An Udde' win for Toni
By TMX Archives on 9th Jul 08
SHAUN Simpson beat everybody bar Toni Cairoli at least once at Uddevalla, Sweden, on Sunday to secure his second career podium and move 24 points clear of his closest challenger for fourth in the world as friction amongst the MX2 title chasers reached a new peak with Tommy Searle losing significant ground in the points.Good getaways from a gravel start played a significant role in MX1 as the title chasers suffered moderate to wretched days, whilst Jonathan Barragan grabbed his second GP win of the year and Max Nagl ran away with race two.Billy MacKenzie shrugged off his cracked shoulder to finish an amazing fifth in MX1, CAS Honda colleague Steve Boniface led for half of race one and James Noble, Tom Church and Brad Anderson were all in the thick of the battles for points.In MX2 Suso Suzuki's Carl Nunn and Jason Dougan each scored twice, and a vibrant Jake Nicholls opened his account for the year.
POLESETTER Cairoli identified the KTM trio of Tyla Rattray, Searle and Simpson as genuine rivals for the win and the quartet were indeed sovereign all weekend, only Steven Frossard in race one even getting close and the two-class society evident in race two as the quartet banged more than just bars for the win with the fifth man half a minute back before half distance.
Simpson laid the foundations with two holeshots and led the opener for nine laps in the drizzle before Rattray sneaked past and gradually edged clear.
Searle could not find a way past Frossard in their wake, and was still chasing the Frenchman mid-moto as Cairoli made the first move. "You cannot ride wide lines like Tommy when Cairoli is on you. Give him the smallest gap and he will take the advantage,” noted the watching Harry Everts.
And the growing feud between the Brit and the Italian escalated as Searle went down after contact. "My goggles had misted-up and I touched him with my elbow,” reckoned Cairoli.
The Italian then ran down Simpson five laps from home after stern resistance, but Rattray was long gone. Searle got back on for sixth.
Further friction between the rival camps had arisen mid-moto as De Carli junior Alessandro Lupino twice ignored the blue flag when being lapped. Assistant clerk of the course Peter Hansson immediately reported him by intercom to the Race Director, but the ex-world junior champion got away with a warning.
But it was race two which was really explosive.
Simpson again led from Rattray and Searle repaid Cairoli for race one to take over third. The Italian would comment later: "I was surprised at some of the things Tommy did. I think he can do better without those things.”
The race order at the front remained unchanged for eight laps before the Italian regained third. Searle: "You had to go off line to pass. I tried to set up Tyla and Cairoli took advantage.”
Rattray was next, and was aware of the potential danger as he held back from challenging Simpson: "I knew Toni was there, so I was riding safe lines. But he still got through. That was the only place and it was hard, but it was fair.”
Searle was now after his team-mate, but knew it would be difficult: "I had no goggles when I tried to get Tyla at the end.” KTM's title challengers had to settle for third and fourth.
Simpson had lasted just one lap longer before falling prey to the Italian, but he kept second secure and even closed the Italian back down at the end: "Harry Everts had given me some new lines during the interval and I could see Cairoli's too once he passed.”
The fervent title battle had threatened to boil over off-track too as the De Carli team complained vociferously that Stefan Simpson, the KTM UK man without his own signalling tent all year, was blocking Cairoli's sight of their board, and heated words were also exchanged with the factory team after a KTM board carried the message "Clean him out”.
Cairoli himself had seen the message as he raced past and brought the affair up at the press conference: "I was surprised at what I saw on one of the KTM pitboards.” He declined to go into more detail, but the live TV audience had also seen the message and the De Carli press officer said his team owner had requested Stefan Everts to deal with the matter internally.
Though his own crew were not involved, Tyla Rattray immediately distanced himself: "I'm not going to T-bone anybody!”
Assistant clerk of the course Hansson, in his day one of the most aggressive riders on the track, just shook his head at the recklessnness of the message and grinned: "I never needed anyone to tell me!”
