The States of the Nations
By TMX Archives on 7th Oct 09
WIN number 20 and the fifth-in-a-row for the Americans in the Nations at Franciacorta, but Billy MacKenzie, Tommy Searle and Shaun Simpson did Britain proud, challenging for the win early in the day before crashes and collisions saw them lose a tie-break for fourth with Germany.
IT was a turbulent day of fluctuating fortunes, played out in front of an enormous crowd – officially 90,000 – and a host of stars had been carted off before the day on a rugged track, which drew praise from the riders.
Half-a-dozen teams, including Britain, contested victory at some time in the day but it was Toni Cairoli and Chad Reed, the champions from each side of the Atlantic, who fought a thrilling duel for victory in the opening moto, which took them well clear of the pack. But the Italian maintained the upper hand throughout, to the delight of the home fans.
Clement Desalle's chase ended with a fall on lap five as he sought a way past Ryan Dungey for third, but not a single nation initially had two men in the top ten as an outside gate proved to be poison, even for the teams which gave the inside one to their 250cc rider.
Dungey's solid third, coupled with Jake Weimer's workmanlike ride from 11th to eighth, left the USA in a commanding position at the first break, with Italy next up on 17, one ahead of the Brits and a further point in front of Australia, Belgium and France.
With MacKenzie showing the tenacity which had been lacking in his previous rides this year as he came from the outside gate to 11th, Britain might have been a clear second if Searle had not encountered bad traffic.
The Brit had put in a sterling show to advance from tenth to fifth, taking over front spot amongst the MX2 riders from Marvin Musquin and Ken Roczen, before lappers stunted his progress.
"They just ignored the blue flags. I can understand they were also fighting for places, but they took my line and pushed me out to let Musquin and Coppins through. I set my fastest lap of the race on the last lap but it was too late to get them back.”
RED BULL MOTOCROSS des NATIONS
Franciacorta, ITALY
FINAL TEAM STANDINGS: 1 USA 22 points, 2 France 30, 3 Belgium 39, 4 Germany 55, 5 BRITAIN 55, 6 Italy 59.
GROUP A RACES
RACE ONE (MX1 & MX2): 1 Antonio Cairoli (I - 450 Yamaha), 2 Chad Reed (AUS - 450 Suzuki), 3 Ryan Dungey (US - 450 Suzuki), 4 Clement Desalle (B - 450 Honda), 5 Marvin Musquin (F - 250 KTM), 6 Joshua Coppins (NZ - 450 Yamaha)
TEAM POSITIONS after Race One: 1 USA 11 points, 2 Italy 17, 3 Great Britain 18, 4 Australia 19, 5 Belgium 19, 6 France 19.
RACE TWO (MX2 & OPEN): 1 Gautier Paulin (F - 450 Kawasaki), 2 David Philippaerts (I - 450 Yamaha), 3 Ivan Tedesco (US - 450 Honda), 4 Tanel Leok (EW - 450 Yamaha), 5 Musquin (F), 6 Maximilian Nagl (D - 450 KTM).
TEAM POSITIONS after Race Two: 1 France 25 points, 2 Belgium 37, 3 USA 39, 4 Britain 48, 5 South Africa 54, 6 Italy 56.
RACE THREE (MX1 & OPEN): 1 Dungey (US), 2 Ramon (B), 3 Philippaerts (I), 4 Barragan (E), 5 Frossard (F), 6 Coppins (NZ).
GROUP B FINAL: 1 Dean Wilson (CAN - 250 Kawasaki), 2 Evgeny Bobrishev (RUS - 450 Yamaha), 3 Martin Michek (CZ - 450 TM), 4 Gunter Schmidinger (A - 450 Honda), 5 Martin BARR (IRE - 250 Suzuki), 6 Gordon CROCKARD (IRE - 450 Honda).
FOR FULL REPORT SEE T+MX NEWS, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2009
Where did they come from? Billy MacKenzie puts a flock of doves to flight although one of them doesn't seem to be at all concerned!