Tommy is a Brit special
By Alex Hodgkinson on 26th Aug 11
Toni Cairoli and Ken Roczen marched relentlessly on towards another World MX1/ MX2 title-double for KTM at Matterley Basin, but there was plenty to inspire the home-fans as well Tommy Searles heroic surge up the leader-board to second in the MX2 opener, sixth overall for Jake Nicholls and fifth in MX1 for Brad Anderson, a seventh in the first moto for GP returnee Billy MacKenzie and the heartbreaking bad luck of Shaun Simpson!
MX2 CLASS
Roczen was bubbling enthusiasm about the Matterley track from the moment he walked the track on Friday: "This is the best track of the GP season. It's a really cool track!"
And with his now patented holeshots the German teenager simply romped away with qualification and both motos to set up the possibility of becoming the sport's youngest ever world champ on home turf at Gaildorf next weekend.
"So much could happen so I don't want to think about that yet, but that would be great to wrap it up before the final round, and the possibility of doing it in front of my home fans makes the thought even sweeter," he enthused.
"It's strange because I wasn't even thinking about it when I came here. I didn't want to extend my points lead something happened to Jeffrey."
But Kenny didn't need his Dutch rival to suffer misfortune. After 7-3 motos Herlings was the first to admit: "I just never got on with the track. I guess this place is a little bit ‘old school', so all I can say is, ‘Give me ‘new school' anytime!"
Team manager Stefan Everts hit the nail on the head: "This weekend showed Jeffrey that he still has to learn... certainly before next year!"
While Herlings went backwards from fourth to seventh in the opening moto, another KTM hero stepped into the breach as Joel Roelants cemented his claim to a Nations place by defying the factory bikes for half-an-hour.
Neither Van Horebeek nor Paulin could match his pace, and the way in which he pressured Searle to the chequered flag after finally second suggests that the Brit would have had a tough time catching him if the obstructive lapper Julien Lieber had not cost him a couple of seconds.
But nothing could be taken away from Searle's powerful ride up the leader-board: "It gets pretty frustrating when there are three KTMs in front of you every week, but the feeling was great to have the crowd behind me," he said.
"Every pass I could hear them, and it sent a shiver down my spine how they greeted the pass on Roelants for second."
In addition Jake Nicholls cemented his secure top ten ranking with a first moto eighth: "I made a few mistakes mid-moto but I got my act together at the end and just ran out of time to catch Herlings."
Max Anstie charged through the field from the outside gate and Elliott Banks-Browne salvaged 15th. It could have been even better after a top ten start but he admitted: "...I sprained my left wrist last week and it was agony in the last ten-minutes. I won't start race two."
Searle repeated his second spot in race two after a better start, but was never a danger to Roczen: "I had to put so much effort into that first moto that I already felt tired on the second lap," he said.
FOR FULL REPORT AND PICTURES SEE T+MX AUGUST 26
WORLD MX2 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 13 – Matterley Basin, nr Winchester, BRITAIN
1 Ken Roczen (D - Red Bull Teka KTM) 25 + 25 = 50
2 Tommy SEARLE (GB - CLS Monster PC Kaw) 22 + 22 = 44
3 Gautier Paulin (F - Monster Rinaldi Yam) 18 + 18 = 36
4 Jeff Herlings (NL - Red Bull Teka KTM) 14 + 20 = 34
5 Arnaud Tonus (CH - Bike-It Cosworth Yam) 12 + 16 = 28
6 Jake NICHOLLS (GB - HMP Red Bull KTM) 13 + 15 = 28
7 Christophe Charlier (F - Monster Gariboldi Yam) 10 + 14 = 24
8 Max ANSTIE (GB - CLS Monster PC Kaw) 11 + 13 = 24
9 Jordi Tixier (F - JM Nestaan KTM) 9 + 12 = 21
10 Joel Roelants (B - JM Nestaan KTM) 20 + 0 = 20
11 Harri Kullas (SF - Monster Gariboldi Yam) 8+11=19, 12 Valentin Teillet (F - Suzuki Europe MX2) 16+0=16, 13 Nico Aubin (F - HDI KTM) 7+8=15, 14 Jeremy Van Horebeek (B - Red Bull Teka KTM) 15+0=15, 15 Pascal Rauchenecker (A - JM Nestaan KTM) 4+9=13, 16 Jose Butron (E - Silver Action KTM) 0+10=10, 17 Filip Bengtsson (S - KTM) 2+6=8, 18 Petar Petrov (BG - Van Beers Yamaha) 3+5=8, 19 Nick Triest (B - Diga KTM) 0+7=7, 20 Elliott BANKS-BROWNE (GB - DB Honda) 6+0=6, 21 Even Heibye (N - KTM) 5+0=5, 22 Ludvig Soderberg (SF - Ice1 Kawasaki) 0+4=4, 23 Ivo Monticelli (I - Honda) 0+3=3, 24 Mike Kras (NL - Beursfoon Suzuki) 1+2=3, 25 Lweis Tombs (GB - MVR-D Honda) 0+1=1.
RACE ONE: 1 Roczen, 2 SEARLE, 3 Roelants, 4 Paulin, 5 Teillet, 6 Van Horebeek, 7 Herlings, 8 NICHOLLS, 9 Tonus, 10 ANSTIE, 11 Charlier, 12 Tixier, 13 Kullas, 14 Aubin, 15 BANKS-BROWNE, 16 Heibye, 17 Rauchenecker, 18 Petrov, 19 Bengtsson, 20 Kras.
