Author: Brent Stallo
Joey Savatgy may have seen his share of bad luck at Loretta's (crashes, false starts, you name it), but he backed it up with one of the most inspirational rides of his young career. A ride that would not only propel team USA to win the Jr. World Cup, but also see him take the 125cc World Championship. And he did it all with a flat tire.
Joey, in your own words, how was your weekend?
In the first moto I started out like 16th, but was able to work my way up to the leaders and into 2nd. I caught the leader but ran out of time. And the second moto, the way it all played out, was unimaginable. I haven't been on a 125cc in about a year and I got this brand new out of the crate and threw a pipe on it and came racing, so it's good.
That last moto was insane. Walk us through it.
It was just amazing. Alldredge had my back in that one and I can't thank him enough. I was in the lead and some kid got around me and the next thing I know I'm going up the hill and started feeling something really bad and I couldn't tell what was going on. Little did I know I had a flat tire. I ended up riding it for over seven laps. I'm still in shock that we were able to pull it off. It was a dream come true.
What did you think of the track? It's quite different than what you're used to.
Yeah, the track was super gnarly. It was really rocky and dry. Kind of like the World Minis in Vegas but way worse. It was pretty gnarly.
You came out on top here in Italy, but had quite a few incidents at Loretta's. Talk us through those.
Yeah, for sure. Loretta's didn't really go as planned. I won a few motos but unfortunately had some bad luck. I went down and hit the gate in one moto. I actually won the moto but got disqualified by hitting the gate on the start so that got thrown away. But I'll move on. It is what it is and I can't do anything about it now so I'm just going to enjoy this win in Italy.
Following Italy what are your plans?
I'll go home and start riding the A class right away. I may actually go to Australia and race their Under 19 Supercross series, but all of that is unofficial and nothing is really signed yet. So as of right now I'll just go home and start racing the A class and get ready for Mini O's.
Overall Results from Jr. World Championships Nations:
1. USA AMA Usa 1 2 10 13
2. GBR ACU Great Britain 4 4 7 15
3. ITA FMI Italy 8 14 3 25
4. FRA FFM France 7 3 16 26
5. BEL FMB Belgium 6 9 33 48
6. NED KNMV Netherlands 19 17 13 49
7. SWE SVEMO Sweden 18 19 14 51
8. UKR FMU Ukraine 26 7 27 60
9. EST EMF Estonia 34 23 4 61
10. LAT LAMSF Latvia 36 1 24 61
