100% record for Ducati in the FIM Flat Track World Championship

• VRX Dirt Store Ducati Race Team rider Tim Neave scores back-to-back wins in the FIM Flat Track World Championship

• Neave and team-mate Ashton Boughen are level at the top of the overall standings after four 

• Ducati maintains a 100% record of wins in a sensational 2026 debut 

Tim Neave prevailed in a Final at in Donji Kraljevec (Croatia) which required an unprecedented eight starts in order to achieve a result, whilst Boughen salvaged sixth place despite nearly finding himself in the home straight fence midway through the race after a particularly hard move from the USA’s Sammy Halbert.

With Ducati having dominated the opening three rounds, it was little surprise that there was a fightback from KTM and their Czech Republic duo Ervin Krajcovic and Ondrej Svedik, both of whom were strong in the qualifying races.

Svedik led Neave in the opening race, whilst Krajcovic dropped what turned out to be his only point of the qualifiers to Boughen in Heat 2, as he finished on 27 points from a possible 28.

His countryman Svedik also won three races, with a fourth place in Heat 7 leaving him on 25, ahead of the Ducati duo who scored 24 (Neave) and 22 (Boughen).

Neave opened up with two second places behind Svedik, before he won Heat 8 in a Great Britain 1-2-3 with Boughen frustrated in his efforts to pass the lively Gary Birtwistle.

When the Ducati riders met again in Heat 10, this time it was Boughen ahead of Neave as they finished second and third behind Krajcovic.

The Last Chance could have proved significant for the title race as top-five riders Gerard Bailo and Jack Bell both found themselves outside the top ten on the day, but both made it into the Final – Bailo doing so from the penalty lane after an initial jump start.

It was there that the drama really began, with Krajcovic and Svedik electing to start mid-grid on the front row in the Final, leaving Neave and Boughen on their outside, and Birtwistle and Sammy Halbert on their inside.

When the race got underway, Boughen made full use of space to work with on the outside and charged into the lead, only for the red flags to come out on the second lap as Svedik came down heading into turn one, and he was sent to the penalty lane for the re-run.

What followed was an almost unbelievable sequence of events as time after time Neave made the best job of the start and the first bend only to be frustrated by repeated red lights due to incidents behind him.

In the third running of the race Neave had established a huge lead before Mathias Lorenzato and Sebastien Jeanpierre crashed on turn two of the third lap; whilst the fourth running lasted barely yards before Birtwistle and Halbert clashed on the run to the first bend.

Lorenzato and Birtwistle joined Svedik in the penalty lane but further stoppages for incidents involving Lorenzato and Daniele Tonelli followed, and it was only on the seventh attempt that the race appeared to be settling.

Then there was near carnage at the end of lap five as Halbert slammed into Boughen, who remarkably stayed on his machine, but shortly afterwards Tonelli came to grief again and the stop signs came out once more.

The mid-race stoppage meant a far more complex re-start procedure with the riders sequenced by their positions at the time, and separated by one metre at the start for what turned out to be a six-lap dash.

This thankfully passed with fewer incidents as Neave held off Krajcovic at the front to replicate his victory from Teterow, whilst Boughen found himself in mid-pack and had to be content with sixth place.

There was one last surprise at the end of a marathon evening, as with Neave seemingly holding a one-point championship lead, a review of transponder data meant Boughen was awarded the point for fastest lap, this having initially been allocated to Krajcovic. It means the two Ducati riders are level on 86 points at the top of the standings.

Tim Neave
“That one was probably the best one yet. It’s only my second win, but of all my podiums and everything, that was right at the top. That Final was re-started seven times, and every time I got to the front. I was thinking my luck was going to run out in a minute, but we did what we needed to do. We came good when it mattered, and that one was for my partner Lydia!”

The series now goes into its mid-summer break before resuming with a very different test – the 1,000-metre circuit at Scheessel, Germany for Round 5 on August 22.

Images courtesy of Jesper Veldhuizen.