After clinching his maiden victory on Saturday, the Japanese rider made it two from two in France on Sunday in a near-photo-finish with championship leader Xarly Mendez (Dominican Republic) just 0.035 seconds behind. Rintaro Takemoto (Japan) completed the podium, rounding out a successful weekend for the Japanese duo.
Chris Clark (USA) continued his strong run to take fourth, ahead of Emanuele Pastore (Italy) and Alessandro Binder (Switzerland). Leandro Marques (Brazil) was seventh ahead of local wildcard Louis Papelard (France) and Indi Schunselaar of the Netherlands. Heiter Santana completed the top ten.
The strong weekend for Takahira elevates him into championship contention, now sitting second in the table just 11 points behind Mendez ahead of the final two rounds. Pastore is now third, 14 points in arrears with Mottola, who crashed out of Sunday’s Race 2 now fourth in the standings, tied on points with Chris Clark – 27 back on the leader. Click HERE to see the full results.
The series resumes later this month in Italy at the Cremona circuit between 25-27 September.
Takahira said about his French double: “I am not too sure what to say, I won my first race yesterday and now I win again! It is an amazing feeling and I am so, so happy. I have to thank everyone who has supported me, I now look forward to going to Cremona even more and hopefully we can have more success.”