King Mike!
By TMX Archives on 16th Jan 08
HONDA factory rider Mike Brown, on loan for the weekend to the German Waldmann team but with regular CAS mechanic Roger Shenton on hand to wield the spanners, gave the kids a lesson in sustained excellence to mount the podium on all three days in the Westfalenhalle to become the 25th King of Dortmund.The performance earned Mike the keys to a sparkling Toyota Aris, but the 35-year-old will be taking the cash equivalent: I don't think Honda would be too keen on me driving round in a rival brand!''
Three different Frenchmen – Cyrille Coulon, Rodrig Thain and Julien Vanni – holeshot their way to victory in a main event during the three days of action on the best track Freddy Verherstraeten has ever built in the German arena (new dirt was being used for the first time since they switched from wooden board racing in 1989) but it was Florent Richier, another Gallic indoor specialist, who ran Brownie closest for the big prize, losing out by a single point after carrying the yellow plate into the final day.
Gordon Crockard returned for his SX farewell before heading Stateside to race GNCC and missed the podium by one on the opening night, whilst only poor starts prevented podium finishes for Ashley Greedy and Jack Brunell in the SX2 class which was inevitably dominated by Marvin Musquin, the French teenager
setting times which would have given him a podium in SX1.
There has never been a classier field in Dortmund and all four previous winners – Casey Johnson, Joaquim Rodrigues, Jean-Sebastien Roy and Julien Vanni – were eliminated during the qualifiers on the opening night, and the sensational evening was rounded off by a torrid
re-run main event.
At the first attempt, Richier had taken down Thain and Coulon at turn one, and Thain, unbeaten through the eliminators, had stayed down until the red flags came out. He was far from amused at being excluded from the re-run and had to be escorted from the arena by Inotec team manager Thomas Ramsbacher. But SX is not speedway and the rules are quite explicit; the rider who causes the stoppage is excluded, not the rider who caused the crash.
DORTMUND SUPERCROSS
Dortmund, Germany
SX1 CLASS
Friday: 1 Cyrille Coulon (F - Suzuki), 2 Florent Richier (F) Kawasaki, 3 Mike Brown (US - Honda), 4 Gordon Crockard (IRE - Honda), 5 Travis Preston (US - Kawasaki), 6 Doug Dehaan (CAN - Honda), 7 Daniel Siegl (D - Suzuki), 8 Adrien Lopes (F - Honda), 9 Fabien Izoird (F - Kawasaki), 10 Cedric Mannevy (F - Suzuki), 11 Manuel Chittaro (D - KTM).
Saturday: 1 Rodrig Thain (F - Suzuki), 2 Richier, 3 Brown, 4 Julien Vanni (F - KTM), 5 Preston, 6 Siegl, 7 Coulon, 8 Lopes, 9 Mannevy, 10 Chittaro, 11 Chris Whitcraft (US - Kawasaki), 12 Collin Dugmore (ZA - Kawasaki).
Sunday: 1 Vanni, 2 Brown, 3 Rodrigues, 4 Dehaan, 5 Richier, 6 Izoird, 7 Preston, 8 Christophe Martin (F - Husqvarna), 9 Coulon, 10 Crockard, 11 Chittaro.
King of Dortmund: 1 Brown 52 points, 2 Richier 51, 3 Coulon 42, 4 Vanni 38, 5 Preston 31, 6 Thain 25, 7 Dehaan 23, 8 Crockard 19, 9 Izoird 17, 10 Lopes 17, 11 Chittaro 17.
SX2 CLASS
Friday: 1 Marvin Musquin (F - Honda) 1-1, 2 Rinus Van de Ven (NL - KTM) 3-2, 3 Ashley Greedy (GB - Honda) 2-6, 4 Nick Evennou (US - Kawasaki) 5-3, 5 Ken Roczen (D - Suzuki) 9-4, 6 Jack Brunell (GB - TM) 7-5, 7 Filip Neugebauer (CZ - Kawasaki) 4-10, 8 Swain Zanoni (BR - KTM) 6-7, 9 Jens Voss (D - KTM) 10-8, 10 Robert Sturm (D - Kawasaki) 8-11, 11 Dominic Habijanec (D - Suzuki) 11-12, 12 Kyle Tobin (US - Honda) 0-9.
Saturday: 1 Musquin 1-1, 2 Evennou 2-5, 3 Van de Ven 12-2, 4 Roczen 8-3, 5 Neugebauer 3-9, 6 Brunell 6-4, 7 Tobin 4-7, 8 Greedy 5-6, 9 Dominic Thury (D - KTM) 9-8, 10 Zanoni 7-12, 11 Sturm 10-10, 12 Richard Leiszner (D) Yamaha 11-11.
Sunday: 1 Musquin 1-1, 2 Van de Ven 4-2, 3 Roczen 2-7, 4 Neugebauer 6-3, 5 Greedy 3-6, 6 Tobin 5-5, 7 Zanoni 11-4, 8 Voss 9-8, 9 Sturm 8-9, 10 Brunell 7-11, 11 Thury 10-10.
Prince of Dortmund: 1 Musquin 75 Punkte, 2 Van de Ven 56, 3 Roczen 40, 4 Greedy 35, 5 Evennou 33, 6 Neugebauer 33, 7 Brunell 26, 8 Tobin 23, 9 Zanoni 23. 10 Sturm 18.
For full report and pictures see T+MX News, January 18, 2008