Searle is a reaL Bel-ter
By Alex Hodgkinson on 22nd Jun 12
Tommy Searle celebrated his 23rd birthday four days late, with his third MX2 GP victory of the season, at Bastogne, in Belgium, at the weekend to confirm his world title ambitions.
After sharing the moto wins with Jeffrey Herlings in the ‘Battle of the Ardennes', the Brit still trails by 24 points at the mid-way point of the series.
But the heat was on as the dynamic duo set race times nearly a minute quicker than double MX1 winner Toni Cairoli!
Bare rock was showing through by the opening moto, as the sun came out to disperse the trenches atmosphere of Saturday.
But the remainder of the British expeditionary force gritted it out with James Dunn, Ben Millward and Phil Mercer adding Support Class wins on Sunday.
Kevin Strijbos was within a whisker of the MX1 podium and Jake Nicholls was a rousing fifth in MX2 race one, while Mel Pocock joined buddy Arnaud Tonus in the top ten, and Matiss Karro again stuck with the factory boys.
Shaun Simpson suffered rotten luck after qualifying fourth, and Max Anstie's electrics let him down, but Jamie Law ended his GP interlude with another point.
"We couldn't use hardpack tyres because of the start,” admitted Searle during the
interval.
His choice of intermediate paid off with two holeshots on the deep dirt to turn one, but it proved his downfall midway through race one. "Perhaps I was a bit too cautious on the first lap, but the track was difficult,” admitted Searle.
"Jeffrey made a quick pass, but I knew I was faster so I wasn't worried,”
Once in his rhythm Searle nibbled away at the Dutch teenager's lead until he was in his wheeltracks.
"We were using the same lines, so I had to look for alternatives to pass. I nearly crashed big-time and started riding tight, but I knew the second moto would give the overall,” said Searle.
Jeremy Van Horebeek kept them in sight.
FOR FULL REPORT AND PICTURES SEE TMX NEWS JUNE 22
WORLD MX2 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 8 – Bastogne, BELGIUM
1 Tommy SEARLE (GB - Kawasaki) 22 + 25 = 47
2 Jeffrey Herlings (NL - KTM) 25 + 22 = 47
3 Jeremy Van Horebeek (B - KTM) 20 + 20 = 40
4 Joel Roelants (B - Kawasaki) 18 + 16 = 34
5 Arnaud Tonus (CH - Yamaha) 14 + 18 = 32
6 Jordi Tixier (F - KTM) 15 + 15 = 30
7 Jake NICHOLLS (GB - KTM) 16 + 13 = 29
8 Jose Butron (E - KTM) 13 + 11 = 24
9 Alessandro Lupino (I - Husqvarna) 11 + 12 = 23
10 Mel POCOCK (GB - Yamaha) 12 + 9 = 21
11 Nikolaj Larsen (DK - Suzuki) 9+8=17, 12 Glenn Coldenhoff (NL - KTM) 6+10=16, 13 Romain Febvre (F - KTM) 10+5=15, 14 Dylan Ferrandis (F - Kawasaki) 0+14=14, 15 Valentin Guillod (CH - KTM) 8+3=11, 16 Petar Petrov (BG - Suzuki) 3+7=10, 17 Harri Kullas (SF - Suzuki) 5+4=9, 18 Jeremy Seewer (CH - Suzuki) 7+2=9, 19 Julien Lieber (B - KTM) 2+6=8, 20 Kevin Fors (B - Yamaha) 4+0=4, 21 Priit Ratsep (EST - KTM) 0+1=1, 22 Andrea Cervellin (I - TM) 1+0=1.
RACE ONE: 1 SEARLE, 2 Herlings, 3 Van Horebeek, 4 Roelants, 5 NICHOLLS, 6 Tixier, 7 Tonus, 8 Butron, 9 POCOCK, 10 Lupino, 11 Febvre, 12 Larsen, 13 Guillod, 14 Seewer, 15 Coldenhoff, 16 Kullas, 17 Fors, 18 Petrov, 19 Lieber, 20 Cervellin.
RACE TWO: 1 SEARLE, 2 Herlings, 3 Van Horebeek, 4 Tonus, 5 Roelants, 6 Tixier, 7 Ferrandis, 8 NICHOLLS, 9 Lupino, 10 Butron, 11 Coldenhoff, 12 POCOCK, 13 Larsen, 14 Petrov, 15 Lieber, 16 Febvre, 17 Kullas, 18 Guillod, 19 Seewer, 20 Ratsep.