RACE TWO: 1 Roczen, 2 SEARLE, 3 Herlings, 4 Paulin, 5 Tonus, 6 NICHOLLS, 7 Charlier, 8 ANSTIE, 9 Tixier, 10 Kullas, 11 Butron, 12 Rauchenecker, 13 Aubin, 14 Triest, 15 Bengtsson, 16 Petrov, 17 Soderberg, 18 Monticelli, 19 Kras, 20 Tombs.
SERIES STANDINGS after 13 (of 15) rounds: 1 Roczen 590 points, 2 Herlings 547, 3 SEARLE 479, 4 Paulin 425, 5 Tonus 353, 6 ANSTIE 342, 7 Osborne 295, 8 Kullas 287, 9 Aubin 242, 10 Roelants 226, 11 Charlier 203, 12 NICHOLLS 193, 13 Tixier 171, 14 Van Horebeek 133, 15 Butron 128, 16 Teillet 125, 17 Petrov 124, 18 Lupino 124, 19 Rauchenecker 95, 20 Coldenhoff 90,... 26 BANKS-BROWNE 23,... 46 BOOKER 4,... 52 Tombs 1,...
WORLD MX1 CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 13 – Matterley Basin, BRITAIN
1 Toni Cairoli (I - Red Bull Teka KTM) 20 + 25 = 45
2 Christophe Pourcel (F - CLS Monster PC Kaw) 25 + 20 = 45
3 Steven Frossard (F - Monster Rinaldi Yam) 22 + 22 = 44
4 Max Nagl (D - Red Bull Teka KTM) 16 + 16 = 32
5 Brad ANDERSON (GB - PAR Honda) 12 + 14 = 26
6 Jonathan Barragan (E - KRT Kawasaki) 7 + 18 = 25
7 Anthony Boissiere (F - Rockstar Suzuki) 11 + 12 = 23
8 Davide Guarneri (I - Rockstar Bud LMT Kaw) 13 + 10 = 23
9 Rui Goncalves (P - Honda World) 15 + 7 = 22
10 Carlos Campano (E - Andalucia Yamaha) 6 + 15 = 21
11 Kevin Strijbos (B - Delta Suzuki) 8+13=21, 12 Greg Aranda (F - Rockstar Bud Kawasaki) 9+9=18, 13 Tanel Leok (EW - Bonver TM) 18+0=18, 14 Shaun SIMPSON (GB - LS Honda) 5+11=16, 15 Billy MacKENZIE (GB - Maxxis Henderson Kaw) 14+0=14, 16 Xavier Boog (F - KRT Kawasaki) 10+0=10, 17 Matthias Walkner (A - BGR KTM) 0+8=8, 18 Manuel Monni (I - Salucci Honda) 2+6=8, 19 Marcus Schiffer (D - Suzuki Europe) 0+5=5, 20 Gunther Schmidinger (A - GF Schmidiger Honda) 0+4=4, 21 Gert Krestinov (EST - Maxxis Henderson Kaw) 1+3=4, 22 Tom CHURCH (GB - HMP Red Bull KTM) 4+0=4, 23 Martin BARR (IRE - Boost Energy KTM) 3+0=3, 24 Herjan Brakke (NL - Van Beers Yamaha) 0+2=2, 25 Alex SNOW (GB - Lanes Kawasaki) 0+1=1.
RACE ONE: 1 Christophe Pourcel, 2 Frossard, 3 Cairoli, 4 Tanel Leok, 5 Nagl, 6 Goncalves, 7 MacKENZIE, 8 Guarneri, 9 ANDERSON, 10 Boissiere, 11 Boog, 12 Aranda, 13 Strijbos, 14 Barragan, 15 Campano, 16 SIMPSON, 17 CHURCH, 18 BARR, 19 Monni, 20 Krestinov.
RACE TWO: 1 Cairoli, 2 Frossard, 3 Christophe Pourcel, 4 Barragan, 5 Nagl, 6 Campano, 7 ANDERSON, 8 Strijbos, 9 Boissiere, 10 SIMPSON, 11 Guarneri, 12 Aranda, 13 Walkner, 14 Goncalves, 15 Monni, 16 Schiffer, 17 Schmidinger, 18 Krestinov, 19 Brakke, 20 SNOW.
SERIES STANDINGS after 13 (of 15) rounds: 1 Cairoli 554 points, 2 Frossard 472, 3 Desalle 461, 4 Nagl 410, 5 Bobryshev 387, 6 Goncalves 371, 7 Philippaerts 308, 8 Barragan 279, 9 Boog 272, 10 De Dycker 268, 11 Tanel Leok 247, 12 Ramon 229, 13 Strijbos 225, 14 SIMPSON 186, 15 Boissiere 177, 16 Guarneri 162, 17 Aranda 84, 18 Campano 83, 19 Christophe Pourcel 69, 20 Schiffer 60,... 24 ANDERSON 38,... 26 Jason DOUGAN 26,... 33 MacKENZIE 14, 34 BARR 11, 35 CHURCH 11,... 50 SNOW 1,...
NEXT ROUND: September 4 – Gaildorf, GERMANY.
