De Dycker cuts 'em to pieces...
By TMX Archives on 9th Apr 08
THERE were no Brits on the podium at the opening GP of the 2008 World Motocross Championship, but Billy MacKenzie and Tommy Searle each snatched a top three moto finish in the treacherous Dutch sand at Valkenswaard on Sunday and head for Spain next week holding down fourth in the series.
Billy had second written all over him as Ken De Dycker dominated in his native sand to give the fuel-injected MX1 Suzuki a debut win, but trouble with backmarkers ignoring blue flags temporaily blinded the Scot and caused him to crash in race one, while Tommy lost the podium on the final lap when Erik Eggens scooped up a place as Rui Goncalves dropped into his clutches, the Portuguese battling a painful hip from a late moto crash. Tyla Rattray meanwhile dominated and scored his first MX2 success since Desertmartin 2006.
Many of the Brits had a torrid time in the unrelenting sand, rendered treacherous by weeks of rain, but Shaun Simpson ended the day sixth in the world and Stephen Sword salvaged a second moto seventh after a first moto disaster. The only other native Brit scorer was Tom Church with six points on his MX1 debut.
Report and Pictures: Alex Hodgkinson
It is never easy, commented De Dycker after his overwhelming double win, but the final winning margins, each under ten seconds, did not reflect his dominance of his MX1 rivals. The 23-year-old Belgian was three seconds a lap faster than the opposition all day and, not even holeshotting, was coasting to victory within a couple of laps in each moto.
I pushed to get in front quickly each time and then gave myself a comfortable lead before settling down into a good rhythm. But you had to stay concentrated the whole time, the track was very difficult today.
The holeshot in race one had gone to Max Nagl, but he was quickly pushed down to fourth by Keeno, Billy and David Philippaerts: I tensed up and just had to ride myself out of it. Once I settled down I could pick-off David and Billy again.
For nearly half the race MacKenzie looked secure in second before he too stressed and began to make mistakes, but the Scot was still a watchful fourth until lapper Chicco Chiodi cost him the podium: He ignored the blue flags and I got filled-in approaching a jump. I hit it blind and went down. The minute lost rejoining the race put Billy down to tenth. The next drama concerned Monster Yamaha as Philippaerts confirmed his new nickname of Il Mostro.
Josh Coppins, riding with badly broken toes in a damage limitation move, had advanced to third as others wilted or crashed, but Philippaerts wanted the place back, sweeping round his team leader along the pit straight and taking his front-wheel away into the turn.
David went off the gas to avoid hitting a backmarker and Josh was not expecting him to slow so quickly. An unfortunate incident, was the summary of Yamaha Europe manager Laurens Klein Koerkamp, but Philippaerts had clearly dropped his shoulder on Coppins, and Coppins knew last autumn that he cannot expect the same subservience he got from De Reuver last year from his new number two. Just nobody expected it to start quite so early!
The Kiwi had admitted on Friday that his major concern was endurance My injuries have put back my preparation and the break in rhythm from the crash spoilt his otherwise perfectly planned race. The drama was still not over for Philippaerts. Blocked by lapper Pyrhonen at the final turn, he lost third on the run in to Steve Ramon, the defending champion a shadow of his usual self all weekend after going down with a bout of flu at the start of the week. Nagl was in the pack at the second start, but Jonathan Barragan took the fourth orange holeshot of the day. The Spaniard had held on for the moto win last year, but this time he was already down to third after a lap with De Dycker chasing clear and MacKenzie, who had already swallowed up Ramon, quickly in pursuit.
MacKenzie's second was undisputed this time and there was little movement in the pack after the initial sort-out, the single dry groove which had formed the only place to go. Mike Brown's starts deserted him for the weekend and he spent both motos mid-pack, Tom Church shook himself up in the opener with a big one over the finish jump but returned later in the day for a solid if unspectacular 15th, while Brad Anderson had his back to the wall after damaging his right ankle during the week. Withdrawing early from the opener after a fall left him in a hopeless position, the north-easterner was knocking on the door of the points in race two when the inevitable happened: I had to put my foot out and stubbed it in the sand. The pain shot right through my body. I just hope it's alright for next weekend.
WORLD MX1 MOTOCROSS CHAMPS
Rd 1 Valkenswaard, HOLLAND
1 Ken De Dycker (B - Teka Suzuki) 25 + 25 = 50
2 Steve Ramon (B - Teka Suzuki) 20 + 18 = 38
3 Maximilian Nagl (D - Red Bull KTM) 22 + 16 = 38
4 Billy MacKENZIE (GB - Monster Honda) 11 + 22 = 33
5 David Philippaerts (I - Monster Yamaha) 18 + 15 = 33
6 Josh Coppins (NZ - Monster Yamaha) 15 + 14 = 29
7 Manuel Priem (B - Kawasaki Europe) 16 + 13 = 29
8 Kornel Nemeth (H - Sarholz KTM) 12 + 12 = 24
9 Kevin Strijbos (B - GPKR Kawasaki) 14 + 7 = 21
10 Jonathan Barragan (E - Silver Action KTM) 0 + 20 = 20
11 Aigar Leok (EW - Van Beers Yamaha) 9 + 11 = 20
12 Mike Brown (US - Monster Honda) 6 + 8 = 14
13 Marc De Reuver (NL - Martin Honda) 13 + 0 = 13
14 Marcus Schiffer (D - Sarholz KTM) 2 + 9 = 11
15 Clement Desalle (B - Inotec Suzuki) 0 + 10 = 10
16 Tanel Leok (EW - Kawasaki Europe) 10+0=10, 17 Marvin Van Daele (B - Teka Suzuki) 7+2=9, 18 Bas Verhoeven (NL - Rabbit Kawasaki) 8+1=9, 19 Antti Pyrhonen (SF - Delta Suzuki) 4+4=8, 20 Thomas CHURCH (GB - Molson Kawasaki) 0+6=6, 21 Lauris Freibergs (LV - Van Beers Yamaha) 0+5=5, 22 Sebastien Pourcel (F - GPKR Kawasaki) 5+0=5, 23 Alessio Chiodi (I - TM Racing) 0+3=3, 24 Pierre Alexandre Renet (F - Teka Suzuki) 3+0=3, 25 Alex Salvini (I - Valenti Suzuki) 1+0=1.
