It's a Ratt trap!
By TMX Archives on 18th Sep 08
Tyla Rattray clinches the MX2 world title!TOMMY Searle did everything possible at Faenza on Sunday to leave the GP scene with a double win, but it was not enough to prevent Red Bull KTM team-mate Tyla Rattray from wrapping up the MX2 world title.
"I could only do my best with two wins, the rest was down to Tyla, but I'll miss GP racing. It's been fun for three years, and I'm glad I stayed this year. I've learnt a lot and I'm happy with the way I rode.”
In MX1 David Philippaerts resisted the Suzuki twin spearhead to regain the world title for Monster Rinaldi Yamaha, while Billy MacKenzie defied week-old rib injuries to maintain his ninth place in the standings with two storming rides and Max Nagl scored a devastating double win.
And there was more from the Brits as Stephen Sword just missed giving Molson an MX2 podium farewell, Shaun Simpson ended the campaign fourth in the world, Carl Nunn ended his GP career with his best GP since Portugal, Tom Church ended the season on a strong note with 12th overall and Jake Nicholls added a final score to top the Suzuki Swift charts.
Searle again made a mess of Saturday's qualifiers, but a poor start gate rarely troubles the Brit and he again out-gated Rattray, but both had to play -chase in the early laps to occasional front-runner Anthony Boissiere.
After three laps the Frenchman's resistance was broken, but, as in Czecho, the title candidates could not shake him off and he was rewarded at the finish with the news that he will replace Frossard in the French Nations squad.
Rattray had insisted on Saturday that he wanted to leave the MX2 class with a win, but, after one mid-moto attempt, he wisely settled for the bigger prize: "Tommy was riding well, and I didn't want to take any chances.” Only needing a fourth place to wrap it up, second was more than enough to be greeted by the orange army at the finish for a champagne shower.
With Saturday heat winner, Zach Osborne, battling through the pack after an appalling start, Sword battled Joel Roelants to claim fourth, while Simpson was always leader-board in the battle for the series bronze medal.
Rui Goncalves exited the three-way tussle mid-moto with a crash after never advancing past 14th, but Aubin was on a mission to push Simpson temporarily out of the moto top-six before going down in a turn to see three of his 14-point pre-race advantage squandered.
For Simpson it was a reward for his dogged persistence: "I'm not back to where I was, but I felt better than I have done since I broke my collarbone.”
Osborne eventually followed him home after chasing through from 12th, and Nunn had a cracking ride, never out of the top 12, to head home Swanepoel.
Jake Nicholls eventually came home 17th after a mixed ride: "I had made a lot of early passes in my heat on Saturday by riding the tight lines in the corners, but it backfired as it was wet there after the overnight rain and I ended up losing places rather than gaining. But I got my act together in the second half of the race.”
With nothing more at stake Rattray had hoped to reverse the positions in race two, but never got past fourth as he struggled with suspension set-up, however Searle found new rivals as Roelants led for ten-laps as hole-shotter Sword struggled with steamed up goggles and had to discard them with in ten-minutes.
Searle also had pressure from Osborne on his rear-wheel for many laps, but he shook off the American with a storming pass on Roelants and the race order was settled.
Just a point from the podium, Sword put everything into the final laps to pass Rattray, but never had a realistic chance without goggles unless the new champ had made a mistake.
Simpson ran seventh for half the race before Boog came past, and then a charging Aubin also nailed the Scot two laps from the end: "Of course I'm disappointed to lose third in the world, and Aubin would never have got close if I hadn't broken my collarbone. But I will be able to carry the number four plate next year, and I intend to repeat what Tyla did with it!”
Nunn again did well for 14th, and Marcus Norlen added a second score line, but Nicholls never settled and had to be content with 21st, one ahead of Alex Snow was riding his first continental GP from reserve: "The track had changed so much from the morning, particularly when it started to drizzle, but I enjoyed it and hope I can continue my progress and do some more next year.”
