Tommy guns for glory
By TMX Archives on 2nd May 11
Tommy Searle kept his world title chase on course with another podium place at Valkenswaard on Easter Monday.
But the Dutch GP was KTM all the way as their factory riders went 1-2 in both MX1 and MX2, Toni Cairoli completing a hat-trick with the 350, while Jeffrey Herlings repeated his 2010 double in the smaller class.
Max Anstie was fast but with little luck on his 18th birthday. He still made the top ten though, as Arnaud Tonus and Zach Osborne both ended the weekend top six in the MX2 table on Steve Dixon's Yams.
Martin Barr deservedly ended the day as top MX1 Brit, joined in the points by Shaun Simpson, Jason Dougan and Gert Krestinov.
Despite the recent drought, earth rotavation, liberal watering and a plethora of non-stop action from the crack of dawn meant the Eurocircuit was as rough as it gets and the difference between the best and the rest was huge, with home hero Herlings lapping into the top ten each time.
The MX2 opener seemed over as Dutch teenager Herlings holeshot and took off into the distance, but team-mate Ken Roczen was quickly second and amazingly closed the sandhopper back down. I didn't want to push too hard too early in the heat
because I know just how strong Ken can be at the end, reckoned the local hero.
But when Ken crashed a few laps in I pushed to gap him.
The race for the win was over, but there was plenty of action further down the leaderboard.
Birthday boy Anstie had started fifth and slipped off early on, but was back to seventh before a big one which cost him a lap: My bike went into the crowd and hit my practice mechanic after I went over a berm in a corner I was jumping into. Searle had moved through to third in workmanlike fashion and, with the leaders long gone, was content to keep all challengers off his rear wheel.
Gautier Paulin was battling stomach cramps and eventually lost contact, but Tonus was on a charge and kept Searle honest to the flag, while teammate Osborne persevered for sixth after losing their tow early on.
Race two saw the initial roles of the KTM duo reversed, but Herlings, even if a little hectic, was in no mood to hang about this time ìI had just passed Ken the first time when the back end stepped out and I went over the bars and banged my shoulder, he said.
Within two laps the KTMs were together again as Herlings outpaced even his teammate by three seconds a lap, and there was no hanging about this time I went for it until I had 15-20 seconds and then just kept it.
Roczen admitted defeat: I let Jeffrey past and wanted to follow, but I just couldn't push to stay with him.
Searle's hopes of staying with them went at turn two. Someone dislodged a haybale into my path and the Brit needed a lap longer than race one to make it through to third. With Osborne even further back on lap one, it was again Tonus who offered the strongest challenge and the Swiss actually surged past Searle for third this time. I felt good, but then I crashed on a big jump and had to settle for fourth, he said.
Tommy was confident the incident had altered nothing: He was pushing hard so I let him by. I knew I could have passed back at the end but he made a mistake and saved me the trouble.
Anstie's second ride was even more turbulent: I got caught up in a crash on the second straight away and had to come from last.
I tagged in behind Herlings when he lapped me and at the end I was the stronger so I unlapped myself and went after Zach.
The 18-year-old came up just four seconds short.
FOR FULL REPORT AND PICTURES SEE T+MX APRIL 29
WORLD MX1 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 2 Valkenswaard, HOLLAND
1 Toni Cairoli (I - Red Bull Teka KTM) 25 + 22 = 47
2 Max Nagl (D - Red Bull Teka KTM) 20 + 25 = 45
3 David Philippaerts (I - Monster Rinaldi Yam) 18 + 20 = 38
4 Steven Frossard (F - Monster Rinaldi Yamaha) 22 + 16 = 38
5 Rui Goncalves (P - Honda World) 15 + 18 = 33
6 Clement Desalle (B - Rockstar Suzuki) 16 + 15 = 31
7 Ken De Dycker (B - LS Honda) 14 + 13 = 27
8 Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS - Honda World) 11 + 14 = 25
9 Tanel Leok (EW - Bonver TM) 12 + 12 = 24
10 Steve Ramon (B - Rockstar Suzuki) 13 + 9 = 22
11 Davide Guarneri (I - Rockstar Bud LMT Kawasaki) 9+10=19, 12 Jonathan Barragan (E - KRT Kawasaki) 7+11=18, 13 Anthony Boissiere (F - Rockstar Suzuki) 6+8=14, 14 Xavier Boog (F - KRT Kawasaki) 4+7=11, 15 Marc DeReuver (NL - Van Beers Yamaha) 10+0=10, 16 Kevin Strijbos (B - Delta Suzuki) 5+3=8, 17 Martin BARR (IRE - Proppa.com KTM) 8+0=8, 18 Gert Krestinov (EST - Maxxis Henderson Kawasaki) 0+6=6, 19 Matthias Walkner (A - BGR KTM) 0+5=5, 20 Shaun SIMPSON (GB - LS Honda) 1+4=5, 21 Jason DOUGAN (GB - Bike-It Cosworth Yamaha) 3+2=5, 22 Ben Townley (NZ - CLS Monster PC Kawasaki) 2+0=2, 23 Santtu Tiainen (SF - Kawasaki) 0+1=1.
