Tommy's gunning Rattray down
By TMX Archives on 23rd Jul 08
TOMMY Searle bounced back into contention for the MX2 world title after defeating series leader Tyla Rattray in his own back yard at Nelspruit, South Africa, on Sunday, while Toni Cairoli effectively wrote himself out of the title chase after suffering a knee injury and a zero payday.
Shaun Simpson celebrated his nomination for Nations glory by again just missing the podium but the Scot consolidated his fourth place in the standings and could even have a shot at third if Cairoli's injuries prove more substantial than hoped.
Billy MacKenzie was seventh overall in a tight MX1 tussle, again won by Jonathan Barragan, but Stephen Sword had a traumatic day with incidents on the opening lap of both motos on his return to racing but still pushed until he was in the top ten at the end of the day.
Celebrating his nomination for the Nations squad Shaun Simpson finished just outside the podium
positions in MX2.
Suzuki Swift had their best day of the year with Pascal Leuret gritting his teeth on the way to ninth and Jake Nicholls a career-best 12th.
All other UK travellers - Steve Boniface, James Noble, Tom Church, Carlos Campano and Elliott Banks-Browne - scored.
MX2
RACING started in turbulent fashion as Nico Aubin led away the MX2 opener from Searle with Simpson quickly passing Steven Frossard for third, but Rattray was feeling the pressure of a home race as he let the front-wheel tuck in on lap four and Sword was right at the back after falling before turn one, but the most sensational occurence of all was Cairoli's withdrawal after just four laps.
The Italian had started top six, but his path crossed that of Davide Guarneri and both men suffered. The Ricci star gradually slipped back to eighth after wrenching his ligament-less right knee, and Cairoli was in agony with ligament damage to his left knee. The Italian federation doctor strapped it up during the interval, but the champion soon withdrew from race two after two heavy landings and immediately announced that he would be seeking an operation to repair cartilidge damage this week but intended to be in Lommel next week.
Sword had gone down within 50 yards of the gate after banging bars with Rattray and spent the entire race recovering to tenth, while Searle and Simpson defended UK honour up front.
"There were not a lot of places where you could pass cleanly so I spent the first few laps deciding where to get Aubin,” explained Searle. "I swept wide at one turn and then dived inside him at the next.” Once in the lead Searle was never challenged again.
WORLD MX2 MOTOCROSS CHAMPS
Rd 10 – Nelspruit, SOUTH AFRICA
1 Tommy SEARLE (GB - Red Bull KTM) 25 + 22 = 47
2 Tyla Rattray (ZA - Red Bull KTM) 20 + 25 = 45
3 Nicolas Aubin (F - Ricci Yamaha) 22 + 16 = 38
4 Steven Frossard (F - CLS Kawasaki) 16 + 20 = 36
5 Shaun SIMPSON (GB - KTM UK) 18 + 18 = 36
6 Xavier Boog (F - Inotec Suzuki) 15 + 14 = 29
7 Jeremy Van Horebeek (B - Champ KTM) 12 + 15 = 27
8 Marvin Musquin (F - NGS Honda) 14 + 13 = 27
9 Pascal Leuret (F - Swift Suzuki) 9 + 11 = 20
10 Stephen SWORD (GB - Molson Kawasaki) 11 + 8 = 19
11 Davide Guarneri (I - Ricci Yamaha) 13+6=19, 12 Jake NICHOLLS (GB - Swift Suzuki) 5+10=15, 13 Manuel Monni (I - 3C Yamaha) 8+7=15, 14 Rui Goncalves (P - Red Bull KTM) 10+4=14, 15 Jeremy Tarroux (F - Silver Action KTM) 4+9=13, 16 Anthony Boissiere (F - HDI KTM) 0+12=12, 17 Alessandro Lupino (I - Red Bull Yamaha) 6+5=11, 18 Gregory Aranda (F - CLS Kawasaki) 7+0=7, 19 Michael Kok (ZA - KTM) 2+3=5, 20 Deny Philippaerts (I - 3C Yamaha) 3+2=5, 21 Ross Branch (ZA - Kawasaki) 0+1=1, 22 Elliott BANKS-BROWNE (GB - Swift Suzuki) 1+0=1.
RACE ONE: 1 SEARLE, 2 Aubin, 3 Rattray, 4 SIMPSON, 5 Frossard, 6 Boog , 7 Marvin Musquin, 8 Guarneri, 9 Van Horebeek, 10 SWORD, 11 Goncalves, 12 Leuret, 13 Monni, 14 Aranda, 15 Lupino, 16 NICHOLLS, 17 Tarroux, 18 Philippaerts, 19 Kok, 20 BANKS-BROWNE.
RACE TWO: 1 Rattray, 2 SEARLE, 3 Frossard, 4 SIMPSON, 5 Aubin, 6 Van Horebeek, 7 Boog , 8 Marvin Musquin, 9 Boissiere, 10 Leuret, 11 NICHOLLS, 12 Tarroux, 13 SWORD, 14 Monni, 15 Guarneri, 16 Lupino, 17 Goncalves, 18 Kok, 19 Philippaerts, 20 Branch.
