Mud Monsters!
By Alex Hodgkinson on 25th May 12
Tommy Searle stormed back into contention for the MX2 world title with a devastating double win in the Brazilian mud of the Beto Carrero pleasure park, while MX1 was also thrown wide open as Toni Cairoli rode one of the worst GPs of my entire career. Christophe Pourcel and Xavier Boog made sure Kawasaki provided the winner in all four motos in front of a full-house crowd, while Max Anstie, Jake Nicholls and Shaun Simpson again made top 10 for Britain and HM Plant KTMs Kevin Strijbos recorded his first podium for five years.
The glorious late autumn weather which had greeted the teams on their arrival faded on an overcast Saturday, but the heavens opened in the night to turn the heavy, well-prepped track into a morass of thick clinging mud. Only Desalle and Leok ventured out in warm-up on spare bikes and not a single rider took advantage of the sighting lap as they kept their tyres clean for the all-important start.
Not for the first time this year Searle and Herlings were more interested in each other than the rest to allow Tixier and Anstie to come across from the outside at the start of the MX2 opener.
Racing a stock engine, Max had reached into the family box of tricks to make the start: "I fitted a Sandcross. It wasn't the best tyre for the race, but I knew I had to get a start and it worked. I got filled in by the roost from Tixier's rear wheel and had to stop to pull a bunch of tearoffs, but I was still fifth and passed Jeffrey for fourth.”
Herlings was having a nightmare ride: "I never practice in mud and I'm not good at it. Then I crashed near the end of the race and got lapped by Tommy.”
Searle was brimming with confidence: "I'm not the best mud rider, but I knew I needed good starts and to ride smart. I got quickly past Tixier and concentrated on not making mistakes and keeping my goggles free of mud when I came up behind lappers. Then I slipped off and my gloves were covered in mud; it was easy to repass Van Horebeek and Charlier after I stopped for fresh gloves.”
But there was still a heart-stopping moment for Tommy as he took the two lap board: "Ferrandis lost it on the slope to the finish line and there was nothing I could do to miss him so I gassed it and hopped over him. Even then I was glad to see he was standing up when I came round next lap.”
A flu-ridden Nicholls had got lost at turn one: "There was so much mud flying and I had to shut off.” Jake got back onto Anstie's rear wheel with four laps to go before burning out the clutch to let Roelants and Coldenhoff, both recovering from hefty spills, through on the very last lap.
Race two followed a similar pattern except that the early leader this time was Butron. Searle surged past on lap three and immediately built a lead: "I didn't want to rush it, but the others were coming so it was time to clear off.”
FOR FULL REPORT AND PICTURES SEE TMX NEWS MAY 25
WORLD MX1 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 5 – Beto Carrero, BRAZIL
1 Christophe Pourcel (F - Kawasaki) 25 + 18 = 43
2 David Philippaerts (I - Yamaha) 22 + 15 = 37
3 Kevin Strijbos (B - KTM) 16 + 20 = 36
4 Gautier Paulin (F - Kawasaki) 20 + 16 = 36
5 Rui Goncalves (P - Honda) 18 + 13 = 31
6 Xavier Boog (F - Kawasaki) 5 + 25 = 30
7 Clement Desalle (B - Suzuki) 8 + 22 = 30
8 Antonio Cairoli (I - KTM) 13 + 12 = 25
9 Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS - Honda) 12 + 11 = 23
10 Shaun SIMPSON (GB - Yamaha) 14 + 9 = 23
11 Ken De Dycker (B - KTM) 15+8=23, 12 Jonathan Barragan (E - Honda) 9+10=19, 13 Matiss Karro (LAT - KTM) 11+7=18, 14 Tanel Leok (EST - Suzuki) 1+14=15, 15 Davide Guarneri (I - KTM) 7+6=13, 16 Dean Ferris (US - Kawasaki) 10+0=10, 17 Alfie SMITH (GB - Yamaha) 6+3=9, 18 Santtu Tiainen (SF - Kawasaki) 4+2=6, 19 Antonio Jorge Balbi (BRA - Kawasaki) 0+5=5, 20 Herjan Brakke (NL - Yamaha) 0+4=4, 21 Wellington Garcia (BRA - Honda) 3+1=4, 22 Adrian Garrido (BRA - Honda) 2+0=2.
RACE ONE: 1 Christophe Pourcel, 2 Philippaerts, 3 Paulin, 4 Goncalves, 5 Strijbos, 6 De Dycker, 7 SIMPSON, 8 Cairoli, 9 Bobryshev, 10 Karro, 11 Ferris, 12 Barragan, 13 Desalle, 14 Guarneri, 15 SMITH, 16 Boog, 17 Tiainen, 18 Wellington Garcia, 19 Garrido, 20 Leok.
