Roman Reigns
By TMX Archives on 17th Jun 15
With a further top six finish Shaun Simpson confirmed his top seven world ranking in MXGP while Max Anstie moved up to eighth in MX2 with a stunning race two ride to fourth and Ben Watson had a couple of solid scores including a career-best 13th in the second moto.
Nagl scored a runaway victory in the dry qualification race on Saturday and his confidence must have been sky high when Clement Desalle withdrew after practice and Cairoli went to the line simply to salvage points after suffering muscle damage in his left forearm when he crashed on the opening lap of qualification.
The champion sensationally rounded turn one third to David Philippaerts and Febvre to raise his hopes while Nagl, normally Mister Consistency, had a torrid opening lap. "My start was not so good,” he admitted, "then I made a mistake and Bobryshev rode over my head.”
A pit stop to straighten the controls and fetch clean goggles and gloves left him nearly a lap adrift from the word go.
Cairoli held third for five laps before gradually slipping back to seventh but Nagl could get no further than 15th in a field of 20.
The big winner was Febvre who took command of the race after two laps and cut a huge wedge off his arrears on the championship leaders.
Simpson found himself down in 11th on lap one but made the most advances of anyone in the race for sixth at the chequered flag.
It was turnaround time in race two as Nagl pulled one of his gigantic holeshots while Febvre was already down at turn one and Cairoli was riding effectively one-handed to salvage three points after going down halfway round the lap.
The energetic Frenchman was on a mission to complete the opening lap seventh but then came near disaster. "I came together with Simpson over a jump and had a huge crash. I had no front brake and the bars were bent down so I had difficulty in right corners but I kept pushing.”
He did so to such good effect that he was back to sixth at the chequered flag, enough to secure the overall GP win.
Simpson had another enthralling race for fifth, the only privateer among the factory hordes. "I felt I had the speed for a podium this week but my starts just weren't good enough.”
At the front Nagl's apparently comfortable win suddenly started to look a trifle wobbly as the race entered the closing laps and a big mistake at the back of the track opened the door for Kevin Strijbos.
After a torrid season with injuries the Belgian was jubilant. "I was glad when it rained as that slowed the speeds down,” he said. "I could see the place to pass Max without any danger of touching but I waited for the final lap.”
That final lap was Kevin's fastest of the race!
Jeffrey Herlings dominated MX2 qualification in the dry but was already wary of what might happen on Sunday. "It will be a different ball game if it rains tonight.”
And indeed it was as MX2 went to the line first on a saturated track after heavy rain through the night and morning.
FOR FULL REPORT AND PICTURES SEE TMX NEWS, JUNE 18, (ISSUE 1976)
