A Maisseing win for Challoner!
By TMX Archives on 25th Jun 08
ADAM Raga kept his 2008 World title hopes alive with an important victory at Sunday's French Grand Prix, to close in on championship leader Toni Bou who finished a close second on the day. Repsol Montesa celebrated two riders on the podium for the fifth round in a row as Takahisa Fujinami maintained his consistent form with his fifth third place of the season to date. Britain's Dougie Lampkin battled to a heroic fourth spot, after an acute bout of sickness on Saturday night threatened to rule him out of Sunday's hot and humid competition.
British riders faired well in the other two classes with Jack Challoner reinforcing his command of the Youth championship with his fourth win of the series. This has helped the teenager from Halifax extend his advantage in the general standings to 32 points after his main rival, Patrick Smage, was a non-starter due to a back injury.
In the Junior division, Alexz Wigg, who is soon to undergo an operation on his damaged knee, could only manage third on the day, but was joined by Ross Danby and Sam Haslam respectively as three young Brits packed the top five. Wigg's Championship lead has now been cut to just three points following Loris Gubian taking the win at his home GP.
The small town of Maisse, situated just 90 kilometres south of Paris, had never hosted a World event before, but had welcomed a round of the European series back in 2003. The surrounding flat landscape did not suggest that the locality had suitable terrain to test the World's best, but hidden in the shadows on the many wooded areas around the town was a fearsome array of steep and often vertical rock faces. Saturday's inspection of the sections by the riders brought wide-scale requests for the organisers to reduce the length and severity of many of the hazards on safety grounds alone.
Whilst the riders' opinions were mostly ignored, the course plotters were forced to react as heavy overnight rain and the threat of further showers during Sunday caused them to make some last-minute alterations to suit the changing weather conditions. There was little variation in the hazards, with the natural terrain offering one massive step after another. Even the final man-made affair back in the town square featured a huge undercut step that stopped all but Fujinami on the first lap.
Bou and Raga immediately re-engaged in their ongoing head to head battle that has raged throughout the first four rounds of this year's championship and matched each other mark for mark through the first five sections. Only Fujinami was able to remain in their company, as a pale and weak-looking Lampkin recorded no less than three failures during the same period, although Dougie was not alone in his suffering as many of the front runners found the going simply too tough. Further heavy rain showers made conditions even more difficult, as the ground and rocks became covered in a greasy coating.
One single ride was to prove to be the real difference between Raga and Bou on the first lap, and would give the Gas Gas rider a slim lead at the mid way point. Adam's one mark showing in the sixth hazard was simply awesome, and followed an equally magical ride by Lampkin who pioneered a new and dangerous line across a slippery angled slab for the loss of two dabs. Raga was two in front of Fujinami after the first 15 sections, with the Japanese challenger moving ahead of Bou in the very last section of the lap. Dougie was back in sixth position at this stage, just behind Jeroni Fajardo and Albert Cabestany.
In drying conditions there was nothing to separate Bou and Raga on lap two as both upped their games to move clear of the field. During the afternoon session the Spanish duo recorded a score of 21 marks apiece that included a compulsory five at the impossible fourth section. The trial was in the balance right to the final hazard of the day, with Raga pulling-off a single dab ride to snatch the win from Bou who failed right at the last step of the trial, so to speak. Fujinami cruised home in a comfortable third place, whilst Lampkin dug mighty deep to finish in an exhausted and dehydrated fourth spot despite the odds being stacked against him.
A spirited fightback by James Dabill during the closing lap helped the TRW teamster move up to a respectable seventh spot come the finish. This marked Dabill's best result of his 2008 campaign to date with the young tyke having so far not managed to find the form that he showed during the early part of last year. Michael Brown continued to impress with yet another top ten finish in his first full season in the top class and currently holds a safe ninth place in the overall classifications.
Raga will be hoping to further close the gap on Bou this coming weekend, as the championship moves swiftly on to Italy, which will be
the second trial in a three week run that could prove to be very decisive in the hunt for the title in all three classes.
