Tommy Rocks on
By TMX Archives on 10th Jan 14
Britains Tommy Searle took home the Rookie of the Year award from his debut season in the World MX1 Championship.But the 24-year-old Brit admits he was looking for better than sixth in his first year on a 450.
"I'm not really satisfied, but we learned a lot as a team and that's the main thing. And we can take what we learned into next year,” he said.
"I knew it was going to take time. We worked as a team, tried to improve.
"We both made mistakes, both me and the team, but we have learnt from them.
"I was aware from the word go that I had to find my feet, but already in Thailand I had a fourth and a fifth and felt good there.”
So where did they stray off-course?
"We've made a lot of changes to the bike all year, making the bike faster and faster to try and help with the starts,” added Searle.
"But that wasn't the best way to go. I'm not the biggest guy out there and the changes made it harder for me to ride.
"That's why I've been inconsistent on lap times.
"With a 250 you can't have your bike too fast. I always wanted more and more power, but that's not the way on a 450. It's just a matter of learning it as a rider and as a team.
"Harry Nolte is a switched-on guy and we've got good guys working around us, but you can get too wrapped up in it and end up going the wrong way with settings and power output.
"The bike as a whole is good but we continued to struggle with the starts. It's very small thing we need to change, but we just had a lack of communication within the team and how the bike is.
"I wanted them to slow the bike down to take away the aggression, but in the end we made it so aggressive that it was hard for me to ride.
"It's a knife edge to set the bike up ideally. Everyone's bikes are so good. My bike is also a brilliant bike – the Kawasaki is just so good from stock already – but we are just trying that little bit too hard to find the right solution. We have been changing stuff that didn't need changing and ended up going the wrong way, changing something else to compensate when we should have gone back to our previous settings and started again.
"It's just a constant attempt to find that little edge and sometimes you find yourself going backwards.”
So how does Tommy evaluate the way the 2013 season developed?
"I had some steady races, then some really good second motos when I was one of the fastest out there, and from Sweden I was running the fastest times of anybody at the end of every race.
"I think the team made a big step then and the tracks suited me quite well, particularly the way we had made the bike.
"The main thing I have struggled with is my starts.
"That is where we need to work most, because I know that if I can get a start, then I can run with them, and that has been one of the main things we have been searching for all year.
"The only actual holeshot I got was in the heat race in Germany and I won it convincingly.
"But even when we have tried to make the bike for the starts there has still been something lacking out of the gate and it has made the bike so hard to ride.
"The bike has been so aggressive and when I've been coming through the pack I haven't been able to get my own rhythm.
"I need to be able to move around the track to make moves quickly and the bike was simply too aggressive to let me do that.
"I wouldn't have expected to come out of the season without a single podium. It hasn't happened but I'm still in one piece.
"Other guys like Frossard have moved up from MX2 and got podiums straight away, but he never finished a season and I think the level is a lot higher than it was then.
"A lot of it is down to the tracks as well... and a little bit of luck or lack of it.
"That podium is still missing, but we had a lot of bad luck, first the ten-place demotion for the yellow flag I didn't see in Sweden, then the incident with Desalle in Finland.”
Feuds are not unknown in MX1 and ‘The Panda' – Desalle – has a reputation for taking no prisoners, but Tommy doesn't view the Hyvinkaa incident as part of an on-going dispute:
"That was the only real incident I've had with him. I had no trouble with him all year apart from that. We had good races in Sweden and Germany.
"I don't mind close racing, but I think that day in Finland he was out of line. He was obviously a bit annoyed that I had come from so far back to pass him.
"That can happen, we're all racers wanting to win and we can all make mistakes.
"It was out of line what he did, though he doesn't see it that way. But that's what it is and we'll move on.”
After showing sensational speed through the North European tour, Tommy's form sagged for the final three rounds.
"I don't think I rode too badly at Loket, but the track there didn't allow me to go fast.
"Everybody was going the same speed and it is so difficult to pass at Loket, while at the four GPs before that...
"Take Germany for example; it was one of those tracks where the rider really could make the difference, while at Loket if you're not feeling 100% with the bike, it becomes a difficult track to ride.”
Tommy's home GP at Matterley Basin was a disappointment for both him and the fans, particularly after the glorious double-victory in 2012.
"Realistically I wanted to win the British GP, but we struggled with setup all weekend. In the races I crashed by myself and then got caught up in somebody else's crash on the first lap.
"It just didn't want to happen this year.”
With a year's experience in the major league behind him, Tommy reflects on the reality of MX1.
"As a whole you can't expect to go for a championship in your first year against a guy like Cairoli on a team with so much experience and know-how from De Carli and KTM.
"Desalle started in MX1 but took a lot of years to build up, even Cairoli was 22 when he moved up.
"I think Herlings will be a contender right away when he moves up in 2015, but it won't do him any harm staying another year in MX2.
"Cairoli is simply very good. He's got all the pieces of the puzzle around him.
"You can see that from his starts all the way through to the way he can find that extra something when he needs it at the end of the races.
"He has holeshots almost every weekend and is so fit that he can push at the end of the motos when he needs to.
"He's obviously talented, has all the bits of the puzzle around him and we have to step up if we are going to beat him – me, the team, everyone.
"To be at the top you've got to step it up and put the pieces together better than Cairoli and KTM. I could work as hard as I want but if some of the pieces are not there, it won't happen.
"The pace at the front is so strong and it's not a matter of being there for one race, you have to be there every week like Cairoli.
"He had one moto out of the first four until he had nearly won the title – that says it all.
"I know what I can do. I just need to get it done. It's all about building and learning, gaining experience. I don't think I've come in over my head, gone crazy and ended up hurting myself which is one good thing.
"You just get so caught up in wanting to win. Crashing is part of the sport and you can get hurt.
"It can just happen to anyone, any time, but I think with my ability as a rider I should have been a lot closer to the top-three every week.
"On speed I was in there week in, week out, but a big part of it is the starts and another is consistency.
"I could be the fastest, but then I would have a bad lap and lose it again.
"There are guys out there who don't have as much talent but have learned what they need to do and they are putting themselves up there just through hard work and determination.
"That's the difference between MX1 and MX2. You have a lot of strong guys and their experience can pay off. Everyone is out there racing to win and nobody expects or gives much away.”
So where do Tommy and the CLS team take it from here?
"It's just small things and we will work together more as a team next year, closer with a lot more feedback.
"I need to step up, they need to step up – but we can do that. They're not worried about me as a rider and I know they have the technical background. I'm sure we will find the solutions we need.
"I don't think it mattered that I was in England and the team in Holland because you don't learn a lot testing the bike in Holland when a maximum of three GPs out of 18 are in sand.
"And even two of those in Finland and Latvia are not really deep sand. I was one of the fastest at both even though I'm not a sand rider.
"I think it's good to ride with the team in the week, but we need to do testing in the south of Europe – in Spain, France or Italy – to get productive testing.
"We need to do a lot more of that in 2014, particularly at the start of the year. We have already sat down, discussed what we need to do, how we need to do it, and we have agreed that that is what we need to do in January and February.
"It's a step forward we have to make as a team without falling into the pitfalls.
"We will have a lot more support from the factory in 2014.
"We will have different engine parts, which have not been available to us in the past.
"Perhaps some of them will not be best for our bike, but it is down to us to work out what is the best combination for our bike and for me.
"But having more stuff available to test gives us much more opportunity.
"The team realise what I can do and where I should be, and we can only look to improve for 2014.”
