Searle downs a Port or two
By TMX Archives on 30th Apr 08
SEBASTIEN Pourcel stopped an Italian clean sweep in Portugal, but he could not prevent David Philippaerts joining Toni Cairoli as the new red plate holder as the MX1 and MX2 world series takes a week's break before the long haul to Bulgaria.
But it could all have been so different had Billy MacKenzie and Tommy Searle not both slipped off at decisive moments after each had led in scorching heat at the superb Agueda track as the world series finally shook off the dark clouds which had followed it through the first two rounds.
Both Brits stay in the chase for the title, Searle's podium advancing him to third, and there were also significant scores for Stephen Sword, fourth in MX2, Carl Nunn, Shaun Simpson, James Noble and Eliott Banks-Browne while UK mercenaries Mike Brown, the native of Tennessee having his best race of the year in the heat, and Gautier Paulin each ended the day in the top ten. And Carlos Campano recorded Utag Yamaha's first points of the year.
Report and Pictures: ALEX HODGKINSON
SEARLE had not ridden to either his own or others' expectations in the first two GPs, and he had no answer to Cairoli in Saturday's heat, but England's number one clicked on Sunday. He grabbed the holeshot in the first race and was soon escaping from the pack with Cairoli in tow. On Saturday the Italian had insisted he just wanted to build slowly and score regular points, but the way he dived inside Tommy on a downhill turn showed that his hunger for victory had not diminished.
I made a couple of mistakes and he got away, so I concentrated on consolidating second place. There was no danger from behind. Tyla Rattray had taken time to find his rhythm and was kept at arm's length without difficulty.
Sword had initially hung onto the leading trio: I started to lose them after a few laps, but I resisted the temptation to try to hang in there. It was hot today and I was riding my own race to make sure I had something left at the end.
Simpson, forced to an outside gate after a fall while hounding Searle during their heat on Saturday, was quickly onto the edge of the top ten, but then hit the deck again: I lost the front end three times in all, and always at the same corner! The Scot missed the points by three-seconds.
Nunn, left to defend MVRD honour alone after a sick Jason Dougan was eliminated on Saturday, was also pushing top ten for 15-minutes before Jeremy Van Horebeek jumped into him in a turn. The East Anglian needed a couple of laps to regain his rhythm but was now defending 15th rather than forcing 11th.
Banks-Browne, revelling in his improved form of late, pushed forward in style on a track where overtaking was no mean feat in the freight train, converting an initial 24th into 17th to truly herald his arrival in the top flight after a couple of difficult years.
Cairoli appeared to be leaving his rivals no chance as he holeshot race two, but Searle had other ideas. Lap after lap the Brit inched closer to the Italian and the leader was clearly not playing.
Then at 25-minutes fate took a hand: I was riding easy, but just one mistake was enough. I missed the back wheel on a jump and washed out. By the time Tommy got going again Rattray was also through for second, but Tommy was still relieved at the end of the day: It's good to be on the podium again. I haven't been riding as I can, but now I'm back.
Sword was again best of the rest until the front wheel went away in a rut! and Aubin went through. When you lose momentum in this heat, it takes a few laps to recover and I had to settle for fifth.
Nunn had given Mark Chamberlain and himself a boost by gating third, and only factory men went past as he was eventually pushed back to seventh, a genuine achievement in this class.
Simpson chased him over the line, staying on two wheels this time to re-establish his top ten ranking despite a difficult weekend, and Banks-Browne again grabbed points moving forward, only losing out to former GP winner Boissiere late on: The track was really rough and my hands were really sore by the end of the first race. They blistered badly in race two, but I'm happy with my speed and the points. And Cairoli was happy with two moto victories and the red plate: I've been sick and not able to train properly. I didn't lay off the antibiotics until Friday, but now I have two weeks to get ready for Bulgaria.
WORLD MX2 MOTOCROSS CHAMPS
Rd 3 Agueda, PORTUGAL
1 Antonio Cairoli (I - Red Bull Yamaha) 25 + 25 = 50
2 Tyla Rattray (ZA - Red Bull KTM) 20 + 22 = 42
3 Tommy SEARLE (GB - Red Bull KTM) 22 + 20 = 42
4 Stephen SWORD (GB - Molson Kawasaki) 18 + 16 = 34
5 Nicolas Aubin (F - Ricci Yamaha) 13 + 18 = 31
6 Rui Goncalves (P - Red Bull KTM) 15 + 15 = 30
7 Davide Guarneri (I - Ricci Yamaha) 16 + 9 = 25
8 Jeremy Van Horebeek (B - Champ KTM) 11 + 11 = 22
9 Gautier Paulin (F - Molson Kawasaki) 12 + 10 = 22
10 Carl NUNN (GB - Suso Suzuki) 6 + 14 = 20
11 Steven Frossard (F - CLS Kawasaki) 14 + 0 = 14
12 Shaun SIMPSON (GB - KTM UK) 0 + 13 = 13
13 Anthony Boissiere (F - HDI KTM) 8 + 5 = 13
14 Manuel Monni (I - 3C Yamaha) 0 + 12 = 12
15 Xavier Boog (F - Inotec Suzuki) 10 + 0 = 10
16 Gregory Aranda (F - CLS Kawasaki) 3+6=9, 17 Wyatt Avis (ZA - LS Honda) 9+0=9, 18 Jeremy Tarroux (F - Silver Action KTM) 0+8=8, 19 Shannon Terreblanche (ZA - Beursfoon Suzuki) 1+7=8, 20 Elliot BANKS-BROWNE (GB - Swift Suzuki) 4+3=7, 21 Marvin Musquin (F - NGS Honda) 7+0=7, 22 Joel Roelants (B - Champ KTM) 5+1=6, 23 Julien Vanni (F - HDI KTM) 0+4=4, 24 Gert Krestinov (EW - Favor KTM) 0+2=2, 25 Alessandro Lupino (I - Red Bull Yamaha) 2+0=2.
