Motocross of Nations
By TMX Archives on 24th Sep 07
Aubin helps France to second place at Motocross of Nations. Team Yamaha Ricci's Nicolas Aubin ended an impressive breakthrough season in which he won his first Grand Prix, finished a career-best sixth in the MX2 World Championship and by assisting France to second place in front of a huge 74,000 crowd packed into the impressive Budds Creek circuit, Maryland USA for the 61st Motocross of Nations.
On a typically American track that was quick, technical, lined with jumps andblessed with hot sunshine. The temperatures in the mid 30's gave the racing anextra physical edge and tested the best riders (three per Nation with onerepresentative each in MX1, MX2 and MX Open classes) from around the globe withtwenty countries entering the gate for the three 30 minute and 2 lap motosmixing the categories. The scoring system worked in reverse compared to a GrandPrix with the first classified participant taking one point, second position twopoints and then continuing down the order to last place. The Nation will thelowest score from five accumulated results (the worst finish can be discarded)earned overall victory. On this occasion it was the USA for the third year in arow.
Aubin was making his Nations debut for 2001 winners France and gavehis country their third share of silverware since that historic day at Namur sixyears ago. The youngster rode to results of tenth and sixth in the two motosagainst the larger machines of the MX1 and MX Open fields. He was third overallin the MX2 class and provided an exciting piece of action in the first race whenhe clashed with Tommy Searle, only losing out on ninth by a fraction of a secondat the finish line.
With the USA dominating each moto thanks to RyanVillopoto and Ricky Carmichael it was left to the rest of the world to fight forpodium slots. France beat Belgium by just one point and Italy were some wayadrift in fourth. MX2 World Champion Antonio Cairoli was unlucky to take onlyfourteenth and a DNF. Cairoli was originally on the point of being unable tocompete as his YZ250F arrived just in time for practice on Saturday having beenheld up through US customs. The 21 year old Sicilian struggled on the rough andbumpy track. He had his line cut by another rider in the first moto versus theMX1 machines and crashed, damaging his front brake and forcing a retirement. Inthe second race he had to enter the pits with a badly buckled front wheel as aresult of a collision on the second lap. He re-entered the race but could notbreak into the top thirteen. USA for the third year in a row.
Team-mateDavide Guarneri was also feeling the demands of the surface with his firstouting on the YZ450F in the Open category. He was fifteenth and sixteenth. USAfor the third year in a row.
2007 AMA Motocross Champion Grant Langstonhad a tough day for South Africa. His first moto was wrecked by a spate ofcrashes and a problem with his rear brake. He then rode better in Moto2 tofinish third and give the team their highest result. With Gareth Swanepoelcrashing and breaking his foot South Africa was twelfth in the closing ranking.USA for the third year in a row.
Former World and American SupercrossChampion Chad Reed posted the best race classification on YZ machinery acrossthe classes at Budds Creek with a decent ride to second position in the openingmoto, beating Carmichael. The Australian was luckless in the next race as hebecame caught up in a second turn pile-up and then retired as he could not shiftgears. Australia were plagued with ill fortune and finished last as AndrewMcFarlane was hit on the start straight of the first moto and pulled out of theevent in pain while Michael Byrne had technical problems.
Credit must begiven to Bike it Yamaha Dixon's Carlos Campano who enjoyed his best race meetingof 2007 with fourth position overall in MX2 and was Spain's most consistentrider with fourteenth and seventh. The Spanish national champion has struggledwith a knee injury this season. Jubilo Yamaha's Akira Narita was thirty-sixthand twenty-third on the YZ450F as Japan finished seventh in the final ranking.
The Motocross calendar is not quite over for Cairoli and Guarneri withtwo races of the Italian Championship remaining in October and then thesix-round European Supercross Championship also to contest. Nico Aubin will bepart of the French team for the prestigious Bercy Supercross.
Nico Aubin(France), Team Yamaha Ricci:
It was very difficult to race here in the USbecause we knew the Americans would be so strong; Villopoto was unbelievablefast. I am happy to have taken part in the last race of Ricky Carmichael andshared the track with him. I fought hard today and did my best. There is notmuch more to say except that I am very pleased we could take second overall.
Antonio Cairoli (Italy), Team De Carli Yamaha:
It was an unluckyday. I had two big crashes and lost a lot of time with the front wheel in thesecond moto. This is not what I wanted but the track was very hard and I did nothave a good feeling.
Davide Guarneri (Italy), Team Yamaha Ricci:
Inthe last two weeks I had been working with the 450 which is a new bike for me. Ifelt good while practicing but the tracks were easy compared to this! There weremany ruts and bumps and for my first time on the 450 it was difficult. In thefirst moto I crashed but I finished the race. I also had to cope with badpositions in the starts. We finished fourth overall and it is a shame that Tonyhad those crashes otherwise we would have been second. The American guys on thiskind of track are so fast.
Grant Langston (South Africa), TeamYamaha:
Pretty much everything happened today. Gareth crashed and broke hisfoot and Wyatt's bike didn't start in the last moto. I don't think I havecrashed more in my life! I went down on the first lap of the first moto andsomeone landed on me and it must have sandwiched the back brake against theframe because as I came down the next hill I had no brake. I tried to lean intothe rut to stop, but high-sided off the bike. The brakes were sticky after that.A haybale then rolled out in front of me that caught the bike and knifed it,putting me over the top. The throttle hit the ground so hard that it was thensticking. My rear shock then blew a few laps later and I fell one more time justfor good measure; I don't even know where I ended up. In the second moto I didnot get a good start and I kept coming through. I went over the bars again underbraking. I don't think we anticipated the track to be quite so choppy.
Chad Reed (Australia), San Manuel Yamaha:
I feel like I rode quitewell. It took me about fifteen minutes to get going in the first moto. I gotinto second and rode my own race. I was watching Ricky behind me and normally hecomes up pretty strong but this time he didn't. I felt like I had a good rhythmand my lap-times were OK. It was unfortunate that Andrew crashed and hurthimself. I just wanted to have a good race in my last moto but in the secondturn Ramon jumped on the brakes and I had nowhere to go. People hit me and I wason the bottom of a pile-up. Once I got going I struggled to shift gears and thatwas it. There is nothing that makes you prouder than pulling on the colours ofyour country. I seemed to have been hurt for the last five or six years or wehave reached the end of the season and I needed surgery for one stupid reason oranother but it was amazing to be here. We had a great team and it just wasn'tour day today. I just want to get ready for the supercross now.
Race 1results
1. Ryan Villopoto USA 36:01.436
2. Chad Reed AUS 00:15.616
3.Ricky Carmichael USA 00:20.036
4. Sebastien Pourcel FRA 00:44.875
5.Jonathan Barragan ESP 00:49.296
Race 2 results
1. Ryan Villopoto USA36:19.260
2. Ken de Dycker BEL 01:05.559
3. Tommy Searle GBR 01:12.646
4. Tim Ferry USA 01:16.401
5. Pierre A. Renet Fra 01:27.448
Race3 results
1. Ricky Carmichael USA 36:41.390
2. Tim Ferry USA 00:11.748
3. Grant Langston RSA 00:22.950
4. Steve Ramon BEL 00:27.416
5. TanelLeok EST 00:50.504
Overall Results
1. USA 8
2. France 34
3.Belgium 35
4. Italy 57
5. Great Britain 63