Mighty Musqu'eteer
By TMX Archives on 5th Aug 09
MARVIN Musquin and Ken De Dycker were the big winners at Lommel on Sunday as rain fell persistently through much of the programme to make the sand hell as rough and tough as they come. Max Nagl also won a moto, but it was the French teenager and Toni Cairoli who moved a step closer to the 2009 world titles.
The Brits battled bravely. Jake Nicholls and Jason Dougan each just missed a top ten finish, but Mel Pocock was the top scoring UK resident after Matiss Karro threw away a potential top six in race two.
MX2
THE track became more demanding by the minute, but nothing seemed to worry Musquin.
In his first GP as an official KTM factory rider the slender Frenchman, who had struggled manfully on the NGS Honda at Valkenswaard earlier in the year, simply blitzed the opposition on both motos.
So what made the difference?
"I worked hard before the race with my trainer Yannig Kervella, but for sure the KTM has really good performance. Valkenswaard was difficult for me, I think it was the bike!”
In the first moto only fellow KTM factory runners Rui Goncalves, Joel Roelants and Jeremy Van Horebeek finished within two-minutes of Musquin at the end of 16 tortuous laps.
Gautier Paulin, just 13-points shy of Musquin in the series at the start of the day, had a miserable race to finish 15th: "I was fighting the bike and the track all moto.”
The second race was little different, the Kawasaki title challenger again failing to break the top ten as Musquin again ran away for the win from Roelants. Goncalves, now Musquin's closest challenger in the series, never got higher than fourth and faded back to 8th in the closing laps. Team manager Stefan Everts: "Rui was feeling sick in his stomach as early as the first lap.”
Musquin now leads the series by 38-points from Goncalves with Paulin a further 11-points back and Davide Guarneri still in with a chance of a medal as he maintained his record of finishing top ten in all bar one moto of the series.
MX1
THE early laps of the first MX1 moto were more like a Belgian National Championship race as the holeshotting Clement Desalle and a hard-charging Ken De Dycker disputed the lead, chased at a respectable distance by Steve Ramon, Manuel Priem, Cedric Melotte and Kevin Strijbos.
However, Strijbos faded badly from halfway, in agony from his shoulder, Priem ran off track and had to pit to have green track marking removed from his rear wheel and Melotte went down hard at the end of a fast rolling section.
Up front De Dycker stretched out a lead after passing and re-passing Desalle a couple of times, and Ramon was content to finish a steady, but impressive, third in his first GP for three-months.
Josh Coppins was the best of the rest as the title contenders fought out of the pack to chase him home.
Max Nagl had started poorly for once: "The sand at my start-gate was too soft and I just sank!”
Nevetheless the German and defending champion David Philippaerts both advanced through the pack ahead of Cairoli, before the Sicilian put on one of his infamous late sprints.
"I made a mistake yesterday and had a bad gate for today,” explained Cairoli, "But I could pass Max and David on the last lap. That was good for the championship.”
With the sun finally emerging again for the second MX1 moto, Nagl didn't make the same mistake in gate choice and grabbed his usual holeshot.
Normally he tries to run away and hide, but not today: "Stefan told me yesterday not to push too hard too early or I wouldn't last the moto. That's why Ken passed me a couple of times.”
But after five-laps the German was moving clear, De Dycker's lap times increasing dramatically: "The track was hard work today. Last year it just got bumpy, but the rain made it really sandy this year and I didn't want to crash.”
Third, caught also by Cairoli, was more than enough to clinch the overall, the only Belgian on the MX1 podium. Was it enough to retain his Suzuki contract this week?
WORLD MX1 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP Rd 12 – Lommel, BELGIUM
1 Ken De Dycker (B - Teka Suzuki) 25 + 20 = 45
2 Max Nagl (D - Red Bull KTM) 15 + 25 = 40
3 Toni Cairoli (I - Red Bull DeCarli Yamaha) 16 + 22 = 38
4 Steve Ramon (B - Teka Suzuki) 20 + 18 = 38
5 Clement Desalle (B - LS Honda) 22 + 12 = 34
6 Josh Coppins (NZ - Monster Yamaha) 18 + 14 = 32
7 Tanel Leok (EW - Red Bull DeCarli Yamaha) 13 + 15 = 28
8 Manuel Priem (B - Aprilia) 11 + 16 = 27
9 David Philippaerts (I - Monster Yamaha) 14 + 11 = 25
10 Shannon Terreblanche (ZA - Sturm Kawa) 6 + 8 = 14
11 Gareth Swanepoel (ZA - KRTE Kawasaki) 0+13=13, 12 Kevin Strijbos (B - Martin Honda) 12+0=12, 13 Cedric Melotte (B - CAS Honda) 0+10=10, 14 Jurgen Van Notten (B - KTM) 5+5=10, 15 Yentel Martens (B - KTM) 9+1=10, 16 Timotei Potisek (F - Honda) 10+0=10, 17 Jason DOUGAN (GB - Phoenix Tools CCM) 0+9=9, 18 Carlos Campano (E - Van Beers Yamaha) 7+2=9, 19 Gert Krestinov (EW - Silver Action KTM) 8+0=8, 20 Kristoph Salaets (B - Honda) 0+7=7, 21 Julien Bill (CH - Aprilia) 3+4=7, 22 Rob Van Vijfeiken (NL - Van Beers Yamaha) 0+6=6, 23 Matteo Bonini (I - KTM) 4+0=4, 24 Stewey Reynders (NL - Suzuki) 0+3=3, 25 Gregory Aranda (F - CLS Kawasaki) 2+0=2, 26 Ivo Steinbergs (LV - Latvia Elksini Honda) 1+0=1.