Dougan and Nunn each battled in the pack to advance each time in the difficult conditions, Dougan's first moto ride in particular attracting plaudits as he picked up his pace again at the end after relaxing mid-moto.
At full strength for the first time all year Swift soon had glum faces as Pascal Leuret pulled out with pain in his elbow - "I couldn't even adopt the correct stance on the bike to attack” - after straining his arm and shoulder on Saturday, while Elliott Banks-Browne soon followed suit after the knee he wrenched in quali took a further blow in the race. Neither started race two.
Jake Nicholls, having finally made the cut, was "loving every moment of it” as he chased through the pack each time, even though he just missed the points second time out after pulling himself and the bike out of a water-filled ditch: "I'm not even tired, just frustrated.”
WORLD MX2 MOTOCROSS CHAMPS
Rd 9 – Uddevalla, SWEDEN
1 Antonio Cairoli (I - Red Bull Yamaha) 22 + 25 = 47
2 Tyla Rattray (ZA - Red Bull KTM) 25 + 20 = 45
3 Shaun SIMPSON (GB - KTM UK) 20 + 22 = 42
4 Tommy SEARLE (GB - Red Bull KTM) 15 + 18 = 33
5 Steven Frossard (F - CLS Kawasaki) 18 + 14 = 32
6 Rui Goncalves (P - Red Bull KTM) 14 + 15 = 29
7 Jeremy Tarroux (F - Silver Action KTM) 8 + 16 = 24
8 Jeremy Van Horebeek (B - Champ KTM) 12 + 10 = 22
9 Matti Seistola (F - SRS Honda) 13 + 8 = 21
10 Marvin Musquin (F - NGS Honda) 7 + 13 = 20
11 Nicolas Aubin (F - Ricci Yamaha) 16+1=17, 12 Manuel Monni (I - 3C Yamaha) 10+5=15, 13 Davide Guarneri (I - Ricci Yamaha) 11+4=15, 14 Wyatt Avis (ZA - LS Honda) 0+12=12, 15 Anthony Boissiere (F - HDI KTM) 3+9=12, 16 Gregory Aranda (F - CLS Kawasaki) 0+11=11, 17 Xavier Boog (F - Inotec Suzuki) 9+0=9, 18 Carl NUNN (GB - Suso Suzuki) 1+7=8, 19 Jason DOUGAN (GB - Suso Suzuki) 6+2=8, 20 Joel Roelants (B - Champ KTM) 0+6=6, 21 Filip Thuresson (SWE - Suzuki) 5+0=5, 22 Evgeni Tyletski (BLR - Teka Suzuki) 4+0=4, 23 Evgeniy Bobryschev (RUS - Van Beers Yamaha) 0+3=3, 24 Jake NICHOLLS (GB - Swift Suzuki) 2+0=2.
RACE ONE: 1 Rattray, 2 Cairoli, 3 SIMPSON, 4 Frossard, 5 Aubin, 6 SEARLE, 7 Goncalves, 8 Seistola, 9 Van Horebeek, 10 Guarneri, 11 Monni, 12 Boog , 13 Tarroux, 14 Marvin Musquin, 15 DOUGAN, 16 Thuresson, 17 Tyletski, 18 Boissiere, 19 NICHOLLS, 20 NUNN.
RACE TWO: 1 Cairoli, 2 SIMPSON, 3 Rattray, 4 SEARLE, 5 Tarroux, 6 Goncalves, 7 Frossard, 8 Marvin Musquin, 9 Avis, 10 Aranda, 11 Van Horebeek, 12 Boissiere, 13 Seistola, 14 NUNN, 15 Roelants, 16 Monni, 17 Guarneri, 18 Bobryschev, 19 DOUGAN, 20 Aubin.
SERIES STANDINGS after 9 (of 15) rounds: 1 Rattray 371 points, 2 Cairoli 357, 3 SEARLE 348, 4 SIMPSON 251, 5 Goncalves 227, 6 Aubin 205, 7 Boog 182, 8 Monni 172, 9 Van Horebeek 170, 10 Frossard 160, 11 SWORD 151, 12 Boissiere 146, 13 Marvin Musquin 146, 14 Tarroux 127, 15 Guarneri 114, 16 Roelants 99, 17 Paulin 95, 18 Aranda 94, 19 NUNN 73, 20 Avis 56,... 24 Seistola 37,...