RACE ONE: 1 De Dycker, 2 Nagl, 3 Ramon, 4 Philippaerts, 5 Priem, 6 Coppins, 7 Strijbos, 8 De Reuver, 9 Nemeth, 10 MacKENZIE, 11 Leok, 12 Leok , 13 Verhoeven, 14 Van Daele, 15 Brown, 16 Pourcel, 17 Pyrhonen, 18 Renet, 19 Schiffer, 20 Salvini.
RACE TWO: 1 De Dycker, 2 MacKENZIE, 3 Barragan, 4 Ramon, 5 Nagl, 6 Philippaerts, 7 Coppins, 8 Priem, 9 Nemeth, 10 Leok, 11 Desalle, 12 Schiffer, 13 Brown, 14 Strijbos, 15 CHURCH, 16 Freibergs, 17 Pyrhonen, 18 Chiodi, 19 Van Daele, 20 Verhoeven.
SERIES STANDINGS after 1 (of 15) rounds: As Overall above.
NEXT ROUND: Apr 20 Bellpuig, SPAIN.
WORLD MX2 MOTOCROSS CHAMPS
Rd 1 Valkenswaard, HOLLAND
1 Tyla Rattray (ZA - Red Bull KTM) 25 + 25 = 50
2 Antonio Cairoli (I - Red Bull Yamaha) 22 + 22 = 44
3 Erik Eggens (NL - Beursfoon Suzuki) 18 + 20 = 38
4 Tommy SEARLE (GB - Red Bull KTM) 20 + 16 = 36
5 Rui Goncalves (P - Red Bull KTM) 15 + 18 = 33
6 Shaun SIMPSON (GB - KTM UK) 16 + 12 = 28
7 Nicolas Aubin (F - Ricci Yamaha) 12 + 15 = 27
8 Xavier Boog (F - Inotec Suzuki) 13 + 13 = 26
9 Joel Roelants (B - Champ KTM) 11 + 11 = 22
10 Jeremy Van Horebeek (B - Champ KTM) 14 + 7 = 21
11 Davide Guarneri (I - Ricci Yamaha) 6 + 10 = 16
12 Stephen SWORD (GB - Molson Kawasaki) 0 + 14 = 14
13 Gert Krestinov (EW - Favor KTM) 8 + 5 = 13
14 Manuel Monni (I - 3C Yamaha) 2 + 9 = 11
15 Rinus Van De Ven (NL - Van Der Haar KTM) 7 + 3 = 10
16 Jeremy Tarroux (F - Silver Action KTM) 10+0=10, 17 Anthony Boissiere (F - HDI KTM) 9+0=9, 18 Mike Kras (NL - Suzuki) 0+8=8, 19 Gautier Paulin (F - Molson Kawasaki) 0+6=6, 20 Rob Van Vijfeijken (NL - Van Vijfeijken Yamaha) 1+4=5, 21 Pascal Leuret (F - Swift Suzuki) 5+0=5, 22 Joaquim Rodrigues (P - KTM) 4+0=4, 23 Wyatt Avis (ZA - LS Motors Honda) 3+0=3, 24 Marcus Norlen (S - Suzuki) 0+2=2, 25 Evgeniy Bobryschev (RUS - Van Beers Yamaha) 0+1=1.
RACE ONE: 1 Rattray, 2 Cairoli, 3 SEARLE, 4 Eggens, 5 SIMPSON, 6 Goncalves, 7 Van Horebeek, 8 Boog , 9 Aubin, 10 Roelants, 11 Tarroux, 12 Boissiere, 13 Krestinov, 14 Van De Ven, 15 Guarneri, 16 Leuret, 17 Rodrigues, 18 Avis, 19 Monni, 20 Van Vijfeijken.
RACE TWO: 1 Rattray, 2 Cairoli, 3 Eggens, 4 Goncalves, 5 SEARLE, 6 Aubin, 7 SWORD, 8 Boog , 9 SIMPSON, 10 Roelants, 11 Guarneri, 12 Monni, 13 Kras, 14 Van Horebeek, 15 Paulin, 16 Krestinov, 17 Van Vijfeijken, 18 Van De Ven, 19 Norlen, 20 Bobryschev.
SERIES STANDINGS after 1 (of 15) rounds: As Overall above.
NEXT ROUND: Apr 20 Bellpuig, SPAIN.
For full report and pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, April 11, 2008