Rockstar Energy Suzuki MX1's Kevin Strijbos convincingly won all three races of the International Motocross of Mantova, the first of three pre-season races that the team will attend.
Both Strijbos and his team mate Clement Desalle showed good form in the Saturday qualifying heat with third and second position respectively, Desalle winning the final Superpole race with Strijbos eighth.
But it was Strijbos who shone on Sunday, winning the crowd-pleasing one-on-one race at noon, in which he skilfully passed Max Nagl (Honda) who had taken the holeshot.
In the first moto, the new Rockstar Energy Suzuki rider took the holeshot, followed by Desalle, and maintained this order until the flag. In the second heat Strijbos got third around the first corner, but passed KTM's Xavier Boog and Honda mounted Tanel Leok for the win.
The third and final heat was marred by a crash involving Desalle and new Honda Factory racer Max Nagl, after a mid-air collision, which saw both of them go down heavily
Strijbos had a slower start, but took the lead from Evgeny Bobryshev, giving him an impeccable 1-1-1 result and a perfect start to his 2013 season.
"I'm a bit surprised how the weekend went." Strijbos stated. "Saturday I was struggling quite a bit to find a rhythm and set good lap times.
"But on Sunday I started off good by winning the one-on-one race, had a couple of good starts in the heat races and found a really good rhythm that worked all day.
"I'm happy I could win the race, but also learned in which areas I can still work towards at the first GP," he added.
