LOK ’N LOAD!
By TMX Archives on 30th Jul 14
Jordi Tixier, sacked by KTM at the end of the season because they felt he couldnt handle the pressure, proved his doubters wrong on Sunday when he swept to his maiden GP victory at Loket in the Czech Republic.
The win reduced his deficit in the MX2 world series to the absent Jeffrey Herlings to 102 points with 150 still available.
In MXGP there was also a first-time winner as Jeremy van Horebeek swept past Tony Cairoli a lap-and-a-half from the end of racing to score his first success among the big boys.
The title battle is now a duel as Clement Desalle will miss the remainder of the season with a broken scaphoid.
Shaun Simpson confirmed his place as top Brit with fifth overall to further consolidate his top-six world ranking and there were points in both motos for the entire UK crew of Matiss Karro, Nathan Watson, Tommy Searle, Graeme Irwin, Max Anstie and Mel Pocock.
In the absence of Herlings – and with Arnaud Tonus withdrawing after a mid-week try-out – not a single starter in MX2 had ever won a GP, indeed only Jose Butron and Christophe Charlier had even won a moto.
The opening race was pure domination by Tixier.
"It's true that I couldn't handle pressure last year but I'm a year older and wiser now,” he said after his Czech success.
"I had a good feeling in the first race and could move quickly to the front and ride my own lines.
"I didn't start so well in the second race but I was riding well again for the first few laps until I started to think about the overall.
"Then I started to make mistakes and the others – particularly Butron who made some stupid moves – took advantage but in the end Romain Febvre fell and I got the GP win.”
Febvre's mistake means that his chances are now effectively buried, while Dylan Ferrandis had already put himself out of the hunt at the first turn of race one.
So the title will stay with KTM – but what an embarrassment if Tixier can keep up the pressure and take the first red plate of 2015 to CLS.
There was little movement in the pack in the MX2 opener as a frustrated Anstie, his YZ250F detuned for reliability, needed 35 minutes to pass Pocock, Harri Kullas and Ivo Monticelli for 14th.
Risking an upgrade for race two, the team grabbed eighth and the first two-moto finish since France.
Pocock went 15-13 but was within a minute of everyone bar Tixier in both motos.
A rusty 19th in qualification, Desalle was lightning-fast out of the gate in the MXGP opener with Suzuki team-mate Kevin Strijbos in his wake but Strijbos, a previous winner at the track, was soon long gone as the MX Panda dipped to seventh at the finish.
Van Horebeek, Cairoli and Nagl were soon 2-3-4 but the ride of the race came from Simpson.
"I got a good jump and tried to cut inside but Nagl was stood up in the turn and then everyone was all over the place through the next few turns,” explained the Scot, who carved his way up from outside the top 20 to fifth.
"It's not really my sort of track but I was using different lines to everybody else and it worked.”
Karro stayed on board for 12th and Nathan Watson rode another blinder for 13th. "I got a really good start but ran wide,” said Watson.
"I made some good early passes but I got stuck behind Michek before I finally got him on the last lap.”
Searle was struggling all weekend. "I didn't even know if I could race on Saturday morning,” he said.
"I hurt my right thumb last week at FatCat and you need a lot of front brake on these downhills.”
He was passed three from the end by Irwin who had slugged it out with Ken De Dycker for many laps.
Desalle was a non-starter in race two after seeking further medical advice and Strijbos took on the role of chaser as Cairoli and Van Horebeek led throughout.
"I'm just glad to get this race behind me,” said the champ. "It's the worst track of the year for the 350, you have to rev so high and it's spinning a lot. When Jeremy attacked on the inside I closed him down but that put me wrong for the ruts on the exit. I missed the smooth one and Jeremy was past.”
Van Horeebeek said: "I was fast all weekend but my start was not so good in the first moto and Kevin was gone.
"The second race I was behind Tony from the start and I just had to do it. I showed him my front wheel a couple of times but I wanted to do it clean. In the end he made a mistake and I put my head down to the chequered flag.”
Simpson again started badly but had soon advanced to seventh before the rot set in.
"They had prepped the track since race one and flattened all the technical bits,” he said.
"My lines just weren't working any more and they pushed me back to 10th at one stage. It was only
my fitness that got me eighth in the end.”
Searle and Karro chased the Scot home with Watson again 13th and Irwin 16th.
Chiara Fontanesi took a giant step towards retaining the WMX world title with an attacking ride on a ridiculously over-watered track on Saturday afternoon as rival Meghan Rutledge got stitched-up by Francesca Nocera.
The Italian holeshot ahead of the Australian and rode a blocking race until Fontanesi passed them both.
Once a rattled Rutledge had regained her composure the game started all over again and although she closed the gap she had to accept defeat and went into Sunday needing a win with Fontanesi off the podium.
With Nancy van de Ven having a fine ride in front for half the moto, the race was enthralling for a time but the series Big Three eventually broke clear and the Italian would have been champion even if Livi Lancelot had not made a late pass on Rutledge for the moto and overall over the weekend.
Nat Kane was again a non-starter, as was Gabi Hamlet on Sunday after a big get-off on Saturday morning.
Davy Pootjes was back in action but saw Brian Hsu steal the 125 red plate away for this weekend in Lommel with two more immaculate wins.
The Dutch kid was particularly unfortunate in race two when Tomass Sileika went across him at the start but recovered to sixth to go with his first moto fifth.
The German-born Taiwanese rider couldn't ride top six at Valkenswaard earlier in the year so it is all to race for.
Conrad Mewse continued to struggle with 27th each time but Albie Wilkie retained his lead in the Honda 150 Cup after sharing top points with series rival Jere Haavisto.
