The pressure's on for Bou
By TMX Archives on 4th Sep 08
AFTER a 15-year absence, Sweden made a welcome return to the World Trials Championship calendar and the event proved to be a happy one for Adam Raga who took his second victory in a row, and his fourth of the season, to keep the pressure very much on the series leader and defending champion, Toni Bou.
Reigning champion Bou scraped a narrow second place finish in Uddevalla from his Repsol Montesa team-mate Takahisa Fujinami to limit the damage to his campaign, but now only heads rival Raga by nine points with two rounds still remaining.
Although Jack Challoner could only manage third on the day, the British teenager wrapped up the World Youth 125cc Cup title ahead of the final two events in Portugal and Spain in his first full assault at this level.
Consistency has been the key to Challoner's success with the young Beta rider having achieved four wins, and only one result outside of the top three in the ten counting days so far.
Jonathan Richardson made it two Brits in the top ten in the class, with a solid seventh spot to make his long and expensive trip to Scandinavia very worthwhile.
Britain's more established trials legend, Dougie Lampkin produced one of his best performances of his year so far to come home in fourth place in Sweden, after having been some way off the pace at the previous round in the Czech Republic.
Lampkin's latest result lifts him to fifth in the overall standings and within one point of Albert Cabestany who had a nightmare day at Uddevalla, finishing down in seventh position for the fourth time this season.
Dougie's Beta team-mate, Jeroni Fajardo, rounded out the top five, some way in front of Marc Freixa, while the freshly crowned European champion, Michael Brown, completed a good weekend by taking eighth position ahead of an off-form James Dabill.
French youngster, Loris Gubian, slightly increased his lead over Alexz Wigg in the Junior standings, as the leading duo occupied the top two places respectively at the Swedish MXGP circuit.
Wigg now trails Gubian by 14 points, but with only ten of the 12 day results counting in determining the final order, Alexz still has a good chance of making amends for his poor mid-season form due to his knee injury.
Britain's other representative in this division, Ross Danby, took fifth place on the day to hold on to sixth spot in the points chase.
The trial, situated around the edge of the World Motocross circuit at Uddevalla, was a real tale of two halves. The first eight sections were all sited on the dry rocky outcrops that overlook the track and which are more usually filled with thousand of motocross fans. The second half of the lap was hidden below the trees that also surround the circuit and these hazards were damp and slippery and proved to be the more difficult test for the riders.
A nervous dab in the opening hazard and a five at the awkward step in section four soon put Dougie behind the leading trio of Raga, Bou and Fujinami who all passed through the first six sections without loss. The Japanese former World champion became the early outright leader as he was the only rider to clean the seventh hazard on the opening lap.
With the action moving to the shade of the forest, the losses quickly became heavier and more frequent.
Bou and Fajardo were the best at section nine, losing two marks apiece, where all the other top runners escaped with more scrappy threes.
However, section 11 proved to be the defining moment of the initial tour, with Fujinami surrendering his early advantage with a most definite five, which was two more marks than that recorded by Bou. Raga brilliantly seized his opportunity with an unmatched clean that moved him to the head of the field, giving him a first lap lead which proved an important step towards his eventual overall win.
Adam Raga took his second victory in a row, keeping the pressure very much on defending champion.
The mid-point order put Raga three marks clear of Fujinami, who in turn was two marks ahead of Bou. With the riders now having a better understanding of the new terrain, the second lap scores were much lower, despite conditions remaining very much unchanged. Bou attempted a heroic fight back, dropping just two marks at section ten for his entire second lap but this was matched by a stunning show of nerve from Raga who closed off with a lap score of just three.
Thankfully for Bou, a mistake by ‘Fujigas', three sections from home, was enough to gift the defending champion second place, which has helped to at least keep Raga at arms length with two tense rounds remaining.
The deciding two rounds of the series will take place in Portugal and Spain on September 14 and September 21, respectively.
