The Bou goes on
By TMX Archives on 1st Aug 07
TRIALS fans turned out in force at Hawkstone Park last weekend for the British World Trial GP and their enthusiastic cheers echoed through the trees at the Salop club's famous off-road venue.
Although they cheered Dougie Lampkin every inch ofthe way, sadly the victory applause was not for Doug but for the man ofthe moment, Toni Bou, who majestically eased his Repsol-Montesa to hiseighth win of the 2007 season. This puts the quiet Spaniard 20 pointsahead of reigning World Champion Adam Raga with just two rounds to go.Raga was runner-up on the day with Takahisa Fujinami, last year'swinner, in third.
The fans were generous in their applause for allcontestants but, if the day belonged to any of the Brits, it was surelyTTT Beta rider Michael Brown, who not only tied up the FIM Junior Cup,he did it in style with a cool, crushing win while Sam Haslam took acomfortable runner-up from French challenger Nicholas Gontard.
In the Youth class, Ross Danby did himself proud,pushing season-long series leader, Alfredo Gomez, all the way but theexceptional Spanish rider did enough to nail his eighth series win andwith it the title.
It was a testament to Martin Lampkin and hiscourse marking team that the event was able to run at all, consideringthe adverse weather and course condition in the week leading up to theevent but fortune favours the brave and despite heavy overnightshowers, Sunday's trial was blessed with bright sunshine and althoughthe sections remained naturally slippery, the famous sand drainedrapidly and a really cracking trial ensued.
The usual World Cham-pionship formula of 15 sections, over two laps, was followed with themajority set over the sand-set boulders on the steep wooded hillsidesand a pair of man-made rocky numbers to end-up the lap.
The opening section saw the usual lack of actionfrom the Championship boys as, once the Youth and Junior riders haddeparted, there was silence for the best part of an hour as no-onewished to be pathfinder. It was all just wasted time ultimately as veryfew marks were lost on the hazard.
The second section was much more of a tester witha particularly nasty, tight uphill turn set on a slippery rock ledge.Only Fuji and an on-form looking Marc Freixa would conquer this hazardon both laps.
Doug knew that luck wasn't going to be with him as he actually hit theturn too well, the front wheel dropped off the ledge and the sumpgrounded, throwing him over the top in a nasty-looking crash but thefive mark penalty was the only real damage done.
It turned out to be a real rough opening phase forDoug as he fived both the hillclimb at the fourth - cleaned only byRaga on the opener, and the very tricky fifth where the slippery rocksat the end, and a tight time limit, caused lots of problems. Boureached the ends cards but then remonstrated vociferously with theobserver when he was awarded a two but only wanted one. He got two!
It was then into the famous Hawkstone bowl', orcorner, for the next four hazards and the crowd was packed likesardines on the slippery hillsides, craning their necks for any view ofthe riders. Doug rode himself back into the groove here, aided byplenty of vocal support, but it was Bou, Raga and Cabestany who lookedmost comfortable at this stage.
After the tardy start to the lap, time was now ofthe essence and there was some urgency from the contenders as they madetheir way across the top of the famous Hawkstone Hill to a pair oftough hazards where Graham Jarvis, on the four-stroke Sherco, havingmade his way back towards his starting number at the head of the entry,clocked-up two excellent cleans at 12 and 13.
It was then back down into the main arena for thefinal two man-made hazards. The last section, over giant sandstoneboulders, was the perfect finale and Jarvis arrived right to the minute(just as his mentor Malcolm Rathmell used to do!) and settled for a bigdab on the final vertical step to sign off on 21 for the lap, anexcellent effort.
WORLD TRIALS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 8 - Hawkstone Park, GREAT BRITAIN
1 Toni Bou (E - Repsol Montesa HRC) 5 + 6 + -= 11
2 Adam Raga (E - Raga Gas Gas) 6 + 11 +- = 17
3 Takahisa Fujinami (J - Repsol MontHRC) 15 + 8+ - = 23
4 Albert Cabestany (E - Tarrag Sherco)(7x1) 13 + 17+ - = 30
5 Dougie LAMPKIN (GB-Rep Mont HRC)(6x1) 19 + 11+ - = 30
6 Jeroni Fajardo (E - Beta) 16 + 15 +- = 31
7 Marc Freixa (E - 250F Scorpa) 25 + 11 +3 = 39
8 Graham JARVIS (GB - JarvisSherco) 21 + 19+ - = 40
9 James DABILL (GB - Future Montesa4RT) 32 + 29+ 3 = 64
10 Jordi Pasquet (E - Beta 4T) 30 + 37 + - = 67
11 Shaun MORRIS (GB - Prolec Gas Gas) 47 + 24 +- = 71
12 Daniele Maurino (I - Beta) 47 + 33 + - = 80
13 Daniel Oliveras (E - OliverasSherco) 33 + 52+ - = 85
14 Daniel Gibert (E - Montesa) 52 + 37 + - = 89
15 Jerome Bethune (F - Maya Beta) 38 + 47 +6 = 91
SERIES STANDINGS after 8 (of 10) rounds: 1 Bou 194points, 2 Raga 174, 3 Fujinami 144, 4 Cabestany 122, 5 LAMPKIN 119, 6Fajardo 95, 7 DABILL 89, 8 Freixa 85, 9 Oliveras 50, 10 ChristopheBruand 36, 11 Bethune 28, 12 Maurino 25, 13 Pasquet 18, 14 MORRIS 18,15 Kenichi Kuroyama 17, 16 Tsuyoshi Ogawa 17, 17 Tomoyuki Ogawa 16, 18Gibert 14, 19 Tadeusz Blazusiak 11, 20 Fumitaka Nozaki 10, 21 JARVIS 8,22 Isao Shibuya 8, 23 Francesco Iolitta 4, 24 Michele Orizio 3, 25Xavier Leon 2, 26 Henri Himmanen 1.
