After coming so close on two previous occasions, battling British hopeful Jack Peace (Sherco) is on a mission to win the Trial2 class of the 2024 Hertz FIM Trial World Championship.
The twenty-four-year-old reigning national champion’s 2024 campaign got off to a great start at the Taisei Rotec TrialGP of Japan where a fourth and a win across the two days of competition handed him an early season lead. A third and a seventh at round two in Andorra saw him slip to second, but with five rounds and another eight days of points-paying competition still to go the title fight is only just warming up.
“I feel really confident in how I’m riding and that should translate into good results,” he said. “I spent quite a lot of time with Adam Raga this winter in Spain – training with him helped push my level as well as his experience with helping me set the bike up. I’m looking forward to this season and so far it’s been a good start to the championship and I’ll be pushing hard for the title.”
With the 2016 Trial3 title under his belt, Peace moved up into Trial2 in 2017 and wasted little time in demonstrating his potential with a podium finish in the Czech Republic on his way to eighth in the series and the following season he improved three positions with three more podiums including a second place at the opening round in Spain.
Following a switch from GASGAS to Sherco for 2019, he was again second at the first round of the series in Italy, although he lost ground across the full season and ended the year in seventh. More podiums followed in 2020 with three-two finishes in Andorra as he climbed back up to fifth and in 2021 he claimed his first two Trial2 victories as led at the halfway point of the championship before finally being beaten into second by his compatriot Toby Martyn.
A disappointing seventh in 2022, last year Peace refound his form with eight podiums including victory on day two in Spain as he bounced back to third in an extremely close season that went down to the wire at the final round in France.
Trial2 is incredibly competitive – after the first four scoring days in 2024 there were four different winners – which makes consistency absolutely key, something that is not easy when riders are very evenly matched and scores so close that a single mistake can prove costly.
“Trial2 will always be a competitive class where consistency is tricky. I’m learning all the time from the knowledge and experience I’ve gained and have come so close a couple of times now. I think not achieving the overall result comes down to a few factors – and not necessarily all factors that you can control. Sometimes I think you need some key points over a championship to roll for you to help win it. Going forward I’ve reflected on the things I can learn from.”
Naturally, Peace has his sights set on progressing to the elite TrialGP class, but he is under no illusions that it is a big step to take and one he needs to fully prepare for.
“Over winter, especially when I’m in Spain, the sections I practise are usually quite a bit harder than what will be in Trial2. It’s important to keep pushing the level and working on skills with the aim to move towards TrialGP and work hard to get good results there. It’s important to have the support of a manufacturer like Sherco to move up and as long as I keep getting good results in Trial2 that’s definitely the goal.”
Round three of the 2024 Hertz FIM Trial World Championship – the TrialGP of Italy – takes place this coming weekend (14-16 June). The points-scoring action gets under way at 09:00 local time on 15 June and will be streamed LIVE on FIM-MOTO-TV from 13:00 local time with a season pass – covering all seven rounds and the FIM Trial des Nations – priced at €34.90.