SERIES STANDINGS after 8 (of 16) rounds: 1 Herlings 364 points, 2 SEARLE 340, 3 Van Horebeek 308, 4 Roelants 238, 5 Tixier 217, 6 NICHOLLS 204, 7 ANSTIE 191, 8 Lupino 152, 9 Butron 150, 10 Ferrandis 139, 11 Kullas 132, 12 Petrov 118, 13 Charlier 106, 14 Coldenhoff 103, 15 POCOCK 87, 16 Larsen 81, 17 Leib 69, 18 Tonus 67, 19 Teillet 67, 20 Guillod 65,...
NEXT ROUND: July 1 – Uddevalla, SWEDEN.
WORLD MX1 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 8 – Bastogne, BELGIUM
1 Antonio Cairoli (I - KTM) 25 + 25 = 50
2 Clement Desalle (B - Suzuki) 20 + 20 = 40
3 Christophe Pourcel (F - Kawasaki) 16 + 22 = 38
4 Kevin Strijbos (B - KTM) 18 + 18 = 36
5 Gautier Paulin (F - Kawasaki) 22 + 12 = 34
6 Ken De Dycker (B - KTM) 11 + 15 = 26
7 Tanel Leok (EST - Suzuki) 12 + 14 = 26
8 Xavier Boog (F - Kawasaki) 15 + 11 = 26
9 Sebastien Pourcel (F - Kawasaki) 13 + 10 = 23
10 David Philippaerts (I - Yamaha) 14 + 8 = 22
11 Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS - Honda) 0+16=16, 12 Anthony Boissiere (F - TM) 9+6=15, 13 Shaun SIMPSON (GB - Yamaha) 5+9=14, 14 Davide Guarneri (I - KTM) 0+13=13, 15 Rui Goncalves (P - Honda) 6+7=13, 16 Matiss Karro (LAT - KTM) 10+0=10, 17 Jonathan Barragan (E - Honda) 8+0=8, 18 Nicolas Aubin (F - Honda) 3+4=7, 19 Cedric Soubeyras (F - Honda) 7+0=7, 20 Mark De Reuver (NL - Kawasaki) 1+5=6, 21 Loic Leonce (F - Yamaha) 2+2=4, 22 Milko Potisek (F - Honda) 4+0=4, 23 Matteo Bonini (I - KTM) 0+3=3, 24 Jamie LAW (GB - KTM) 0+1=1.
RACE ONE: 1 Cairoli, 2 Paulin, 3 Desalle, 4 Strijbos, 5 Christophe Pourcel, 6 Boog, 7 Philippaerts, 8 Sebastien Pourcel, 9 Leok, 10 De Dycker, 11 Karro, 12 Boissiere, 13 Barragan, 14 Soubeyras, 15 Goncalves, 16 SIMPSON, 17 Potisek, 18 Aubin, 19 Leonce, 20 De Reuver.
RACE TWO: 1 Cairoli, 2 Christophe Pourcel, 3 Desalle, 4 Strijbos, 5 Bobryshev, 6 De Dycker, 7 Leok, 8 Guarneri, 9 Paulin, 10 Boog, 11 Sebastien Pourcel, 12 SIMPSON, 13 Philippaerts, 14 Goncalves, 15 Boissiere, 16 De Reuver, 17 Aubin, 18 Bonini, 19 Leonce, 20 LAW.
SERIES STANDINGS after 8 (of 16) rounds: 1 Cairoli 345 points, 2 Desalle 298, 3 Christophe Pourcel 292, 4 Paulin 289, 5 De Dycker 237, 6 Philippaerts 212, 7 Boog 211, 8 Strijbos 207, 9 Goncalves 169, 10 Leok 168, 11 Bobryshev 137, 12 SIMPSON 125, 13 Barragan 118, 14 Karro 112, 15 Sebastien Pourcel 108, 16 Guarneri 98, 17 Frossard 66, 18 Ferris 52, 19 Boissiere 52, 20 Soubeyras 34,... 26 Alfie SMITH 13,... 42 Nathan PARKER 2, 43 LAW 2,... 48 Martin BARR 1,...
NEXT ROUND: July 1 – Uddevalla, SWEDEN.
