Bullish Searle victorious
By TMX Archives on 14th May 08
WITH three weeks to go to the British GP at Mallory Park, Tommy Searle and Shaun Simpson put Britain back on the podium at Sevlievo in Bulgaria after a sensational second MX2 moto which saw them dispute the victory from start to finish, the English teenager finally passing the 20-year-old Scot at the very last turn for his first win of the year to clinch the overall. But second place in the rain was enough to assure Simpson of his debut podium and confirm his Friday statement I hope it rains. Otherwise everyone can go fast round here. as KTM took a 1-2-3 with the two Brits and Tyla Rattray. The South African regained the red plate from Toni Cairoli, a sinner not only in orange eyes, Searle's win moved him to within eight of the pace, and Simpson is now right back in the battle for fourth. There was less joy for the other Brits. Stephen Sword was a sterling fourth in race one, but narrowly escaped injury when the central bolt securing the triple clamp on his Molson Kawasaki snapped on take-off of a jump on there opening lap of race two and Billy MacKenzie just wanted to ride off the track and hide after suffering appaling arm pump in race one, but at least rehabilitated himself with a sixth in race two.
A brace of 14ths for Jason Dougan, and single scores for Carl Nunn, James Noble, Brad Anderson and Elliott Banks-Browne completed the UK native scorers as David Philippaerts accepted the MX1 victory courtesy of a last lap crash by Jonathan Barragan to extend his points lead to 17.
Report & Pictures: Alex Hodgkinson
THE tension between Cairoli and the KTM pack had already started to boil on Saturday as he slammed Searle at least half a dozen times before finding a way through after 18 minutes in their qualifying heat. It was at the very same Sevlievo track last summer that the Sicilian had left Chris Pourcel a mental wreck, but Searle is made of sterner stuff, as he proved again next day.
With the big names lining up next to each other on the inside of the gate Cairoli and Rattray were always going to tangle It never got viscous, but it was enough for Sword and Searle to sweep round them both, Tommy inheriting the lead when the Scot decided to play safe in a turn at the bottom of the hill: The inside line had been watered and I thought it would be slippery so I went around the inside and four of them went through!
Cairoli, Gautier Paulin and Rattray now split the two Brits and the quintet were so close that a single error by anyone immediately put them at the tail of the breakaway as Paulin found to his cost a couple of laps later.
Cairoli ripped past Searle within a couple of laps but could never run away as Rattray tagged on in third, and a mistake by the Italian as he spun through 360 degrees 25 minutes into the race handed the lead back to Searle.
Tommy was again resiliant and defied everything the Yamaha man could throw at him for four laps: I switched to his lines in a lot of places. He eventually got me when I overjumped at the finish line and couldn't make the turn.
Simpson had charged quickly onto Rui Goncalves' rear wheel only to lose the front-wheel at the end of the rhythm section and spend the rest of the race recovering to 11th. Dougan battled away relentlessly in the midfield freight train for 14th, Nunn never settled after an uncomfortable first couple of laps as he tried to protect the ankle he had twisted on Saturday, but Banks-Browne had a resiliant ride back through to 18th after wrecking a good start by running off the track before the whoops on lap one.
If race two had been exhilarating, it was nothing compared to race two. Drizzle had made the track treacherous and Cairoli's aggressive entry to turn one was catastrophic for the Italian.
He went down right in front of me, I had no chance to miss him, said Rattray after running over Cairoli's belly and being thrown into the path of riders to his left: I'll need stitches tomorrow when I get home. My hand was caught between the bars and clutch lever, and the steering was bent too. I nearly stopped. After finishing fifth to take over the red plate he was glad he didn't.
Searle now had the holeshot nailed, but Simpson was having none of it and soared past on the next table-top to take a lead he was to defend until one corner from home.
The track was really slippery and I didn't want to make any mistakes, said Searle, but Simpson still had to be caught as the pair ran away from the pack.
Cairoli had been quickly back to 12th before another fall left him on the brink of being lapped, indeed both KTMs went past, but then tempers got heated as the Italian started to push Searle again. Stefan Everts searched in vain for Race Director, Dave Nicoll, and KTM Technical Director Sepp Sperl protested vehemently to Team De Carli, but Cairoli maintained his interference with the battle for the lead, on one occasion diving inside Searle so that the Brit could not make the turn.
