The Repsol Honda Team riders closed the season with a victory for the Spanish rider and a seventh place for the Japanese.
The TrialGP season celebrated its last round of the year in the Portuguese town of Gouveia, in an event that ended with a new world title for Toni Bou, the 29th of his career and the 15th in outdoor action. It was a final race for Takahisa Fujinami, who recently announced his retirement.
In addition to the world title, Bou managed to close the season with a victory, the seventh of a possible nine in 2021. He has never been off the podium this season. The win was the Repsol Honda Team rider’s 125th in the Trial World Championship.
His teammate, Takahisa Fujinami, finished his final race in seventh place. The Japanese rider managed to move up the order in the second stage of the Portuguese event, and was just 3 points behind fifth place. Fujinami ends his last season in TrialGP with sixth position in the overall standings, with 94 points.
Toni Bou: “This year has been very special for me, because at the beginning I had trouble with the injury a month before starting the season. In the end there will come a year in which I cannot win – I have been winning for 15 years in a row – but injuring myself just before the start of the World Championship meant that it was a special circumstance and I did not want to lose a championship this way. Once again we gave 100%, we got fitter as the season progressed, and us having worked well before the injury helped me to be able to recover faster. I am very happy to be able to get another title. Once again, thank you very much to the entire team. Today was also a very special day for everyone, with it being the last race for Fujinami. It is very difficult to think of the HRC team without him. I wish him all the best for the future”.
Takahisa Fujinami: “To start with, I want to thank Honda, HRC and the entire team at Montesa, including mechanics, spotters and all the people who have helped during these 26 years. Without all of them I could not have spent 26 years in the World Championship. Today I wanted to achieve a good result. We finally finished seventh, but still I’m happy with my riding today, and I fought to the end. Today I close this chapter of my life, but I am sure that the future will be promising. Today has been a really special day, thanks to the whole trial family, all the factories and all the people who have been in Portugal today. I’m very proud to have shared this day with all of them”.
Miquel Cirera: “This year we have worked very hard. We had two hard, different years with the COVID-19 pandemic. Toni is the first to work hard and pushes the whole team to give their best, so I congratulate him for being the way he is. I also want to congratulate all his family and the people who have worked with him. Today has been a very special day for Takahisa Fujinami. He has finished a stage of his life. We congratulate him for everything he has done in trial. He is a legend. Life goes on and we wish him the best of luck”.
