Friday night Super Test results from 2023 EnduroGP World Championship round seven in Santiago do Cacem, Portugal where Brad Freeman claims the Akrapovic award with fastest time of the night ahead of Andrea Verona and Josep Garcia.

Santiago do Cacem, Friday Super Test in a nutshell:

• Danielle Macdonald had the honour of opening the show on her own at tonight’s Super Test, the opening action of the weekend in the final GP of 2023. Running order inside the small and very tight arena placed the women on track first and it was the Aussie making her maiden GP apearance first up.
• It’s fair to say some of the early riders were confused by the mass of tapes and tight, dual lane test but it ain’t easy going first and this was the kind of track where you could go wrong very easily.
• Spanish rider Mireia Badia set the first fast time of the night before Rosie Rowett knocked her Rieju teammate off top spot.
• The final two runners went fastest of all though with points leader Jane Daniels getting pipped by a pumped Jessica Gardiner.
• The Youth class ramped up the show next and the light 125s suddenly seemed like the best bike option on this cramped track.
• Remarkably Camilo Herrera (cousin of Benjamin Herrera) laid down a flier of 1:26.6 which would go on to keep the Chilean in the hot seat for close to an hour as no-one bettered him, in class, in the Juniors and for 90% of the seniors. Unfortunately he was later deemed to have jumped a small section of the course and was handed a 10s penalty.
• There was no time to draw a breath on the furious Super Test as Albert Fontova put one over on his higher ranked Junior rivals with a fastest (in class) 1:27.01.
• 1:27s started to stack up as we approached the sharp end of the EnduroGP class riders before finally we got as far as Zach Pichon, the first rider to finally go faster than Herrera, with a 1:26.4 shortly followed by Sherco teammate Hamish Macdonald with a 1:26.3.
• Now things were heating up. A minor mistake in the rocks kept Steve Holcombe two seconds down on his rivals while his running mate on track Andrea Verona showed no signs of his broken and swollen right hand with a 1:24.2.
• But it was Brad Freeman who went fastest of all with a flying 1:23.8 using a slightly slicker line through the tricky logs matrix and by his own admission, by being “a bit more relaxed.”
• That fastest time means Brad wins the Akrapovic Super Test award for the 2023 season, handed out to the rider amassing the lowest accumulative time across all the Super Tests this year.
• As we always remind you, this is just the first test of the weekend which starts for real tomorrow morning from 9am. It’s a big one, with all world championship titles on the line and many set to be decided on day one. Stay tuned.

2023 EnduroGP of Portugal, Friday Super Test scratch results:

Photo Credit: Future7Media | Andrea Belluschi + Nicki Martinez