WORLD TRIALS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 8 – Uddevalla, SWEDEN
1 Adam Raga (E - Gas Gas) 7 + 3 + - = 10
2 Toni Bou (E - Montesa) 12 + 2 + 1 = 15
3 Takahisa Fujinami (J - Montesa) 10 + 5 + 1 = 16
4 Dougie LAMPKIN (GB - Beta) 17 + 8 + - = 25
5 Jeroni Fajardo (E - Beta) 21 + 9 + - = 30
6 Marc Freixa (E - Gas Gas) 35 + 16 + - = 51
7 Albert Cabestany (E - Sherco) 37 + 29 + - = 66
8 Michael BROWN (GB - Beta) 38 + 30 + - = 68
9 James DABILL (GB - Montesa) 39 + 30 + 16 = 85
10 Daniel Oliveras (E - Sherco) 40 + 53 + - = 93
11 Henri Himmanen (SF - Beta) 60 + 53 + - = 113
12 Martin Kroustek (CZ - Beta) 62 + 54 + - = 116
SERIES STANDINGS after 8 (of 10) rounds: 1 Bou 185 points, 2 Raga 176, 3 Fujinami 157, 4 Cabestany 111, 5 LAMPKIN 110, 6 Fajardo 110, 7 Freixa 87, 8 DABILL 81, 9 BROWN 68, 10 Oliveras 52, 11 Daniele Maurino 20, 12 Tomoyuki Ogawa 15, 13 Fumitaka Nozaki 14, 14 Kenichi Kuroyama 14, 15 Jerome Bethune 14, 16 Jordi Pasquet 13, 17 Kroustek 7, 18 Himmanen 6, 19 Shaun MORRIS 6,...
WORLD JUNIOR TRIALS CHAMPIONSHIP
1 Loris Gubian (F - Sherco) 13 + 8 + - = 21
2 Alexz WIGG (GB - Montesa) 19 + 6 + - = 25
3 Alfredo Gomez (E - Montesa) 18 + 25 + - = 43
4 Matteo Grattarola (I - Sherco) 21 + 24 + - = 45
5 Ross DANBY (GB - Gas Gas) 27 + 25 + - = 52
6 Emil Gyllenhammar (S - Gas Gas) 33 + 25 + - = 58
7 David Millan (E - Sherco) 29 + 31 + - = 60
8 Fredrik Johansson (S - Beta) 37 + 24 + - = 61
9 Mardon Moi (N - Beta) 26 + 37 + - = 63
10 Adam Thiger (S - Gas Gas) 36 + 32 + - = 68
11 Laia Sanz (E - Montesa) 48 + 30 + - = 78
12 Jan Peters (D - Beta) 50 + 56 + - = 106
13 Henrik Christiansen (S - Mont) 62 + 53 + - = 115
14 Yoshiaki Nomoto (J - Beta) 63 + 56 + - = 119
SERIES STANDINGS after 8 (of 10) rounds: 1 Gubian 174 points, 2 WIGG 160, 3 Gomez 132, 4 Grattarola 128, 5 Sam HASLAM 116, 6 DANBY 115, 7 Guillaume Laniel 93, 8 Jochen Schaefer 42, 9 Fredrik Johansson 40, 10 Sanz 40, 11 Gyllenhammar 39, 12 Millan 38, 13 Alexis Cervantes 17, 14 Cody Webb 16, 15 Nomoto 15,... 17 Lee SAMPSON 14,... 27 George MORTON 6,... 32 James FRY 2,...
FIM YOUTH TRIALS CHAMPS
1 Alexandre Ferrer (F - Sherco) 4 + 4 + - = 8
2 Adrian Pastoriza (E - Gas Gas) 8 + 4 + - = 12
3 Jack CHALLONER (GB - Beta) 8 + 11 + - = 19
4 Francesc Moret (E - Gas Gas) 15 + 7 + - = 22
5 Benoit Dagnicourt (F - Beta) 12 + 11 + - = 23
6 Pere Borrellas (E - Gas Gas) 10 + 16 + - = 26
7 Pau Botella (E - Gas Gas) 14 + 13 + - = 27
8 Jonathan RICHARDSON (GB - Sher) 10 + 18 + - = 28
9 Simone Staltari (I - Gas Gas) 13 + 17 + - = 30
10 Jake Whitaker (NZ - HM) 16 + 15 + - = 31
11 Hakon Pedersen (N - Sherco) 18 + 18 + - = 36
12 Maxime Warenghien (B - Sher) 23 + 14 + - = 37
13 Luca Cotone (I - Sherco) 26 + 13 + - = 39
14 Marc Horrach (E - Gas Gas) 18 + 22 + - = 40
15 Francesc Ciurana (E - Beta) 18 + 23 + - = 41
17 Jonathan WALKER (GB - Sher) 24 + 26 + - = 50
SERIES STANDINGS after 8 (of 10) rounds: 1 Jack CHALLONER 171 points (CHAMPION), 2 Ferrer 143, 3 Moret 139, 4 Pastoriza 113, 5 Dagnicourt 105, 6 Patrick Smage 99, 7 Botella 90, 8 Borrellas 72, 9 RICHARDSON 61, 10 Whitaker 58, 11 Warenghien 34, 12 Horrach 31, 13 Cotone 26, 14 Kota Fujimaki 16, 15 Simone Staltari 16,... 26 WALKER 5,... 27 Adam JONES 4,... 30 Jack THOMPSON 1,...
NEXT ROUND: Sep 14 – Paredes, PORTUGAL.