Officialdom did not act. Race Director Dave Nicoll: I did not consider that there was any reason to intervene with any sanctions. I did not see the incident mentioned, and feel that Cairoli only got close to Searle when Tommy made mistakes.
With just over a lap to go Searle had finally shaken off his shadow and was poised on Simpson's rear-wheel. He swept the factory Toomer around the outside of the turn before the finish line and had his nose in front, but Scots are made of sterner stuff. Simpson ran his rival into the track marking to retain his lead, but had no answer next time round: I tried to move over a little to block Tommy, but the track was so greasy I didn't want to risk throwing it all away by riding a completely new line.
So Searle, already winning the GP, added the moto win by less than half a second, but even the demotion to second could not cost Simpson his podium: I knew I have the speed and said I wanted one this year, but I didn't think it would come so early.
Sword had exited early when the triple-clamp bolt broke, Paulin was lapped after an early fall, Banks-Browne crashed twice and couldn't restart the bike second time, but Nunn put his head down for 13th, one ahead of team-mate Dougan.
WORLD MX2 MOTOCROSS CHAMPS
Rd 4 Sevlievo, BULGARIA
1 Tommy SEARLE (GB - Red Bull KTM) 22 + 25 = 47
2 Tyla Rattray (ZA - Red Bull KTM) 20 + 16 = 36
3 Shaun SIMPSON (GB - KTM UK) 10 + 22 = 32
4 Xavier Boog (F - Inotec Suzuki) 14 + 18 = 32
5 Nicolas Aubin (F - Ricci Yamaha) 8 + 20 = 28
6 Anthony Boissiere (F - HDI KTM) 13 + 15 = 28
7 Antonio Cairoli (I - Red Bull Yamaha) 25 + 2 = 27
8 Rui Goncalves (P - Red Bull KTM) 11 + 14 = 25
9 Jeremy Van Horebeek (B - Champ KTM) 12 + 13 = 25
10 Marvin Musquin (F - NGS Honda) 15 + 9 = 24
11 Manuel Monni (I - 3C Yamaha) 9 + 10 = 19
12 Gregory Aranda (F - CLS Kawasaki) 6 + 12 = 18
13 Stephen SWORD (GB - Molson Kawasaki) 18 + 0 = 18
14 Gautier Paulin (F - Molson Kawasaki) 16 + 0 = 16
15 Jason DOUGAN (GB - Suso Suzuki) 7 + 7 = 14
16 Davide Guarneri (I - Ricci Yamaha) 0+11=11, 17 Carl NUNN (GB - Suso Suzuki) 0+8=8, 18 Shannon Terreblanche (ZA - Beursfoon Suzuki) 1+6=7, 19 Matteo Bonini (I - Red Bull Yamaha) 2+4=6, 20 Joel Roelants (B - Champ KTM) 0+5=5, 21 Khounsith Vongsana (F - Bud Kawasaki) 5+0=5, 22 Jeremy Tarroux (F - Silver Action KTM) 4+0=4, 23 Wyatt Avis (ZA - LS Honda) 0+3=3, 24 Elliott BANKS-BROWNE (GB - Swift Suzuki) 3+0=3, 25 Julien Vanni (F - HDI KTM) 0+1=1.
RACE ONE: 1 SEARLE, 2 Cairoli, 3 Rattray, 4 SWORD, 5 Paulin, 6 Marvin Musquin, 7 Boog , 8 Boissiere, 9 Van Horebeek, 10 Goncalves, 11 SIMPSON, 12 Monni, 13 Aubin, 14 DOUGAN, 15 Aranda, 16 Vongsana, 17 Tarroux, 18 BANKS-BROWNE, 19 Bonini, 20 Terreblanche.
RACE TWO: 1 SEARLE, 2 SIMPSON, 3 Aubin, 4 Boog , 5 Rattray, 6 Boissiere, 7 Goncalves, 8 Van Horebeek, 9 Aranda, 10 Guarneri, 11 Monni, 12 Marvin Musquin, 13 NUNN, 14 DOUGAN, 15 Terreblanche, 16 Roelants, 17 Bonini, 18 Avis, 19 Cairoli, 20 Vanni.
