Lok' on Tommy!
By TMX Archives on 14th Aug 08
TOMMY Searle took his fourth GP win of the year, at Loket, on Sunday but a single error midway through the opening moto cost the Brit the chance to reduce the 20-point leeway to Tyla Rattray in their duel for the MX2 world crown as the KTM team-mates ended the day in stalemate with 47 points apiece.
Following a breathtaking duel in the second moto, Tommy admitted: "I made a few mistakes this weekend and made life difficult for myself, but that second moto was really fun. Although Tyla and I are fighting for the title, it was the first head-on race we've had all year.”
And he added, in defiant mood: "Twenty-points is not so much. One mistake by Tyla and I'm there!”
The South African was also in buoyant mood: "That was a really good fight with good clean passing. I will fight for every point, but I'm happy to go away with second. I had some pretty bad crashes here the last few years and I didn't lose any points today.”
In MX1, David Philippaerts reasserted himself at the head of the table with his first victory since Bulgaria, but just 36 points still separate the first five with three rounds remaining, so there is still all to play for.
MX2
TWO falls, after leading his qualifying heat, only left Searle with 10th choice of gate, but Tommy had refound his gating and led both GP motos from lap one.
Rattray emerged fourth from the initial sort-out in race one, and quickly found a way past Sword, but Jeremy Tarroux prov-ed more awkward and Searle had a five second gap by the time the series leader got through to second place.
It was another six laps before Sword could lead the freight train past the two times Euro champ, so the KTMs were long gone in a race of their own; Rattray nibbled away initially at the lead before Searle responded with a series of record laps.
On lap 12 came the decisive error by Searle: "I got kicked sideways when I hit a bump on landing off a jump.” He was quickly back on, but the fall was decisive.
Sword finally got a clear track in third a lap later but dropped a place again soon after: "Aubin followed me through, so I never got chance to shake him off. In the end he put a good pass in, but I've still got a good chance of the podium.”
Southern Europeans dominated the next few placings on the hard-packed surface, but all four British Suzukis battled just outside the top ten, Nunn even running as high as eighth early on before a mid-moto lapse lost a host of places prior to a late rally.
Banks-Browne also gated well, but was gutted to exit already on lap two after the plug cap was smashed by a rock, but Nicholls and Dougan both recovered magnificently from early setbacks; the Swift boy had simply gated badly but "found good lines and made some aggressive passes”, whilst the Suso kid eventually wiped out all his early losses as he took time to settle. Osborne was also advancing through the pack until the shift pedal got bent and damaged the casings.
WORLD MX2 MOTOCROSS CHAMPS
Rd 12 – Loket, CZECH REPUBLIC
1 Tommy SEARLE (GB - Red Bull KTM) 22+ 25= 47
2 Tyla Rattray (ZA - Red Bull KTM) 25+ 22= 47
3 Anthony Boissiere (F - HDI KTM) 16+ 20= 36
4 Nicolas Aubin (F - Ricci Yamaha) 20+ 15= 35
5 Stephen SWORD (GB - Molson Kawa) 18+ 16= 34
6 Steven Frossard (F - CLS Kawasaki) 15+ 18= 33
7 Rui Goncalves (P - Red Bull KTM) 13+ 11= 24
8 Manuel Monni (I - 3C Yamaha) 10+ 13= 23
9 Xavier Boog (F - Inotec Suzuki) 11+ 10= 21
10 Jeremy Tarroux (F - Silver Action KTM)12+ 9= 21
11 Joel Roelants (B - Champ KTM) 14+1=15, 12 Davide Guarneri (I - Ricci Yamaha) 0+14=14, 13 Alessandro Lupino (I - Red Bull Yamaha) 9+4=13, 14 Jeremy Van Horebeek (B - Champ KTM) 0+12=12, 15 Carl NUNN (GB - Suso Suzuki) 5+7=12, 16 Matti Seistola (F - SRS Honda) 0+8=8, 17 Jake NICHOLLS (GB - Swift Suzuki) 8+0=8, 18 Gert Krestinov (EW - Favor KTM) 4+3=7, 19 Marvin Musquin (F - NGS Honda) 7+0=7, 20 Elliott BANKS-BROWNE (GB - Swift Suzuki) 0+6=6, 21 Jason DOUGAN (GB - Suso Suzuki) 6+0=6, 22 Zach Osbourne (US - Yamaha) 0+5=5, 23 Loic Rombaut (F - Kawasaki) 3+2=5, 24 Gunter Schmidlinger (A - Honda) 2+0=2, 25 Petr Smitka (CZ - Yamaha) 1+0=1.
RACE ONE: 1 SEARLE, 2 Rattray, 3 Aubin, 4 SWORD, 5 Boissiere, 6 Frossard, 7 Roelants, 8 Goncalves, 9 Tarroux, 10 Boog, 11 Monni, 12 Lupino, 13 NICHOLLS, 14 Marvin Musquin, 15 DOUGAN, 16 NUNN, 17 Krestinov, 18 Rombaut, 19 Schmidlinger, 20 Smitka.
RACE TWO: 1 SEARLE, 2 Rattray, 3 Boissiere, 4 Frossard, 5 SWORD, 6 Aubin, 7 Guarneri, 8 Monni, 9 Van Horebeek, 10 Goncalves, 11 Boog, 12 Tarroux, 13 Seistola, 14 NUNN, 15 BANKS-BROWNE, 16 Osbourne, 17 Lupino, 18 Krestinov, 19 Rombaut, 20 Roelants.
