17. He came in leading
Suzuki's Jeremy Seewer by 41
points, which meant all Jonass
had to do was finish moto one
12th or better to clinch the
championship.
In the first moto, Jonass got
the holeshot, but collided with an-
other rider and went down, which
put Rockstar Energy Husqvarna's
Thomas Covington into the lead.
Jonass got up quickly, then fell
again a turn later. He had his
work cut out for him.
Covington led every lap of
the moto over Seewer, eventu-
ally winning by over 8 seconds,
but Jonass made it up to 10th
by lap five, and then continued
forward until he took fifth from
KTM-mounted Julien Lieber on
the final lap. Jonass clinched
the title.
Seewer was second in the
moto, just in front of Aussie
Honda racer Jed Beaton, then his
fellow Aussie (on a Suzuki) Hunter
Lawrence, Jonass and Lieber.
In moto two, Covington got
the start, but Lawrence quickly
found his way by and slowly
pulled away to win the moto—the
first of his career—by six sec-
onds over Covington, whose 1-2
score gave him the overall. Law-
rence's 4-1 was good for sec-
ond overall on the day. Jonass
started poorly, but worked his
IN
THE
WIND
P32
Pauls Jonass
celebrates the MX2
Championship—a
first for him.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
KTM
IMAGES/RAY
ARCHER