RACE ONE: 1 Cairoli, 2 SEARLE, 3 Rattray, 4 SWORD, 5 Guarneri, 6 Goncalves, 7 Frossard, 8 Aubin, 9 Paulin, 10 Van Horebeek, 11 Boog , 12 Avis, 13 Boissiere, 14 Musquin, 15 NUNN, 16 Roelants, 17 BANKS-BROWNE, 18 Aranda, 19 Lupino, 20 Terreblanche.
RACE TWO: 1 Cairoli, 2 Rattray, 3 SEARLE, 4 Aubin, 5 SWORD, 6 Goncalves, 7 NUNN, 8 SIMPSON, 9 Monni, 10 Van Horebeek, 11 Paulin, 12 Guarneri, 13 Tarroux, 14 Terreblanche, 15 Aranda, 16 Boissiere, 17 Vanni, 18 BANKS-BROWNE, 19 Krestinov, 20 Roelants.
SERIES STANDINGS after 3 (of 15) rounds: 1 Cairoli 126 points, 2 Rattray 121, 3 SEARLE 102, 4 Guarneri 86, 5 Goncalves 81, 6 SWORD 80, 7 Aubin 78, 8 Monni 60, 9 SIMPSON 60, 10 Van Horebeek 57, 11 Boog 55, 12 Roelants 49, 13 Paulin 48, 14 Eggens 38, 15 Tarroux 34, 16 NUNN 27, 17 Frossard 23, 18 Musquin 23, 19 Krestinov 23, 20 Boissiere 22, 21 Bobryschev 20, 22 Aranda 18, 23 Pellegrini 15, 24 Avis 12, 25 Van De Ven 10, 29 BANKS-BROWNE 8,... 34 DOUGAN 3,...
NEXT ROUND: May 11 Sevlievo, BULGARIA.
WORLD MX1 MOTOCROSS CHAMPS
Rd 3 Agueda, PORTUGAL
1 Sebastien Pourcel (F - GPKR Kawasaki) 22 + 25 = 47
2 David Philippaerts (I - Monster Yamaha) 25 + 22 = 47
3 Josh Coppins (NZ - Monster Yamaha) 16 + 20 = 36
4 Jonathan Barragan (E - Silver Action KTM) 20 + 14 = 34
5 Steve Ramon (B - Teka Suzuki) 15 + 18 = 33
6 Billy MacKENZIE (GB - Monster Honda) 18 + 15 = 33
7 Mike Brown (US - Monster Honda) 12 + 16 = 28
8 Marc De Reuver (NL - Martin Honda) 14 + 13 = 27
9 Tanel Leok (EW - Kawasaki Europe) 13 + 11 = 24
10 Clement Desalle (B - Inotec Suzuki) 11 + 10 = 21
11 Maximilian Nagl (D - Red Bull KTM) 9 + 9 = 18
12 Kornel Nemeth (H - Sarholz KTM) 3 + 12 = 15
13 James NOBLE (GB - KTM UK) 6 + 7 = 13
14 Marcus Schiffer (D - Sarholz KTM) 8 + 5 = 13
15 Julien Bill (CH - Martin Honda) 10 + 0 = 10
16 Carlos Campano (E - Utag Yamaha) 0+8=8, 17 Alex Salvini (I - Valenti Suzuki) 5+3=8, 18 Pierre Alexandre Renet (F - Teka Suzuki) 1+6=7, 19 Ken De Dycker (B - Teka Suzuki) 7+0=7, 20 Manuel Priem (B - Kawasaki Europe) 4+1=5, 21 Paulo Goncalves (P - Honda) 0+4=4, 22 Marvin Van Daele (B - Teka Suzuki) 0+2=2, 23 Alessio Chiodi (I - TM Racing) 2+0=2.
RACE ONE: 1 Philippaerts, 2 Pourcel, 3 Barragan, 4 MacKENZIE, 5 Coppins, 6 Ramon, 7 De Reuver, 8 Leok, 9 Brown, 10 Desalle, 11 Bill, 12 Nagl, 13 Schiffer, 14 De Dycker, 15 NOBLE, 16 Salvini, 17 Priem, 18 Nemeth, 19 Chiodi, 20 Renet.
RACE TWO: 1 Pourcel, 2 Philippaerts, 3 Coppins, 4 Ramon, 5 Brown, 6 MacKENZIE, 7 Barragan, 8 De Reuver, 9 Nemeth, 10 Leok, 11 Desalle, 12 Nagl, 13 Campano, 14 NOBLE, 15 Renet, 16 Schiffer, 17 Goncalves, 18 Salvini, 19 Van Daele, 20 Priem.
SERIES STANDINGS after 3 (of 15) rounds: 1 Philippaerts 102 points, 2 Ramon 96, 3 Coppins 83, 4 MacKENZIE 79, 5 De Dycker 77, 6 Nagl 58, 7 Barragan 54, 8 Pourcel 52, 9 Leok 50, 10 Nemeth 48, 11 Desalle 43, 12 Brown 42, 13 De Reuver 40, 14 Priem 40, 15 Strijbos 36, 16 Schiffer 27, 17 CHURCH 20, 18 Leok 20, 19 NOBLE 20, 20 Salvini 19, 21 Freibergs 16, 22 Van Daele 15, 23 Renet 15, 24 Chiodi 13, 25 Bill 10,
NEXT ROUND: May 11 Sevlievo, BULGARIA.
For full report and pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, May 2, 2008