SERIES STANDINGS after 12 (of 15) rounds: 1 Rattray 499 points, 2 SEARLE 479, 3 Cairoli 357, 4 SIMPSON 312, 5 Aubin 309, 6 Goncalves 303, 7 Frossard 248, 8 Boog 245, 9 Van Horebeek 244, 10 Monni 226, 11 SWORD 212, 12 Boissiere 210, 13 Marvin Musquin 180, 14 Guarneri 167, 15 Tarroux 161, 16 Roelants 148, 17 Aranda 101, 18 Paulin 95, 19 NUNN 85, 20 Krestinov 80,... 24 DOUGAN 48,... 28 NICHOLLS 30,... 30 BANKS-BROWNE 24,... 52 BRADSHAW 2,...
NEXT ROUND: Aug 31 – Punchestown, Dublin,
IRELAND.
MX1
EVEN on the relatively hard-packed Loket start it was the KTMs which got through turn one in front, but Sebastien Pourcel was quickly past them both and polesetter MacKenzie had already pushed Nagl down to fourth on the opening lap.
When the Frenchman fell on the seventh lap, Jonathan Barragan was gifted back the lead, but the Scot lay menacingly second as onlookers remembered his Satur-day words: "I've felt good all weekend, and it's time I proved I can win outside Japan too.”
With lap times more regular than any of his immediate rivals, the promise looked possible, until that fateful 13th lap when Billy found a false neutral and was flung over the bars. Nothing broken but in agony from the bruising, the Scot returned from a hospital check-up before race two but a start was out of the question.
Now second, Nagl blossomed on the free track. He closed down Barragan at a second a lap and stormed away for an impressive win, the only man able to match his pace in the final quarter being Philippaerts on his way to third: "I made a stupid crash on the first lap, but the stronger motor that Yamaha have made for us now was perfect and I found all the good lines.”
WORLD MX1 MOTOCROSS CHAMPS
Rd 12 – Loket, CZECH REPUBLIC
1 David Philippaerts (I - Monster Yam) 20 + 25 = 45
2 Sebastien Pourcel (F - GPKR Kawasaki) 16 + 22 = 38
3 Jonathan Barragan (E - Silver Action KTM) 22 + 16 = 38
4 Maximilian Nagl (D - Red Bull KTM) 25 + 12 = 37
5 Steve Ramon (B - Teka Suzuki) 18 + 18 = 36
6 Ken De Dycker (B - Teka Suzuki) 13 + 20 = 33
7 Tanel Leok (EW - Kawasaki Europe) 15 + 15 = 30
8 Clement Desalle (B - Inotec Suzuki) 12 + 13 = 25
9 Josh Coppins (NZ - Monster Yamaha) 14 + 11 = 25
10 Manuel Priem (B - Kawasaki Europe) 10 + 14 = 24
11 Kornel Nemeth (H - Sarholz KTM) 11+9=20, 12 Gregory Aranda (F - Kawasaki) 9+10=19, 13 Brad ANDERSON (GB - Swift Suzuki) 8+6=14, 14 Aigar Leok (EW - Van Beers Yamaha) 5+8=13, 15 Steve Boniface (F - Honda) 7+5=12, 16 Alex Salvini (I - Valenti Suzuki) 4+7=11, 17 Marc De Reuver (NL - Martin Honda) 6+4=10, 18 Kevin Strijbos (B - GPKR Kawasaki) 0+3=3, 19 Martin Michek (CZ - Honda) 3+0=3, 20 Tom CHURCH (GB - Molson Kawasaki) 0+2=2, 21 Carlos Campano (E - Utag Yamaha) 2+0=2, 22 Jiri Cepelek (CZ - Yamaha) 0+1=1, 23 Alessio Chiodi (I - TM Racing) 1+0=1.
RACE ONE: 1 Nagl, 2 Barragan, 3 Philippaerts, 4 Ramon, 5 Pourcel, 6 Tanel Leok, 7 Coppins, 8 De Dycker, 9 Desalle, 10 Nemeth, 11 Priem, 12 Aranda, 13 ANDERSON, 14 Boniface, 15 De Reuver, 16 Aigar Leok, 17 Salvini, 18 Michek, 19 Campano, 20 Chiodi.
RACE TWO: 1 Philippaerts, 2 Pourcel, 3 De Dycker, 4 Ramon, 5 Barragan, 6 Tanel Leok, 7 Priem, 8 Desalle, 9 Nagl, 10 Coppins, 11 Aranda, 12 Nemeth, 13 Aigar Leok, 14 Salvini, 15 ANDERSON, 16 Boniface, 17 De Reuver, 18 Strijbos, 19 CHURCH, 20 Cepelek.
SERIES STANDINGS after 12 (of 15) rounds: 1 Philippaerts 405 points, 2 Ramon 398, 3 Coppins 370, 4 Barragan 369, 5 De Dycker 369, 6 Pourcel 344, 7 Nagl 327, 8 Tanel Leok 275, 9 MacKENZIE 257, 10 De Reuver 224, 11 Desalle 215, 12 Priem 197, 13 Nemeth 159, 14 Bill 148, 15 Aigar Leok 131, 16 Brown 107, 17 Schiffer 97, 18 NOBLE 93, 19 Boniface 75, 20 CHURCH 74,... 42 SMITH 5,... 46 ROSE 3,...
NEXT ROUND: Aug 31 – Punchestown, Dublin,
IRELAND.
FOR FULL REPORT, SEE T+MX NEWS, FRIDAY, AUGUST 15, 2008
CAPTION: Tommy Searle made it number four this year but failed to close the points gap on the MX2 series leader, Tyla Rattray.