SERIES STANDINGS after 10 (of 15) rounds: 1 Rattray 416 points, 2 SEARLE 395, 3 Cairoli 357, 4 SIMPSON 287, 5 Aubin 243, 6 Goncalves 241, 7 Boog 211, 8 Van Horebeek 197, 9 Frossard 196, 10 Monni 187, 11 Marvin Musquin 173, 12 SWORD 170, 13 Boissiere 158, 14 Tarroux 140, 15 Guarneri 133, 16 Aranda 101, 17 Roelants 99, 18 Paulin 95, 19 NUNN 73, 20 Avis 56,... 23 DOUGAN 38,... 30 BANKS-BROWNE 18,... 32 NICHOLLS 17,... 48 BRADSHAW 2,...
NEXT ROUND: Aug 3 – Lommel, BELGIUM.
MX1
THE deep dirt of the start straight was heaven-sent for KTM and Max Nagl holeshot both MX1 motos to lead for more than half of each race.
The German even opened up a gap in the early stages of each moto, but he was closed down in the opener by Steve Ramon and had no answer when the Belgian charged four laps from the end: "I started concentrating on Steve rather than riding my own race.”
David Philippaerts and Barragan also went past the German in the closing laps: "I started making mistakes and they were simply faster than me.”
MacKenzie had initially ridden strongly up the leaderboard to third and was actually closing on Ramon, but his challenge started to fade after 15 minutes: "I had been using outside lines to make passes but they weren't the fastest. I was afraid to switch my lines though and paid the penalty as Philippaerts led the others through. I got a bit of arm pump too, but I rode through it and was coming strongly again at the end.” He finished seventh.
WORLD MX1 MOTOCROSS CHAMPS
Rd 10 – Nelspruit, SOUTH AFRICA
1 Jonathan Barragan (E - Silver Action KTM) 20 + 25 = 45
2 Maximilian Nagl (D - Red Bull KTM) 18 + 22 = 40
3 Steve Ramon (B - Teka Suzuki) 25 + 13 = 38
4 David Philippaerts (I - Monster Yamaha) 22 + 15 = 37
5 Sebastien Pourcel (F - GPKR Kawasaki) 13 + 20 = 33
6 Josh Coppins (NZ - Monster Yamaha) 12 + 18 = 30
7 Billy MacKENZIE (GB - Monster Honda) 14 + 16 = 30
8 Ken De Dycker (B - Teka Suzuki) 16 + 14 = 30
9 Tanel Leok (EW - Kawasaki Europe) 15 + 10 = 25
10 Manuel Priem (B - Kawasaki Europe) 11 + 12 = 23
11 Marcus Schiffer (D - Sarholz KTM) 9+9=18, 12 Steve Boniface (F - Honda) 8+8=16, 13 James NOBLE (GB - KTM UK) 7+7=14, 14 Clement Desalle (B - Inotec Suzuki) 0+11=11, 15 Tom CHURCH (GB - Molson Kawasaki) 5+6=11, 16 Carlos Campano (E - Utag Yamaha) 6+5=11, 17 Julien Bill (CH - Martin Honda) 10+0=10, 18 Richard Van der Westhuizen (ZA - Suzuki) 4+4=8, 19 Brandon Wheeler (ZA - Suzuki) 2+3=5, 20 Anthony Reynard (ZA - Yamaha) 3+1=4, 21 Jonannes De Bruin (ZA - Yamaha) 0+2=2, 22 Kyle Bowen (ZA - KTM) 1+0=1.
RACE ONE: 1 Ramon, 2 Philippaerts, 3 Barragan, 4 Nagl, 5 De Dycker, 6 Tanel Leok, 7 MacKENZIE, 8 Pourcel, 9 Coppins, 10 Priem, 11 Bill, 12 Schiffer, 13 Boniface, 14 NOBLE, 15 Campano, 16 CHURCH, 17 Van der Westhuisen, 18 Reynard, 19 Wheeler, 20 Bowen.
RACE TWO: 1 Barragan, 2 Nagl, 3 Pourcel, 4 Coppins, 5 MacKENZIE, 6 Philippaerts, 7 De Dycker, 8 Ramon, 9 Priem, 10 Desalle, 11 Tanel Leok, 12 Schiffer, 13 Boniface, 14 NOBLE, 15 CHURCH, 16 Campano, 17 Van der Westhuisen, 18 Wheeler, 19 De Bruin, 20 Reynard.
SERIES STANDINGS after 10 (of 15) rounds: 1 Philippaerts 339 points, 2 Ramon 328, 3 Coppins 316, 4 De Dycker 296, 5 Barragan 284, 6 Pourcel 274, 7 Nagl 253, 8 MacKENZIE 235, 9 Tanel Leok 234, 10 De Reuver 178, 11 Desalle 173, 12 Priem 160, 13 Bill 141, 14 Nemeth 115, 15 Brown 107, 16 Aigar Leok 97, 17 Schiffer 95, 18 NOBLE 93, 19 CHURCH 66, 20 Boniface 63,... 25 ANDERSON 30,... 38 SMITH 5,... 42 ROSE 3,...
NEXT ROUND: Aug 3 – Lommel, BELGIUM.
For full report see T+MX NEWS, Friday, July 25, 2008