Kiara Fontanesi

Fifth WMX world title for Kiara Fontanesi

It has been another big season for 23-year old Italian rider Kiara Fontanesi, and for her sponsors – not least UFO Plast, PBR Sprockets and Vertex Pistons.
Having won the WMX FIM World Championship title for four straight years from 2012 to 2015, Kiara added a fifth title this year on board her Yamaha in a final race season finale after a series of high drama, with four riders eventually separated by just a few points.
In terrible muddy conditions at the final race (the Grand Prix of Pays de Montbeliard at the Villars sous Ecot track in France), Kiara sealed her position as the most successful female motocross athlete in the history of the sport, winning the championship by one point ahead of Livia Lancelot and two points ahead of Courtney Duncan and Nancy Van De Ven.
“This season was very challenging and especially this last race,” said Kiara Fontanesi after the win, “because riding for the world title with so much mud was really difficult. I tried hard and bring the race to the end, and even if I got only one point distance, I did it. Unfortunately, our World Championship has only six races, and it is difficult to make a consistent point difference, so four riders arrived at the end separated only by five lengths.”

For PBR, who provided her front and rear sprockets and Japanese EK chains, it has been a golden year with the Italian and world championships won as a result of a partnership that has lasted for years. “Thanks to the availability of the PBR engineers at the beginning of the season we had been able to try a number of different sprocket measures that gave me benefits in certain tracks and in different situations,” Kiara said. “I am delighted with how their products have performed and with the back-up and support that PBR have given me. I always felt like part of their family.”

For Vertex Pistons this is the latest in a long and proud heritage of race success. Kiara spoke about the Vertex Piston contribution, affirming how it was crucial because it strongly contributed to the competitiveness of her YZ250F. “The Vertex pistons were a great help, because when we mounted them, we had some important improvements in performance: power had a considerable increase from the middle up rpm range, and it remained reliable all season. Whenever I needed that edge it was there - we never encountered any problems.”
Brand new this year, and winner of an IDN ‘Hot 100’ new product award for 2017, this was a first world title for the UFO Plast ‘Diamond’ helmet – so named because the shell shape resembles a diamond and is made with a high percentage of carbon (60 percent) mixed with Aramid fibres for high strength and light weight.
“I immediately liked the ‘Diamond’ helmet for its aesthetics,” Kiara commented, “but I liked the fit and the comfort too. It’s perfect, and also the opaque black graphics we’ve chosen in my opinion are beautiful for the new helmet shell. We made a great step forward.”

And she’s not the only one to make a great step forward – UFO Plast have played their “A-Game” with their ‘Diamond’ helmet with features that include stiffening ribs to optimise shock absorption and impact energy dissipation; a Rotation Impact Absorbing System (RIAS); a main inner shell in high density EPS that has a very compact, rigid outer surface (in contact with the outer shell) and inner surface with large grooves that provide greater airflow and differential impact force dissipation, with the inner oscillating shell consisting of low density polypropylene foam (PPE) to provide gradual absorption designed to rotate inside the helmet, working in conjunction with the main inner shell. This system enables multi-directional sliding that also dissipates the energy associated with rotational acceleration, to improve protection in case of rotational impact.

www.ufoplast.it
www.vertexpistons.com
www.pbr.it