Four races in, three to go in the 2025 SuperEnduro World Championship as we head to Hungary this weekend – Billy Bolt remains the master of this trade but the boys are coming to get him...

It would be more accurate to say Billy Bolt is the master of the SuperEnduro tracks on his Husqvarna Factory Racing FE 350. No matter the arena, track layout, number of logs or rocks, the man is a wizard on a bike indoors.

Regularly and often that means magic on the Husqvarna from the first laps of practice placing times on the scoreboard the others can only dream of, or at least cannot match. Billy’s odds-on for another whitewash victory this season and a fifth world title, but the boys behind are watching, looking and learning.

The pattern emerging with each round this season is, as the night progresses, rivals Dominik Olszowy, Jonny Walker, Mitch and Ash Brightmore and Eddie Karlsson, starting to hone-in on Billy’s lines and close the gaps. These last few rounds it has become clear that any mistake from Billy and they’re there ready to pounce.

How far have we come since our last visit to Lodz in 2022? In some ways not far at all: Billy Bolt is two seconds a lap faster than everyone else, takes three moto wins and storms to victory on what was probably the best track of the year.

Race two in Lodz back in ’22 was probably the race of the year too as Bill hunted Colton Haaker and a chaotic last lap concluded with a muscular pass for the win.

Turn the clock forward and Billy has catapulted his technique indoors, gone fairly stratospheric with his off track popularity, now has four indoor world titles and has hardly dropped a race win in that time.

The pressure is on

But in 2025 the gulf between Bolt and the rest of the boys, especially in the last two races has begun to reduce to the point where we can almost dare to write someone else could win here. Almost.

Bolt knows they are tinkering away at the lines and technique he shows them in practice, qualifying and Superpole. By the second and final race each SuperEnduro round the rest have pieced most of a track together and are matching him closer.

That’s where those dramatic races are coming from which has included Dominik Olszowy winning a, plus Jonny Walker, Mitch and Ash Brightmore all taking their chances to get ahead of Billy.

Jonny Walker is one of two riders to take a race win off Bill in the last two seasons. The British rider can call himself something of a veteran of SuperEnduro by now but he has clearly lost none of his speed as he switched to the new Triumph Racing team.

A new engine in Poland last weekend brought a bit more spark to the 250 four-stroke enduro bike and that power deficit he feels to Bolt’s fiery factory FE 350 motor on track. His fastest Superpole time was a glimpse of what is possible.

Dominik Olszowy has also taken it to the man this year and is the only rider to take a race win this season other than Bolt. With a new bike finally from Rieju, the Polish rider has clearly gelled with the new Spanish-built 300 two-stroke and was second in the points until a nasty crash onto his handlebars in Romania, round three, knocked him back.

The restrictions the FIM placed on the Varg race bikes at the start of the year arguably contributed to Taddy Blazusiak exiting the series in a muddled fashion. But through a dogged approach and some slack from the governing body, Eddie Karlsson is putting the Stark Varg up there too.

The FIM has reduced some of those restrictions – chiefly taking weight off the Varg again – which has had a small but significant effect of bringing the performance closer to the rest of the unrestricted bikes on track.

And then there are the Brightmores. The British brothers are consecutive Junior world champions and, with a new team, X-Grip Racing, which has allowed them to concentrate on racing and training (not going back to Derbyshire to work on a Monday) they are finding their Prestige class feet.

These last two rounds have shown both Mitchell and Ashton have gained the confidence and, importantly, the strength and fitness on their bikes to challenge Bolt. Younger brother Ash especially has bulked out, growing physically since last year’s Junior title win to meet more of the physical demands of racing indoors.

Historically, last time out at round four in Lodz, both Brightmores joined Bolt on the podium. It is only a matter of time before this tight-knit family team pushes each other to be one step further on the podium. The biggest question is which Brightmore will do it first?

Championship standings after round four (of seven):

Round five of the SuperEnduro World Championship is this weekend, February 8 in Budapest, Hungary.

Photo Credit: Future7Media | Andrea Belluschi + Nicki Martinez