WORLD JUNIOR TRIALS CHAMPIONSHIP
1 Michael BROWN (GB - TTT Beta) 5 + 1 +- = 6
2 Sam HASLAM (GB - JST Gas Gas) 15 + 6 +- = 21
3 Nicolas Gontard (F - Nico GasGas) 19 + 14+ - = 33
4 Matteo Grattarola (I - Sherco)(14x0) 27 + 16+ - = 43
5 Alexz WIGG (GB - JST Gas Gas)(12x0) 22 + 21 + - = 43
6 Julien Arnaud (F - Gas Gas) 21 + 21 +2 = 44
7 Lee SAMPSON (GB - ACE Sherco) 29 + 23 +- = 52
8 Andrea Vaccaretti (I - FutureMontesa) 30 + 23+ - = 53
9 Guillaume Laniel (F - Camozzi GasGas) 39 + 27+ - = 66
10 Richard ELLWOOD (GB - ACE Sherco) 38 + 34 +- = 72
11 Laia Sanz (E - Repsol Montesa HRC) 36 + 43 +- = 79
12 Craig ROBINSON (GB - JST Gas Gas) 45 + 35 +- = 80
13 James FRY (GB - MRS Sherco) 50 + 43 + - = 93
14 Sean DOYLE (IRE - Comp TrialSherco) 43 + 53+ - = 96
15 George MORTON (GB - Repsol Beta) 51 + 50 +- = 101
16 BEN WIBBERLEY (GB - Gas Gas) 49 + 56 + - = 105
18 RICHARD ELY (GB - Sherco) 57 + 49 + 3 = 109
21 HARRY HARVEY (GB - Gas Gas) 62 + 57 + 7 = 126
SERIES STANDINGS: 1 Michael BROWN 189 points(CHAMPION), 2 WIGG 149, 3 Gontard 127, 4 Grattarola 118, 5 Loris Gubian94, 6 HASLAM 94, 7 SAMPSON 81, 8 Sanz 64, 9 Vaccaretti 55, 10 Laniel55, 11 Julien Arnaud 26, 12 Fredrik Johansson 23, 13 Jochen Schaefer20, 14 Shibata 17, 15 Emil Gyllenhammar 17, 16 ELLWOOD 17,... 23ROBINSON 4, 24 FRY 3,... 27 DOYLE 2,... 29 MORTON 1,...
FIM YOUTH TRIALS CHAMPS
1 Alfredo Gomez (E - Gas Gas) 10 + 9 +- = 19
2 Ross DANBY (GB - JST Gas Gas) 12 + 9 +- = 21
3 Alexis Cervantes (F - ShercoFrance) 17 + 28+ - = 45
4 David Millan (E - Sherco) 26 + 32 +- = 58
5 Antonio Alfonso (E - Gas Gas) 32 + 28 +- = 60
6 Jack CHALLONER (GB - Rep Beta) 21 + 34 +8 = 63
7 Benoit Dagnicourt (F - Beta) 33 + 35 +- = 68
8 Pau Botella (E - Beta) 37 + 34 + - = 71
9 Thibault Martel (F - Gas Gas)(9x0) 32 + 41+ - = 73
10 Marijan Griebel (D - Future Beta)(3x0) 35 + 38+ - = 73
11 Fredrik Larsen (N - Sherco) 36 + 39 + - = 75
12 Adam JONES (GB - Haven Sherco) 43 + 45 +4 = 92
13 Martin Hemmer (N - Gas Gas) 49 + 53 + - = 102
14 Jake Whitaker (NZ - Gas Gas) 54 + 49 + 2 = 105
15 Maxime Mathy (B - Gas Gas Belgium) 50 + 59 +1 = 110
16 Joshua WOODS (GB - MRS Sherco) 51 + 54 + 10 = 115
17 Dale ROBSON (GB - Birkett Beta) 54 + 67 +2 = 123
18 Josh STEPHENS (GB - StephensSherco) 62 + 66+ - = 128
19 Wesley HAMILTON (GB - Repsol Beta) 65 + 67 +- = 132
-- Becky COOK (GB - JST Gas Gas) 58 + 59 +- = 117
-- Donna FOX (GB - RPM Sherco) 69 + 62 + - = 131
SERIES STANDINGS: 1 Alfredo Gomez 190 points(CHAMPION), 2 DANBY 158, 3 Cervantes 144, 4 Millan 85, 5 Patrick Smage80, 6 Alfonso 74, 7 Morell 53, 8 Griebel 46, 9 Pau Botella 41, 10Alexandre Ferrer 38, 11 Benoit Dagnicourt 36, 12 Robert ANDREWS 29, 13Thibault Martel 29, 14 Adrian Pastoriza 23, 15 Riccardo Cattaneo 21, 16CHALLONER 18,... 21 JONES 4,...
NEXT ROUND: Sep 2 - St Julia, ANDORRA.
For full story and pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, August, 2007.