WORLD TRIALS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 5 – Maisse, FRANCE
1 Adam Raga (E - Gas Gas) 31 + 21 + - = 52
2 Toni Bou (E - Montesa) 34 + 21 + - = 55
3 Takahisa Fujinami (J - Montesa) 33 + 27 + - = 60
4 Dougie LAMPKIN (GB - Beta) 48 + 41 + - = 89
5 Jeroni Fajardo (E - Beta) 40 + 43 + 7 = 90
6 Albert Cabestany (E - Sherco) 47 + 51 + - = 98
7 James DABILL (GB - Montesa) 62 + 44 + 4 = 110
8 Marc Freixa (E - Gas Gas) 60 + 54 + - = 114
9 Michael BROWN (GB - Beta) 65 + 58 + - = 123
10 Daniel Oliveras (E - Sherco) 67 + 60 + - = 127
11 Daniele Maurino (I - Gas Gas) 66 + 65 + - = 131
12 Jordi Pasquet (E - Beta) 70 + 63 + - = 133
13 Jerome Bethune (F - Beta) 71 + 68 + - = 139
14 Christophe Bruand (F - Sherco) 73 + 64 + 2 = 139
15 Francesco Iolitta (I - Scorpa 4T) 73 + 71 + - = 144
SERIES STANDINGS: 1 Bou 131 points, 2 Raga 119, 3 Fujinami 112, 4 LAMPKIN 79, 5 Fajardo 77, 6 Cabestany 76, 7 Freixa 59, 8 DABILL 57, 9 BROWN 45, 10 Oliveras 35, 11 Tomoyuki Ogawa 15, 12 Fumitaka Nozaki 14, 13 Kinichi Kuroyama 14, 14 Bethune 13, 15 Maurino 12,... 17 Shaun MORRIS 6,...
WORLD JUNIOR TRIALS CHAMPIONSHIP
1 Loris Gubian (F - Sherco) 29 + 29 + - = 58
2 Matteo Grattarola (I - Sherco) 38 + 23 + - = 61
3 Alexz WIGG (GB - Montesa) 36 + 35 + - = 71
4 Ross DANBY (GB - Gas Gas) 42 + 44 + - = 86
5 Sam HASLAM (GB - Gas Gas) 49 + 41 + - = 90
6 Guillaume Laniel (F - Gas Gas) 49 + 44 + - = 93
7 Alfredo Gomez (E - Montesa) 45 + 49 + - = 94
8 Jochen Schaefer (D - Montesa) 43 + 52 + - = 95
13 George MORTON (GB - Beta) 50 + 55 + - = 105
15 Ben WIBBERLEY (GB - Gas Gas) 60 + 57 + - = 117
17 James FRY (GB - Sherco) 66 + 62 + - = 128
SERIES STANDINGS: 1 WIGG 120 points, 2 Gubian 117, 3 HASLAM 94, 4 DANBY 88, 5 Gomez 87, 6 Grattarola 85, 7 Laniel 63, 8 Laia Sanz 29, 9 Fredrik Johansson 27, 10 Schaefer 26,... 16 Lee SAMPSON 14 ,... 22 MORTON 6 ,... 25 WIBBERLEY 1, 26 James FRY 1.
FIM YOUTH TRIALS CHAMPS
1 Jack CHALLONER (GB - Beta) 15 + 17 + 4 = 36
2 Alexandre Ferrer (F - Sherco) 18 + 26 + 3 = 47
3 Benoit Dagnicourt (F - Beta) 29 + 21 + - = 50
4 Pau Botella (E - Gas Gas) 25 + 21 + 7 = 53
5 Francesc Moret (E - Gas Gas) 30 + 23 + 2 = 55
6 Adrian Pastoriza (E - Gas Gas) 25 + 32 + 6 = 63
7 Maxime Warenghien (B - Sherco) 38 + 33 + - = 71
8 Jonathan RICHARDSON (GB - Sherco) 33 + 37 + 3 = 73
19 Jonathan WALKER (GB - Sherco) 51 + 45 + 9 = 105
26 Jack THOMPSON (GB - Sherco) 57 + 55 + 14 = 126
GU Donna FOX (GB - Gas Gas) 73 + 75 + - = 148
SERIES STANDINGS: 1 CHALLONER 131 points, 2 Patrick Smage 99, 3 Moret 88, 4 Ferrer 88, 5 Dagnicourt 77, 6 Pastoriza 59, 7 Botella 55, 8 Pere Borrellas 53, 9 Jake Whitaker 42, 10 RICHARDSON 38,... 24 Adam JONES 4,... 26 WALKER 3,... 29 THOMPSON 1.
NEXT ROUND: June 29 – Tolmezzo, ITALY.