RACE ONE: 1 De Dycker, 2 Desalle, 3 Ramon, 4 Coppins, 5 Cairoli, 6 Nagl, 7 Philippaerts, 8 Tanel Leok, 9 Strijbos, 10 Priem, 11 Potisek, 12 Martens, 13 Krestinov, 14 Campano, 15 Terreblanche, 16 Van Notten, 17 Bonini, 18 Bill, 19 Aranda, 20 Steinbergs.
RACE TWO: 1 Nagl, 2 Cairoli, 3 De Dycker, 4 Ramon, 5 Priem, 6 Tanel Leok, 7 Coppins, 8 Swanepoel, 9 Desalle, 10 Philippaerts, 11 Melotte, 12 DOUGAN, 13 Terreblanche, 14 Salaets, 15 Van Vijfeiken, 16 Van Notten, 17 Bill, 18 Reynders, 19 Campano, 20 Martens.
SERIES STANDINGS after 12 (of 15) rounds: 1 Cairoli 466 points, 2 Nagl 415, 3 Philippaerts 388, 4 De Dycker 383, 5 Desalle 379, 6 Coppins 375, 7 Tanel Leok 327, 8 Barragan 215, 9 Swanepoel 188, 10 Aigar Leok 167, 11 Priem 159, 12 Vuillemin 150, 13 Ramon 138, 14 Aranda 119, 15 Billy MacKENZIE 103, 16 Strijbos 94, 17 CHURCH 89, 18 Bill 88, 19 Pichon 81, 20 Campano 81,... 21 DOUGAN 77,... 26 NOBLE 39,... 28 Bryan MacKENZIE 33,... 30 ANDERSON 24,... 33 NUNN 18,... 52 ROSE 3,...
NEXT ROUND: August 9 – Loket, CZECH REPUBLIC.
WORLD MX2 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP Rd 12 – Lommel, BELGIUM
1 Marvin Musquin (F - Red Bull KTM) 25 + 25 = 50
2 Joel Roelants (B - Red Bull KTM Jnr) 20 + 22 = 42
3 Dennis Verbruggen (B - LS Honda) 16 + 20 = 36
4 Rui Goncalves (P - Red Bull KTM) 22 + 13 = 35
5 Ken Roczen (D - Teka Suzuki) 15 + 15 = 30
6 Rasmus Jorgensen (DK - Suzuki) 13 + 14 = 27
7 Nico Aubin (F - Ricci Yamaha) 8 + 18 = 26
8 Davide Guarneri (I - Ricci Yamaha) 14 + 12 = 26
9 Manuel Monni (I - 3C Yamaha) 12 + 11 = 23
10 Jeremy V Horebeek (B - Red Bull KTM Jnr) 18 + 5 = 23
11 Loic Larrieu (F - Ricci Yamaha) 11+10=21, 12 Anthony Boissiere (F - HDI KTM) 9+9=18, 13 Marcus Schiffer (D - Sarholz KTM) 0+16=16, 14 Gautier Paulin (F - Bud Kawasaki) 6+8=14, 15 Mel POCOCK (GB - Utag Yamaha) 4+7=11, 16 Jake NICHOLLS (GB - Red Bull KTM UK) 10+0=10, 17 Nikolaj Larsen (DK - Beursfoon Suzuki) 7+0=7, 18 Arnaud Tonus (CH - HDI KTM) 0+6=6, 19 Valentin Teillet (F - Red Bull KTM Jnr) 5+0=5, 20 Loic Rombaut (F - CLS Kawasaki) 0+4=4, 21 Ceriel Klein Kromhof (NL - Van der Laar KTM) 0+3=3, 22 Petr Smitka (CZ - Sarholz KTM) 2+1=3, 23 Matiss Karro (LV - Suzo MVRD Suzuki) 3+0=3, 24 Augusts Justs (LV - Latvia Elksini Honda) 0+2=2, 25 Nick Triest (B - Shineray Honda) 1+0=1.
RACE ONE: 1 Marvin Musquin, 2 Goncalves, 3 Roelants, 4 Van Horebeek, 5 Verbruggen, 6 Roczen, 7 Guarneri, 8 Jorgensen, 9 Monni, 10 Larrieu, 11 NICHOLLS, 12 Boissiere, 13 Aubin, 14 Larsen, 15 Paulin, 16 Teillet, 17 POCOCK, 18 Karro, 19 Smitka, 20 Triest.
RACE TWO: 1 Marvin Musquin, 2 Roelants, 3 Verbruggen, 4 Aubin, 5 Schiffer, 6 Roczen, 7 Jorgensen, 8 Goncalves, 9 Guarneri, 10 Monni, 11 Larrieu, 12 Boissiere, 13 Paulin, 14 POCOCK, 15 Tonus, 16 Van Horebeek, 17 Rombaut, 18 Klein Kromhof, 19 Justs, 20 Smitka.
SERIES STANDINGS after 12 (of 15) rounds: 1 Marvin Musquin 421 points, 2 Goncalves 383, 3 Paulin 372, 4 Guarneri 357, 5 Frossard 284, 6 Roczen 269, 7 Aubin 229, 8 Roelants 222, 9 Monni 222, 10 Boog 197, 11 Van Horebeek 188, 12 Schiffer 172, 13 Boissiere 147, 14 Larrieu 147, 15 Verbruggen 143, 16 Tonus 131, 17 NICHOLLS 109, 18 Bobryschev 102, 19 Osborne 100, 20 Teillet 100,... 21 Shaun SIMPSON 97, 22 SWORD 87,... 28 POCOCK 32,...
NEXT ROUND: August 9 – Loket, CZECH REPUBLIC.
FOR FULL REPORT SEE T+MX NEWS, FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 2009
Unfortunate Brit Bryan MacKenzie encountered problems in the whoops.