NEXT ROUND: Jul 20 – Nelspruit, SOUTH AFRICA.
WORLD MX1 MOTOCROSS CHAMPS
Rd 9 – Uddevalla, SWEDEN
1 Jonathan Barragan (E - Silver Action KTM) 25 + 22 = 47
2 Steve Ramon (B - Teka Suzuki) 20 + 20 = 40
3 David Philippaerts (I - Monster Yamaha) 18 + 18 = 36
4 Maximilian Nagl (D - Red Bull KTM) 9 + 25 = 34
5 Billy MacKENZIE (GB - Monster Honda) 14 + 15 = 29
6 Clement Desalle (B - Inotec Suzuki) 16 + 12 = 28
7 Ken De Dycker (B - Teka Suzuki) 13 + 13 = 26
8 Julien Bill (CH - Martin Honda) 11 + 14 = 25
9 Steve Boniface (F - Yamaha) 15 + 10 = 25
10 Josh Coppins (NZ - Monster Yamaha) 8 + 16 = 24
11 Tanel Leok (EW - Kawasaki Europe) 12+11=23, 12 Marc De Reuver (NL - Martin Honda) 22+0=22, 13 James NOBLE (GB - KTM UK) 6+8=14, 14 Tom CHURCH (GB - Molson Kawasaki) 5+7=12, 15 Aigar Leok (EW - Van Beers Yamaha) 7+5=12, 16 Sebastien Pourcel (F - GPKR Kawasaki) 10+0=10, 17 Kornel Nemeth (H - Sarholz KTM) 0+9=9, 18 Manuel Priem (B - Kawasaki Europe) 4+4=8, 19 Luis Correira (P - Yamaha) 0+6=6, 20 Loic Leonce (F - JK Yamaha) 1+3=4, 21 Brad ANDERSON (GB - Swift Suzuki) 3+0=3, 22 Scott Columb (NZ - MTM Suzuki) 0+2=2, 23 Alex Salvini (I - Valenti Suzuki) 2+0=2, 24 Carlos Campano (E - Utag Yamaha) 0+1=1.
RACE ONE: 1 Barragan, 2 De Reuver, 3 Ramon, 4 Philippaerts, 5 Desalle, 6 Boniface, 7 MacKENZIE, 8 De Dycker, 9 Tanel Leok, 10 Bill, 11 Pourcel, 12 Nagl, 13 Coppins, 14 Aigar Leok, 15 NOBLE, 16 CHURCH, 17 Priem, 18 ANDERSON, 19 Salvini, 20 Leonce.
RACE TWO: 1 Nagl, 2 Barragan, 3 Ramon, 4 Philippaerts, 5 Coppins, 6 MacKENZIE, 7 Bill, 8 De Dycker, 9 Desalle, 10 Tanel Leok, 11 Boniface, 12 Nemeth, 13 NOBLE, 14 CHURCH, 15 Correira, 16 Aigar Leok, 17 Priem, 18 Leonce, 19 Columb, 20 Campano.
SERIES STANDINGS after 9 (of 15) rounds: 1 Philippaerts 302 points, 2 Ramon 290, 3 Coppins 286, 4 De Dycker 266, 5 Pourcel 241, 6 Barragan 239, 7 Nagl 213, 8 Tanel Leok 209, 9 MacKENZIE 205, 10 De Reuver 178, 11 Desalle 162, 12 Priem 137, 13 Bill 131, 14 Nemeth 115, 15 Brown 107, 16 Aigar Leok 97, 17 NOBLE 79, 18 Schiffer 77, 19 CHURCH 55, 20 Boniface 47,... 25 ANDERSON 30,...
NEXT ROUND: Jul 20 – Nelspruit, SOUTH AFRICA.