Tommy Searle - Back on form!
By Sean Lawless on 30th Aug 17
Tommy Searle silenced criticism surrounding his selection for Team GB for this years Motocross of Nations with a dominant double win at the final round of the Maxxis ACU British Motocross Championship at Foxhill.
The 28-year-old's inclusion on the team had provoked a social media storm with many feeling that it was wrong to select a rider who hadn't raced this year until the middle of August over, among others, newly-crowned Maxxis MX2 rider Ben Watson.
However, on Sunday the Monster Energy DRT Kawasaki rider showed he'd shaken off the cobwebs of his enforced lay-off through a knee and then a hand injury with two commanding wins in the MX1 class.
After winning the second moto by over four seconds Searle was blunt in his appraisal of the situation.
"I didn't feel like I had a point to prove today," he said. "I just came here to race and if people doubt me they doubt me but I have nothing to prove. For the des Nations my results in the past speak for themselves and that's why I've been chosen. I've shown them today even though I didn't need to but I did anyway.
"It's important for me to race and I'm enjoying racing at the moment probably more than I have done in the past just because I haven't really got much pressure on myself.
"I feel like I'm riding the bike a little bit better than I have done in the past. It's been good being back with the team and my bike's a lot better than it has been in the past as well. My starts are good and I'm just enjoying being back out here."
There was also widespread online opinion that he should race the MX2 class at Foxhill to prove his speed on a 250 but Searle - a three-time world MX2 vice-champion - was quick to point out the impracticalities of such a move.
"I think this week I'm going to get back on a 250. A lot of people have said why didn't I race it here but it's not as easy as just jumping on a 250. The team only got chosen last week and there's another 250 rider on our team and he's got that bike and stuff needs to be made to do the job properly.
"It's a race bike and a race engine and it has to be monitored quite carefully with the stuff they do so it's important that when I get on it that we take the right steps."
