Phillips dominates Italian EWC rounds

Trailing Husqvarna’s Mathias Bellino by just one hundredth of a second in Friday’s super test, KTM Factory Enduro Racing Team’s Matt Phillips got down to business on Saturday morning at the ninth round of the 2015 FIM Enduro World Championship in Italy.

Winning the first four special tests, he opened up an 18-second advantage. Losing 10 seconds in the second extreme test, the Australian quickly corrected the situation and pulled clear to win the day by over 43 seconds. “It was nearly an almost perfect day,” said Phillips. “I won the first four tests this morning and that gave me a decent lead until I dropped it in the extreme test. I got a charge on again and was able to build it back up. I’m pretty happy with that.”

Celebrating his birthday in the best possible way, Phillips secured his second victory of the weekend on Sunday. Despite trailing Bellino after the first two tests, Phillips picked up his pace as the conditions deteriorated to claim a 34-second margin of victory. “Winning races on your birthday is a pretty good way to top off a great weekend,” said Phillips. “Mathias attacked hard in the beginning but I wasn’t too far off and felt like I had some more to give. I just concentrated on my times, got my nose in front and managed to pull away for the win.”

Bellino maintains a 16-point lead over Phillips heading to the GP of Belgium, to take place on July 11-12.