RACE ONE: 1 Cairoli, 2 Frossard, 3 Nagl, 4 Philippaerts, 5 Desalle, 6 Goncalves, 7 De Dycker, 8 Ramon, 9 Tanel Leok, 10 Bobryshev, 11 DeReuver, 12 Guarneri, 13 BARR, 14 Barragan, 15 Boissiere, 16 Strijbos, 17 Boog, 18 DOUGAN, 19 Townley, 20 SIMPSON.
RACE TWO: 1 Nagl, 2 Cairoli, 3 Philippaerts, 4 Goncalves, 5 Frossard, 6 Desalle, 7 Bobryshev, 8 De Dycker, 9 Tanel Leok, 10 Barragan, 11 Guarneri, 12 Ramon, 13 Boissiere, 14 Boog, 15 Krestinov, 16 Walkner, 17 SIMPSON, 18 Strijbos, 19 DOUGAN, 20 Tiainen.
SERIES STANDINGS after 2 (of 15) rounds: 1 Frossard 85 points, 2 Nagl 80, 3 Desalle 78, 4 Cairoli 72, 5 Philippaerts 63, 6 Goncalves 62, 7 Barragan 53, 8 Bobryshev 52, 9 Guarneri 45, 10 Ramon 42, 11 Tanel Leok 36, 12 Strijbos 34, 13 Boog 34, 14 De Dycker 31, 15 Boissiere 28, 16 SIMPSON 18, 17 DeReuver 13, 18 DOUGAN 12, 19 Campano 11, 20 BARR 8,Ö
NEXT ROUND: May 15 ñ Glen Helen, California, USA.
WORLD MX2 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 2 Valkenswaard, HOLLAND
1 Jeff Herlings (NL - Red Bull Teka KTM) 25 + 25 = 50
2 Ken Roczen (D - Red Bull Teka KTM) 22 + 22 = 44
3 Tommy SEARLE (GB - CLS Monster PC Kaw) 20 + 20 = 40
4 Arnaud Tonus (CH - Bike-It Cosworth Yamaha) 18 + 18 = 36
5 Gautier Paulin (F - Monster Rinaldi Yamaha) 16 + 15 = 31
6 Joel Roelants (B - JM Nestaan KTM) 13 + 16 = 29
7 Harri Kullas (SF - Monster Gariboldi Yamaha) 14 + 14 = 28
8 Zach Osborne (USA - Bike-It Cosworth Yam) 15 + 13 = 28
9 Max ANSTIE (GB - CLS Monster PC Kaw) 11 + 12 = 23
10 Nikolaj Larsen (DK - KTM) 10 + 9 = 19
11 Christophe Charlier (F - Monster Gariboldi Yamaha) 7+11=18, 12 Glen Coldenhoff (NL - Jumbo TvE Yamaha) 9+8=17, 13 Jose Butron (E - Silver Action KTM) 8+7=15, 14 Nico Aubin (F - HDI KTM) 12+0=12, 15 Petar Petrov (BG - Van Beers Yamaha) 0+10=10, 16 Jordi Tixier (F - JM Nestaan KTM) 3+6=9, 17 Ludvig Soderberg (SF - Ice1 Kawasaki) 2+5=7, 18 Mike Kras (NL - Beursfoon Suzuki) 6+0=6, 19 Lars Oldekamp (D - Scott KTM) 5+0=5, 20 Nick Triest (B - Diga KTM) 0+4=4, 21 Pascal Rauchenecker (A - JM Nestaan KTM) 4+0=4, 22 Alessandro Lupino (I - Ricci Husqvarna) 0+3=3, 23 Roberts Justs (LV - Latvia Elksni Honda) 0+2=2, 24 Petr Smitka (CZ - Bonver TM) 0+1=1, 25 Valentin Guillod (CH - Scott KTM) 1+0=1.
RACE ONE: 1 Herlings, 2 Roczen, 3 SEARLE, 4 Tonus, 5 Paulin, 6 Osborne, 7 Kullas, 8 Roelants, 9 Aubin, 10 ANSTIE, 11 Larsen, 12 Coldenhoff, 13 Butron, 14 Charlier, 15 Kras, 16 Oldekamp, 17 Rauchenecker, 18 Tixier, 19 Soderberg, 20 Guillod.
RACE TWO: 1 Herlings, 2 Roczen, 3 SEARLE, 4 Tonus, 5 Roelants, 6 Paulin, 7 Kullas, 8 Osborne, 9 ANSTIE, 10 Charlier, 11 Petrov, 12 Larsen, 13 Coldenhoff, 14 Butron, 15 Tixier, 16 Soderberg, 17 Triest, 18 Lupino, 19 Justs, 20 Smitka.
SERIES STANDINGS after 2 (of 15) rounds: 1 Roczen 94 points, 2 Herlings 86, 3 SEARLE 84, 4 Tonus 67, 5 Paulin 65, 6 Osborne 60, 7 ANSTIE 51, 8 Roelants 48, 9 Kullas 46, 10 Aubin 36, 11 Charlier 36, 12 Van Horebeek 31, 13 Coldenhoff 31, 14 Butron 21, 15 Tixier 20, 16 Larsen 19, 17 Karro 15, 18 Lupino 14, 19 Rauchenecker 14, 20 Petrov 13,Ö
NEXT ROUND: May 15 ñ Glen Helen, California, USA.