SERIES STANDINGS after 4 (of 15) rounds: 1 Rattray 157 points, 2 Cairoli 153, 3 SEARLE 149, 4 Goncalves 106, 5 Aubin 106, 6 SWORD 98, 7 Guarneri 97, 8 SIMPSON 92, 9 Boog 87, 10 Van Horebeek 82, 11 Monni 79, 12 Paulin 64, 13 Roelants 54, 14 Boissiere 50, 15 Marvin Musquin 47, 16 Eggens 38, 17 Tarroux 38, 18 Aranda 36, 19 NUNN 35, 20 Frossard 23, 21 Krestinov 23, 22 Bobryschev 20, 23 DOUGAN 17, 24 Pellegrini 15, 25 Avis 15, 27 BANKS-BROWNE 11,...
NEXT ROUND: May 18 Mantova, ITALY.
WORLD MX1 MOTOCROSS CHAMPS
Rd 4 Sevlievo, BULGARIA
1 David Philippaerts (I - Monster Yamaha) 25 + 22 = 47
2 Jonathan Barragan (E - Silver Action KTM) 22 + 18 = 40
3 Sebastien Pourcel (F - GPKR Kawasaki) 13 + 25 = 38
4 Steve Ramon (B - Teka Suzuki) 16 + 20 = 36
5 Marc De Reuver (NL - Martin Honda) 20 + 16 = 36
6 Josh Coppins (NZ - Monster Yamaha) 18 + 14 = 32
7 Julien Bill (CH - Martin Honda) 15 + 13 = 28
8 Maximilian Nagl (D - Red Bull KTM) 10 + 12 = 22
9 Billy MacKENZIE (GB - Monster Honda) 6 + 15 = 21
10 Ken De Dycker (B - Teka Suzuki) 11 + 10 = 21
11 Tanel Leok (EW - Kawasaki Europe) 14 + 7 = 21
12 Mike Brown (US - Monster Honda) 9 + 11 = 20
13 Manuel Priem (B - Kawasaki Europe) 7 + 9 = 16
14 Kornel Nemeth (H - Sarholz KTM) 8 + 6 = 14
15 Marcus Schiffer (D - Sarholz KTM) 5 + 8 = 13
16 Clement Desalle (B - Inotec Suzuki) 12+0=12, 17 Aigar Leok (EW - Van Beers Yamaha) 3+5=8, 18 Carlos Campano (E - Utag Yamaha) 2+4=6, 19 Alessio Chiodi (I - TM Racing) 4+2=6, 20 James NOBLE (GB - KTM UK) 0+3=3, 21 Brad ANDERSON (GB - Swift Suzuki) 0+1=1, 22 Pierre Alexandre Renet (F - Teka Suzuki) 1+0=1.
RACE ONE: 1 Philippaerts, 2 Barragan, 3 De Reuver, 4 Coppins, 5 Ramon, 6 Bill, 7 Tanel Leok, 8 Sebastien Pourcel, 9 Desalle, 10 De Dycker, 11 Nagl, 12 Brown, 13 Nemeth, 14 Priem, 15 MacKENZIE, 16 Schiffer, 17 Chiodi, 18 Aigar Leok, 19 Campano, 20 Renet.
RACE TWO: 1 Sebastien Pourcel, 2 Philippaerts, 3 Ramon, 4 Barragan, 5 De Reuver, 6 MacKENZIE, 7 Coppins, 8 Bill, 9 Nagl, 10 Brown, 11 De Dycker, 12 Priem, 13 Schiffer, 14 Tanel Leok, 15 Nemeth, 16 Aigar Leok, 17 Campano, 18 NOBLE, 19 Chiodi, 20 ANDERSON.
SERIES STANDINGS after 4 (of 15) rounds: 1 Philippaerts 149 points, 2 Ramon 132, 3 Coppins 115, 4 MacKENZIE 100, 5 De Dycker 98, 6 Barragan 94, 7 Pourcel 90, 8 Nagl 80, 9 De Reuver 76, 10 Tanel Leok 71, 11 Brown 62, 12 Nemeth 62, 13 Priem 56, 14 Desalle 55, 15 Schiffer 40, 16 Bill 38, 17 Strijbos 36, 18 Aigar Leok 28, 19 NOBLE 23, 20 CHURCH 20, 21 Salvini 19, 22 Chiodi 19, 23 Freibergs 16, 24 Renet 16, 25 Van Daele 15, 30 ANDERSON 1,...
NEXT ROUND: May 18 Mantova, ITALY.
For full report and pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, May 16, 2008