La vida Loket!
By Alex Hodgkinson on 11th Aug 11
Clement Desalle shrugged-off the shoulder separation which has seen him win-less since early June to clinch MX1 honours at a rain-swept Loket and pull back four points on Toni Cairoli, but it was back to normal in MX2 as Ken Roczen reversed his Lommel defeat at the hands of Jeffrey Herlings.
With his eighth podium of the season Tommy Searle moved closer to the series bronze medal, Max Anstie just missed the podium yet again, Jake Nicholls equalled his best-ever GP moto finish and, in the final GP before World Motocross returns to the UK at Matterley Basin next weekend, there were scores for Shaun Simpson, Tom Church, Arnaud Tonus and Matiss Karro.
The switchback Loket raceway has always been a gater's paradise and Tonus and Max Nagl confirmed this on Saturday with runaway quali wins as hardly anyone in the pack took the risk of an outside gate via a hope-ful(-less) pass, but the watching Joel Smets warned: "When the bumps start coming out tomorrow, there will be more lines."
With more rain on Sunday morning one could have been forgiven for doubting this is the opening moto of each class, but more and more ‘names' were prepared to take risks as the day wore on.
Out of the frame on Saturday Roczen again found his gating skills when it mattered to holeshot and check out at a second a lap in the MX2 opener. But he lost his cool on the final lap and remonstrated with Petar Petrov at the finish: "He'd been ignoring the blue flags for about a lap and a half."
The catalyst for his anger came when the Bulgarian dived under David Adam and left the Frenchie sprawled on the ground in Roczen's path: "I didn't fall, but I had to stop and suddenly Jeremy (Van Horebeek) was behind me; I thought it was Jeffrey!"
Petrov's defence: "I was going for 15th after starting from the outside gate because of a start crash yesterday. What does he want me to do? Stop for him?"
The second race was a close shave for Roczen as Herlings climbed all over him at the end, but the German had an explanation: "I forgot to put something in my helmet and sweat was running down into my goggles after a few laps; I couldn't see the lines clearly, but I value my eyes too much with all these rocks to take them off."
Herlings was most forthright in defeat: "I'm not used to riding in the mud and I had nothing for Ken in the first race, and he moved away in the early laps of race two. I caught back to him with the lappers, but he always races clean with me so I didn't want to clean him out. The last two laps I tried different lines everywhere."
There are just 27-points between the KTM teenagers going into the last three GPs, but Herlings admitted: "Looking at the tracks for the last three GPs, I can only hope for a miracle. But I wouldn't want to be champion because of a mechanical DNF or an injury. I know he's the fastest guy this year; I'm the back-up if something happens to Ken!"
In their wake, Searle increased his advantage over Gautier Paulin to 46 points in their bronze medal tussle; the Frenchman went out of third in the opener as his engine tightened up, but Tommy's podium was the result of hard work: "I got a good gate in the opener, but hit a soft patch halfway down the straight." Still eighth with two laps to go, he finished sixth: "Another lap and I'd have been fourth."
Third in race two was another charge: "Tonus was inside me at turn one and he didn't shut off. I had him in my sights with five laps to go, but he made a mistake and saved me the trouble."
Anstie also charged in the final laps after sitting seventh for much of the first moto – "I was forcing them into mistakes as they got tired" - and only lost the podium to Searle in the closing laps of race two.
Nicholls split the Kwackers at the finish of race one for fifth: "That equals my best-ever result. I had someone on my rear wheel all race and had to ride defensive lines, but only Aubin and Anstie got past all race. Aubin jumped inside me and gave me a nudge, but I'll give him that; I nudged him the first time he tried the lap before. And Max got me when I made a big mistake on an uphill and had to roll the jump." Eleventh in race two was also a hell of a ride from 24th after being pushed out by the Tonus-Searle incident and later running off the track.
FOR FULL REPORT AND PICTURES SEE T+MX AUGUST 12
WORLD MX2 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 12 – Loket, CZECH REPUBLIC
1 Ken Roczen (D - Red Bull Teka KTM) 25 + 25 = 50
2 Jeff Herlings (NL - Red Bull Teka KTM) 22 + 22 = 44
3 Tommy SEARLE (GB - CLS Monster PC Kaw) 15 + 20 = 35
4 Max ANSTIE (GB - CLS Monster PC Kaw) 18 + 15 = 33
5 Arnaud Tonus (CH - Bike-It Cosworth Yam) 12 + 18 = 30
6 Valentin Teillet (F - Suzuki Europe MX2) 13 + 14 = 27
7 Joel Roelants (B - JM Nestaan KTM) 14 + 12 = 26
8 Jake NICHOLLS (GB - HMP Red Bull KTM) 16 + 10 = 26
9 Nico Aubin (F - HDI KTM) 20 + 0 = 20
10 Jeremy Van Horebeek (B - Red Bull Teka KTM) 6 + 13 = 19
11 Harri Kullas (SF - Monster Gariboldi Yam) 8+11=19, 12 Jordi Tixier (F - JM Nestaan KTM) 11+8=19, 13 Gautier Paulin (F - Monster Rinaldi Yam) 0+16=16, 14 Petar Petrov (BG - Van Beers Yamaha) 5+9=14, 15 Jose Butron (E - Silver Action KTM) 10+0=10, 16 David Adam (F - Yamaha) 4+5=9, 17 Christophe Charlier (F - Monster Gariboldi Yam) 9+0=9, 18 Matiss Karro (LV - Route77 MVR-D Honda) 0+7=7, 19 Priit Ratsep (EST - Honda) 3+4=7, 20 Pascal Rauchenecker (A - JM Nestaan KTM) 7+0=7, 21 Filip Bengtsson (S - KTM) 0+6=6, 22 Bence Svoboda (H - KTM) 0+3=3, 23 Ivo Monticelli (I - Honda) 0+2=2, 24 Mike Kras (NL - Beursfoon Suzuki) 2+0=2, 25 Davis Ivanovs (LV - Kawasaki) 0+1=1, 26 Even Heibye (N - KTM) 1+0=1.
