Brazilian finale
By TMX Archives on 10th Sep 09
A TOTAL of 35 GP regulars are listed to join 36 South Americans for the final round of the World MX1 and MX2 Championship series at Canelinha on September 12/13. As ever, there are some question marks about the authenticity of some of the entries Billy MacKenzie and Matiss Karro are both listed but will not go, while the unlisted Marc De Reuver has put his name down for a mid-week trip to the Mormaii factory along with his Brazilian mechanic Marcus Pereira de Freitas!
There are 16 GP regulars entered in MX1, including CCM duo Tom Church and Jason Dougan. This represents the top 20 in the series with the exception of the injured Kevin Strijbos, just-returned Aigar Leok, Carlos Campano and Gregory Aranda.
In MX2 six of the top 20 are missing, the injured Marcus Schiffer, the HDI duo of Arnaud Tonus and Anthony Boissiere, plus Dennis Verbruggen, Evgeny Bobryschev and Xavier Boog, the last-named certain to lose his top-ten ranking to race the MX3 finale at Villars-sous-Ecot, close to his home in eastern France.
Shaun Simpson and Jake Nicholls will defend UK honour in MX2, and nominations from outside the top 20 are Zach Osborne, Jose Butron, Cedric Soubeyras, Marco Maddii and Karro.
Eight Brazilians in each class top up the South American continent and five Argentineans and two riders from Chile in each category, along with three riders from Uruguay, two from Ecuador and one from Venezuela will join them.
Most prominent of these are home star Jorge Antonio Balbi, an AMA regular who appeared in a few GPs five years ago, KTM America's Martin Davalos from Ecuador and Chile's Pablo Quintanilla, who showed top six speed in MX3 when the class visited South America earlier in the season.
Up for grabs in Brazil is the World MX2 title, with 22 points separating Marvin Musquin and Rui Goncalves.
Arithmetic hardly comes into it as far as race tactics are concerned. If Musquin wins either moto (and the only GP since joining KTM in which he has not won at least one is Czecho, where the KTM engine blew while he was leading!), then he is champion.
The ideal situation for the promotor would be for the Frenchman to DNF race one with Goncalves winning. That would give the Portuguese a three-point lead in the series, but, because Musquin's string of victories would decide any tie, it would then be winner takes all' in race two.
The silver and bronze medals in the MX1 class are also not yet decided. Max Nagl has a 24-point advantage over David Philippaerts for second in the world, but just four-points separate the deposed champion, Clement Desalle and Ken De Dycker with Josh Coppins a further ten in arrears.