WORLD MX2 MOTOCROSS CHAMPS
Rd 15 – Faenza, ITALY
1 Tommy SEARLE (GB - Red Bull KTM) 25 + 25 = 50
2 Tyla Rattray (ZA - Red Bull KTM) 22 + 18 = 40
3 Joel Roelants (B - Champ KTM) 13 + 22 = 35
4 Zach Osbourne (US - Yamaha) 14 + 20 = 34
5 Stephen SWORD (GB - Molson Kawasaki) 18 + 16 = 34
6 Shaun SIMPSON (GB - KTM UK) 15 + 12 = 27
7 Nicolas Aubin (F - Ricci Yamaha) 12 + 13 = 25
8 Xavier Boog (F - Inotec Suzuki) 10 + 14 = 24
9 Jeremy Van Horebeek (B - Champ KTM) 16 + 6 = 22
10 Alessandro Lupino (I - Red Bull Yamaha) 11 + 9 = 20
11 Anthony Boissiere (F - HDI KTM) 20+0=20, 12 Manuel Monni (I - 3C Yamaha) 7+11=18, 13 Carl NUNN (GB - Suso Suzuki) 9+7=16, 14 Rui Goncalves (P - Red Bull KTM) 0+15=15, 15 Matti Seistola (F - SRS Honda) 0+10=10, 16 Marvin Musquin (F - NGS Honda) 5+4=9, 17 Jeremy Tarroux (F - Silver Action KTM) 0+8=8, 18 Gareth Swanepoel (R - Molson Kawasaki) 8+0=8, 19 Klemen Gercar (SLO - Yamaha) 6+0=6, 20 Evgeniy Bobryschev (RUS - Van Beers Yamaha) 0+5=5, 21 Marcus Norlen (S - Suzuki) 2+3=5, 22 Jake NICHOLLS (GB - Swift Suzuki) 4+0=4, 23 Deny Philippaerts (I - 3C Yamaha) 3+0=3, 24 Matteo Bonini (I - Red Bull Yamaha) 0+2=2, 25 Gert Krestinov (EW - Favor KTM) 0+1=1.
RACE ONE: 1 SEARLE, 2 Rattray, 3 Boissiere, 4 SWORD, 5 Van Horebeek, 6 SIMPSON, 7 Osbourne, 8 Roelants, 9 Aubin, 10 Lupino, 11 Boog, 12 NUNN, 13 Swanepoel, 14 Monni, 15 Gercar, 16 Marvin Musquin, 17 NICHOLLS, 18 Philippaerts, 19 Norlen.
RACE TWO: 1 SEARLE, 2 Roelants, 3 Osbourne, 4 Rattray, 5 SWORD, 6 Goncalves, 7 Boog, 8 Aubin, 9 SIMPSON, 10 Monni, 11 Seistola, 12 Lupino, 13 Tarroux, 14 NUNN, 15 Van Horebeek, 16 Bobryschev, 17 Marvin Musquin, 18 Norlen, 19 Bonini, 20 Krestinov.
FINAL SERIES STANDINGS after 15 rounds: 1 Tyla Rattray 636 points (CHAMPION), 2 Tommy SEARLE 613, 3 Nicolas Aubin 406, 4 SIMPSON 394, 5 Goncalves 380, 6 Cairoli 357, 7 Boog 307, 8 Van Horebeek 299, 9 SWORD 291, 10 Frossard 289, 11 Monni 277, 12 Boissiere 263, 13 Roelants 216, 14 Marvin Musquin 189, 15 Guarneri 181, 16 Tarroux 169, 17 NUNN 118, 18 Krestinov 118, 19 Aranda 101, 20 Seistola 96,... 28 Jason DOUGAN 48,... 29 Jake NICHOLLS 41,... 31 Elliot BANKS-BROWNE 33,... 48 Martin BARR 6,... 59 Neville BRADSHAW 2,...