RACE ONE: 1 Roczen, 2 Herlings, 3 Aubin, 4 ANSTIE, 5 NICHOLLS, 6 SEARLE, 7 Roelants, 8 Teillet, 9 Tonus, 10 Tixier, 11 Butron, 12 Charlier, 13 Kullas, 14 Rauchenecker, 15 Van Horebeek, 16 Petrov, 17 Adam, 18 Ratsep, 19 Kras, 20 Heibye.
RACE TWO: 1 Roczen, 2 Herlings, 3 SEARLE, 4 Tonus, 5 Paulin, 6 ANSTIE, 7 Teillet, 8 Van Horebeek, 9 Roelants, 10 Kullas, 11 NICHOLLS, 12 Petrov, 13 Tixier, 14 Karro, 15 Bengtsson, 16 Adam, 17 Ratsep, 18 Svoboda, 19 Monticelli, 20 Ivanovs.
SERIES STANDINGS after 12 (of 15) rounds: 1 Roczen 540 points, 2 Herlings 513, 3 SEARLE 435, 4 Paulin 389, 5 Tonus 325, 6 ANSTIE 318, 7 Osborne 295, 8 Kullas 268, 9 Aubin 227, 10 Roelants 206, 11 Charlier 179, 12 NICHOLLS 165, 13 Tixier 150, 14 Lupino 124, 15 Van Horebeek 118, 16 Butron 118, 17 Petrov 116, 18 Teillet 109, 19 Coldenhoff 90, 20 Rauchenecker 82,... 29 Elliott BANKS-BROWNE 17,... 45 Jordan BOOKER 4,...
WORLD MX1 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 12 – Loket, CZECH REPUBLIC
1 Clement Desalle (B - Rockstar Suzuki) 22 + 25 = 47
2 Toni Cairoli (I - Red Bull Teka KTM) 25 + 18 = 43
3 Rui Goncalves (P - Honda World) 20 + 20 = 40
4 Tanel Leok (EW - Bonver TM) 9 + 22 = 31
5 Max Nagl (D - Red Bull Teka KTM) 14 + 15 = 29
6 Kevin Strijbos (B - Delta Suzuki) 15 + 13 = 28
7 Xavier Boog (F - KRT Kawasaki) 13 + 14 = 27
8 Steven Frossard (F - Monster Rinaldi Yam) 16 + 9 = 25
9 Christophe Pourcel (F - CLS Monster PC Kaw) 8 + 16 = 24
10 Jonathan Barragan (E - KRT Kawasaki) 10 + 11 = 21
11 Shaun SIMPSON (GB - LS Honda) 11+10=21, 12 Ken De Dycker (B - LS Honda) 6+12=18, 13 Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS - Honda World) 18+0=18, 14 Davide Guarneri (I - Rockstar Bud LMT Kaw) 12+5=17, 15 Gunther Schmidinger (A - GF Schmidiger Honda) 7+7=14, 16 Anthony Boissiere (F - Rockstar Suzuki) 0+8=8, 17 Matthias Walkner (A - BGR KTM) 2+6=8, 18 Carlos Campano (E - Andalucia Yamaha) 4+4=8, 19 Manuel Monni (I - Salucci Honda) 3+3=6, 20 Greg Aranda (F - Rockstar Bud Kawasaki) 5+0=5, 21 Tom CHURCH (GB - HMP Red Bull KTM) 1+2=3, 22 Ivo Steinbergs (LV - Ist Tisco Kawasaki) 0+1=1.
RACE ONE: 1 Cairoli, 2 Desalle, 3 Goncalves, 4 Bobryshev, 5 Frossard, 6 Strijbos, 7 Nagl, 8 Boog, 9 Guarneri, 10 SIMPSON, 11 Barragan, 12 Tanel Leok, 13 Christophe Pourcel, 14 Schmidinger, 15 De Dycker, 16 Aranda, 17 Campano, 18 Monni, 19 Walkner, 20 CHURCH.
RACE TWO: 1 Desalle, 2 Tanel Leok, 3 Goncalves, 4 Cairoli, 5 Christophe Pourcel, 6 Nagl, 7 Boog, 8 Strijbos, 9 De Dycker, 10 Barragan, 11 SIMPSON, 12 Frossard, 13 Boissiere, 14 Schmidinger, 15 Walkner, 16 Guarneri, 17 Campano, 18 Monni, 19 CHURCH, 20 Steinbergs.
SERIES STANDINGS after 12 (of 15) rounds: 1 Cairoli 509 points, 2 Desalle 461, 3 Frossard 428, 4 Bobryshev 387, 5 Nagl 378, 6 Goncalves 349, 7 Philippaerts 308, 8 De Dycker 268, 9 Boog 262, 10 Barragan 254, 11 Ramon 229, 12 Tanel Leok 229, 13 Strijbos 204, 14 SIMPSON 170, 15 Boissiere 154, 16 Guarneri 139, 17 Aranda 66, 18 Campano 62, 19 DeReuver 55, 20 Schiffer 55,... 23 Jason DOUGAN 26,... 31 Brad ANDERSON 12,... 34 Martin BARR 8,... 37 CHURCH 7,...
NEXT ROUND: August 21 – Matterley Basin, near Winchester, BRITAIN.
