Four races in, three to go in the 2025 SuperEnduro World Championship as we head to Hungary this weekend – Billy Bolt remains the master of this trade but the boys are coming to get him...

It would be more accurate to say Billy Bolt is the master of the SuperEnduro tracks on his Husqvarna Factory Racing FE 350. No matter the arena, track layout, number of logs or rocks, the man is a wizard on a bike indoors.

Regularly and often that means magic on the Husqvarna from the first laps of practice and times on the scoreboard the others can only dream of. Billy’s odds-on for another whitewash victory this season and a fifth world title, but the boys are watching, looking and learning.

The pattern emerging with each round this season is, as the night progresses, rivals Dominik Olszowy, Jonny Walker, Mitch and Ash Brightmore and Eddie Karlsson are starting to hone-in on Billy’s lines and close the gaps. These last few rounds at least, any mistake from Billy and they’re there to pounce, especially in the last two races on the night.

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How far have we come since our last visit to Lodz in 2022? In some ways not far at all: Billy Bolt is two seconds a lap faster than everyone else, takes three moto wins and storms to victory on what was probably the best track of the year.

Race two in Lodz back in ’22 was probably the race of the year as Bill hunted Colton Haaker and took a last lap muscular pass for the win.

Turn the clock forward and Billy has catapulted his technique indoors, gone fairly stratospheric with his popularity, now has four indoor world titles and has hardly dropped a race win in that time.

The pressure is on

But in 2025 the gulf between Bolt and the rest in the races has begun to reduce to the point where we can almost dare to write someone else could win here. Almost.

Bolt knows they are tinkering away at the lines and technique he shows them in practice and Superpole. By the second and final race each SuperEnduro round the rest have pieced most of a track together and are matching his pace. That’s where those dramatic races are coming from which has included Dominik Olszowy winning a race, plus Jonny Walker, Mitch and Ash Brightmore all taking their chances to get the better of Billy.

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Jonny Walker is one of two riders to take a race win off Bill in the last two seasons. The British rider can call himself something of a veteran of SuperEnduro by now but he has clearly lost none of his speed as he switched to the new Triumph Racing team.

A new engine in Poland last weekend brought a bit more spark to the 250 four-stroke enduro bike and that power deficit he feels to Bolt’s fiery factory FE350 motor on track.

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Dominik Olszowy has also taken it to the man this year is the only rider to take a race win this season other than Bolt. With a new bike finally from Rieju the Polish rider has clearly gelled with the new Spanish-built 300 two-stroke. So much so he was second in the points until a nasty crash onto his handlebars in Romania, round three, knocked him back.

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The restrictions the FIM placed on the Varg race bikes at the start of the year arguably contributed to Taddy Blazusiak exiting the series but through a dogged approach, Eddie Karlsson is putting the Stark Varg up there too.

The FIM has reduced some of those restrictions – chiefly taking weight off again – which has had a small but significant effect on the bikes to bring the performance closer to the rest of the unrestricted bikes on track.

And wouldn’t you know it, suddenly Karlsson is competitive and showing the promise we expected at the start of ‘25.

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And then there are the Brightmores. The British brothers are consecutive Junior world champions and, with a new team which has allowed them to concentrate on racing and training (not going back to Derbyshire to work on a Monday).

These last two rounds have shown both Mitchell and Ashton have gained confidence and fitness on their bikes to challenge Bolt. Younger brother Ash especially has bulked out, growing physically since last year’s Junior title win to meet more of the physical demands of racing indoors.

Historically last time out at round four in Lodz, both Brightmores joined Bolt on the podium. It is only a matter of time before this tight-knit family team pushes itself one step further.

 

Round five of the SuperEnduro World Championship is this weekend, February 8 in Budapest, Hungary.

 

Photo Credit: Future7Media | Andrea Belluschi + Nicki Martinez