SHAUN SIMPSON – TEAM LEADER

Gabriel SS24 team manager Shaun Simpson has been doing a brilliant job leading the way with his young riders, Gyan Doensen and Oriol Oliver all having big moments throughout the season.

The team has shown amazing results and the last round at Matterley Basin was a shining light, with Oliver finishing in fifth place in the MX2 class. Oliver went 4-10 and is really continuing his progress through the MX2 ranks.

"What a weekend for the British Grand Prix,” Simpson said. “I even felt a little bit bad complaining about the dust after all the wet races we have had this season. Oriol showed his true class again this weekend and proved again that he is one of the riders in the top 10 that can fight for podiums. Leading laps in moto one and always being focused and committed to his racing, we are making big steps in the right direction. Gyan didn’t look himself again this weekend. He looked stiff and tight but battled hard in both motos with some good laps, but the results were not what we expected. We have a couple of weeks now to regroup with the riders, take some rest, work on the weak points and come back fresh for the second half of the season. Thanks to the sponsors, fans and our crew for making the British GP one to remember.”

In the previous round in Latvia, a lot of the cheers were for young Dutchman Doensen, who claimed a podium finish with two solid moto results. Second place overall and 3-3 scores kept Doensen in the picture for a top three finish in the EMX250 championship, where he is currently placed fourth on 215 points and just 17 points off third placed man Francisco Garcia.

"Great weekend of Lativa, very good to see Gyan keep the consistency with two top three results, two holeshots and another second overall on the podium. I think Gyan can trust himself now that he can get holeshots and that he has the speed to fight for podiums all weekend. I think he needs to work a little bit on his mindset when he is leading the race, he's not led a race for a while so I think he tightened up a little bit there but that will come. Looking very positive for the last EMX rounds of this season now that we feel we have figured a few things out.”

In the MX2 class at Latvia, Oliver finished 11th overall and kept his top ten hopes alive in the championship as he floats around the top ten mark with Triumph factory rider Guillem Farres and HRC man, Ferruccio Zanchi.

“Oriol is riding fantastic, really good speed and fitness, we just need to work on his starts. I think if we can clean his starts up and get him away in a good position in the first few laps then we definitely can fight for podiums towards the end of the season. All exciting stuff, managed to dodge the rain in Latvia during Saturday and Sunday, track was in decent Shape. Quite hard to pass but both riders done really well and I'm happy with how the whole team worked together, working on some details for the riders and just trying to improve things every week.”

Now, as the team takes the break between Matterley Basin and the next round in Finland, you just know that the dream of being amongst the factory teams is happening and these young riders have a great leader in multiple Grand Prix winner, Simpson.