WORLD MX1 MOTOCROSS CHAMPS
Rd 15 (FINAL) – Faenza, ITALY
1 Maximilian Nagl (D - Red Bull KTM) 25 + 25 = 50
2 Ken De Dycker (B - Teka Suzuki) 22 + 16 = 38
3 Jonathan Barragan (E - Silver Action KTM) 18 + 18 = 36
4 Steve Ramon (B - Teka Suzuki) 10 + 22 = 32
5 David Philippaerts (I - Monster Yamaha) 20 + 12 = 32
6 Josh Coppins (NZ - Monster Yamaha) 11 + 20 = 31
7 Clement Desalle (B - Inotec Suzuki) 13 + 14 = 27
8 Billy MacKENZIE (GB - Monster Honda) 16 + 11 = 27
9 Julien Bill (CH - Martin Honda) 14 + 10 = 24
10 Carlos Campano (E - Utag Yamaha) 3 + 13 = 16
11 Manuel Priem (B - Kawasaki Europe) 7+9=16, 12 Tom CHURCH (GB - Molson Kawasaki) 9+7=16, 13 Tanel Leok (EW - Kawasaki Europe) 0+15=15, 14 Marc De Reuver (NL - Martin Honda) 15+0=15, 15 Alex Salvini (I - Valenti Suzuki) 4+8=12, 16 Marcus Schiffer (D - Sarholz KTM) 12+0=12, 17 Pierre Alexandre Renet (F - Teka Suzuki) 5+6=11, 18 Martin Michek (CZ - Honda) 8+2=10, 19 Luis Correira (P - Yamaha) 6+0=6, 20 Scott Columb (NZ - MTM Suzuki) 0+5=5, 21 Jacob Saylor (US - Sturm Kawasaki) 0+4=4, 22 Yohei Kojima (J - Suzuki) 0+3=3, 23 Gregory Aranda (F - Kawasaki) 2+0=2, 24 Matteo Dottori (I - KTM) 0+1=1, 25 Loic Leonce (F - JK Yamaha) 1+0=1.
RACE ONE: 1 Nagl, 2 De Dycker, 3 Philippaerts, 4 Barragan, 5 MacKENZIE, 6 De Reuver, 7 Bill, 8 Desalle, 9 Schiffer, 10 Coppins, 11 Ramon, 12 CHURCH, 13 Michek, 14 Priem, 15 Correira, 16 Renet, 17 Salvini, 18 Campano, 19 Aranda, 20 Leonce.
RACE TWO: 1 Nagl, 2 Ramon, 3 Coppins, 4 Barragan, 5 De Dycker, 6 Tanel Leok, 7 Desalle, 8 Campano, 9 Philippaerts, 10 MacKENZIE, 11 Bill, 12 Priem, 13 Salvini, 14 CHURCH, 15 Renet, 16 Columb, 17 Saylor, 18 Kojima, 19 Michek, 20 Dottori.
FINAL SERIES STANDINGS after 15 rounds: 1 David Philippaerts 509 points (CHAMPION), 2 Steve Ramon 495, 3 Ken De Dycker 490, 4 Barragan 455, 5 Coppins 446, 6 Nagl 444, 7 Pourcel 392, 8 Tanel Leok 352, 9 MacKENZIE 320, 10 De Reuver 292, 11 Desalle 290, 12 Priem 261, 13 Bill 183, 14 Aigar Leok 164, 15 Nemeth 159, 16 Schiffer 147, 17 CHURCH 109, 18 Brown 107, 19 James NOBLE 94, 20 Boniface 75,... 23 Brad ANDERSON 54,... 36 Gordon CROCKARD 14,... 45 Wayne SMITH 5,... 49 Jordan ROSE 3,... 54 Stuart EDMONDS 1,...
FOR FULL REPORT SEE T+MX NEWS, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2008
The new World MX2 champion Tyla Rattray had to be on his toes but a second in race one more or less guaranteed his crowning glory.