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VALENTIN TEILLET
450 MX / 9TH
IMAGE / LANNAN WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> Valentin Teillet has only raced in the United States a handful of times back in 2014 but he decided to line it up at Ironman for the nal round of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross series. The rider hailing all the way from France is a regular in the European GP series’. He offers up good results and has a plethora of experience. During his stint in the U.S. four years ago, he quali ed for ve main events in the 250SX West Coast series with a career best nish of fourteenth at Oakland. He went on to race his only U.S. outdoor national that year at Glen Helen and nished a solid thirteenth place. This time around, he will be competing in the 450 class aboard a Husqvarna to see how he can fare with the best in the business. Teillet had a tough time in the rain and mud in the morning qualifying practice session. He also isn’t used to just one short practice to determine qualifying because in the GP’s they have a whole day dedicated to qualifying. Nonetheless, he threw down the fteenth fastest time and was ready to do battle. Teillet got out to a shaky start in the opening moto. He rounded lap one in elev- enth position. He made a handful of moves early though showing his early race intensity. He passed Benny Bloss for tenth on lap two and then Dylan Merriam and Henry Miller on lap three to take over eighth. He tried establishing himself there, but Jason Anderson would have none of it. Anderson would pass him the following lap to push him right back to ninth. Teillet would do a nice job of maintaining
the position until the halfway point when Canada’s Tyler Medaglia would make a move on him sending him back to tenth. Teillet stayed in control and would be able to pass Kyle Cunningham on lap nine
to regain one of those lost positions. It looked like he would hold the spot to the end but with two laps to go, Anderson would crash and allow Teillet to pick up another spot and nish in eighth. It marked a career best by far for Teillet and he would try to back it up in moto two. Teillet started the second moto in a similar position compared to moto one. This time he was slightly better and emerged from lap
one in tenth. He would be able to pass Isaac Teasdale on lap three to take over ninth but on the next lap, he would make a big mistake and slide back to twelfth. He would stay there until lap seven when he would nally be able to pass Henry Miller after being behind him for several laps. He then set his sights on Jake Masterpool. Teillet quickly made the pass on him on the next lap and would get back to tenth. From there, he would ride out the rest of the race with solid, consistent laps. He’d nish there in tenth and would nish ninth overall on the day with 8-10 moto scores. He surprised a lot of people with his ride as many people over here may have never heard of him, but they sure do now.
52 GRITMOTO • AUGUST 26, 2018