The Toni Bou Show
By TMX Archives on 2nd Jan 08
INTERNATIONAL trials could well be re-named The Toni Bou Show as Montesa's Barcelona boy showed us at Sheffield on Saturday night that at the moment he is simply in a class of his own!
Toni cleaned all of Martin Lampkin's sections without breaking sweat until he dropped one in the final waterfall while showboating for the crowd. Such was Bou's domination that Dougie Lampkin (having a good ride himself into second place on the night) commented at one point, ''He might take his jacket off in a minute , then we'll really be in trouble.''
It was actually a Repsol Montesa one-two-three on the podium, probably a fitting end to the year as it was the last time that Doug, Bou and Takahisa Fujinami will operate as a team - as Montesa have opted not to renew Doug's contract for 2008 - and this was his final ride on the factory 4RT before moving on to Beta.
After the enthusiastic commentating team of Wayne Kershaw and Martin Crosswaite had been swept into the arena on a custom trike and the rider announcements made - when Bou actually fell-off his bike doing 360 degree spins! - it was straight into action with the All-British shoot-out which proved a major success (see separate story).
Shootout winner Michael Brown was then first into the arena for the Indoor proper and the crowd went wild as he cleaned the opening section to get the evening well and truly under way. The Sheffield running rules, introduced last year, really came into play then and undoubtedly helped Michael, with each section featuring a different rider going first on the opening lap - a much fairer system tha the World Championship rules.
So it was James Dabill, on the throaty-sounding Future-Montesa, into action next on the big boxes of the second hazard. It was a good effort by Dibs as well and he looked really confident, droppingjust a dab on his opening ride of the evening.
Doug was next in and he too received a fantastic welcome as he cleaned the trees, looking really confident in the process abd a great evening looked in prospect. Fujigas led the way on the giant ‘cotton reels' of the fourth, again taking a clean while Raga, who was to retire with a finger injury (see separate story) cleaned Martin Lampkin's new-for-2007 section which featured rocks and a lighthouse - and was sponsored by the organisers of the 2008 Bangor Irish World Champiuonship round. Nice idea, that.
The final section was the old-favourite roller coaster and Bou made light work of that to get his evening under way. Following that opening sequence, a further six laps of the arena were completed as each rider took the sections in turn, allowing plenty of breathing space between the hazards.
SHEFFIELD INTERNATIONAL INDOOR TRIAL
Hallam FM Arena, Sheffield
OVERALL: 1 Toni Bou (Repsol Montesa HRC) 2 marks lost, 2 Dougie Lampkin (Repsol Montesa HRC) 12, 3 Takahisa Fujinami (Repsol Montesa HRC) 26, 4 James Dabill (Future Montesa 4RT) 34, 5 Michael Brown (TTT Beta) 43.
LAP ONE: 1 Bou clean (faster time), 2 Lampkin clean, 3 Fujinami 1, 4 Dabill 8, 5 Brown 10, 6 Adam Raga (Gas Gas) 16.
LAP TWO: 1 Bou 1, 2 Lampkin 11, 3 Dabill 24, 4 Fujinami 25, 5 Brown 33.
for full report and pictures see T+MX News, Friday, January 4, 2008