RACE TWO: 1 Boog, 2 Desalle, 3 Strijbos, 4 Christophe Pourcel, 5 Paulin, 6 Philippaerts, 7 Leok, 8 Goncalves, 9 Cairoli, 10 Bobryshev, 11 Barragan, 12 SIMPSON, 13 De Dycker, 14 Karro, 15 Guarneri, 16 Balbi, 17 Brakke, 18 SMITH, 19 Tiainen, 20 Wellington Garcia.
SERIES STANDINGS after 5 (of 16) rounds: 1 Cairoli 203 points, 2 Desalle 179, 3 Christophe Pourcel 172, 4 Paulin 170, 5 De Dycker 154, 6 Philippaerts 142, 7 Strijbos 139, 8 Boog 129, 9 Goncalves 110, 10 Leok 107, 11 Bobryshev 92, 12 SIMPSON 81, 13 Barragan 78, 14 Karro 71, 15 Guarneri 59, 16 Ferris 50, 17 Frossard 40, 18 Sebastien Pourcel 39, 19 Soubeyras 27, 20 Bonini 21,... 24 SMITH 13,... 39 PARKER 2,... 42 BARR 1,...
NEXT ROUND: June 3 – St Jean d'Angely, FRANCE.
WORLD MX2 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 5 – Beto Carrero, BRAZIL
1 Tommy SEARLE (GB - Kawasaki) 25 + 25 = 50
2 Christophe Charlier (F - Yamaha) 22 + 16 = 38
3 Jose Butron (E - KTM) 13 + 22 = 35
4 Jeremy Van Horebeek (B - KTM) 20 + 15 = 35
5 Joel Roelants (B - Kawasaki) 16 + 18 = 34
6 Max ANSTIE (GB - Honda) 18 + 14 = 32
7 Jeffrey Herlings (NL - KTM) 9 + 20 = 29
8 Jake NICHOLLS (GB - KTM) 14 + 11 = 25
9 Alessandro Lupino (I - Husqvarna) 10 + 13 = 23
10 Harri Kullas (SF - Suzuki) 11 + 12 = 23
11 Jordi Tixier (F - KTM) 12+9=21, 12 Glenn Coldenhoff (NL - KTM) 15+6=21, 13 Dylan Ferrandis (F - Kawasaki) 6+10=16, 14 Petar Petrov (BG - Suzuki) 7+7=14, 15 Valentin Guillod (CH - KTM) 8+5=13, 16 Michael Leib (US - Yamaha) 0+8=8, 17 Julien Lieber (B - KTM) 4+3=7, 18 Marcal Muller (BRA - Kawasaki) 5+1=6, 19 Nikolaj Larsen (DK - Suzuki) 0+4=4, 20 Endrews Armstrong (BRA - Honda) 1+2=3, 21 Thales Vilardi (BRA - Honda) 3+0=3, 22 Gustavo Henrique Henn (BRA - Kawasaki) 2+0=2.
RACE ONE: 1 SEARLE, 2 Charlier, 3 Van Horebeek, 4 ANSTIE, 5 Roelants, 6 Coldenhoff, 7 NICHOLLS, 8 Butron, 9 Tixier, 10 Kullas, 11 Lupino, 12 Herlings, 13 Guillod, 14 Petrov, 15 Ferrandis, 16 Muller, 17 Lieber, 18 Vilardi, 19 Henn, 20 Armstrong.
RACE TWO: 1 SEARLE, 2 Butron, 3 Herlings, 4 Roelants, 5 Charlier, 6 Van Horebeek, 7 ANSTIE, 8 Lupino, 9 Kullas, 10 NICHOLLS, 11 Ferrandis, 12 Tixier, 13 Leib, 14 Petrov, 15 Coldenhoff, 16 Guillod, 17 Larsen, 18 Lieber, 19 Armstrong, 20 Muller.
SERIES STANDINGS after 5 (of 16) rounds: 1 Herlings 223 points, 2 SEARLE 203, 3 Van Horebeek 189, 4 Roelants 152, 5 ANSTIE 137, 6 Tixier 128, 7 NICHOLLS 120, 8 Ferrandis 107, 9 Lupino 103, 10 Kullas 99, 11 Butron 95, 12 Charlier 93, 13 Petrov 71, 14 Leib 69, 15 Coldenhoff 62, 16 Larsen 53, 17 Guillod 44, 18 POCOCK 42, 19 Tonkov 32, 20 Tonkov 23,...
NEXT ROUND: June 3 – St Jean d'Angely, FRANCE.
