Toni Bou! Toni Bou! Toni Bou!
By TMX Archives on 19th Dec 07
THE 2007 SPEA World Trials Championship was all about the 21-year-old Barcelona Boy and his mastery of his factory Repsol Montesa and the sections, whether in Spain, England, Guatemala or wherever. The fact is Toni won nine of the 11 days of competition and won his first World title at a canter.
Adam Raga, champion for the previous two-years, was Bou's only real challenger. And it says a lot of the Gas Gas rider's skills that, even though he allowed Toni to totally get inside his head, he finished miles ahead of 2004 champ Takahisa Fujinami...
In fact, just like Bou, Raga was never off the podium, finishing third just once, the first day of second round Guatemala, finished second no fewer than eight times and won the only two rounds that Bou didn't – the second day in Japan (a sweet one that, in Honda's backyard!) and the Czech Republic.
When Bou made the move from Beta's factory two-stroke REV3 to the factory four-stroke Repsol-Montesa no-one expected what would follow. Total domination. Bou took the World Indoor Championship by storm – which is where Raga got psyched-out – and just went from strength to strength for there. Adam did regroup and hit back but there was just no stopping the Bou steamroller.
So, with Bou and Raga out front, what was going on behind. Well, being honest, it was pretty much status quo from the previous year. There was the group of five riders – Bou and Raga obviously plus Fujigas, Dougie Lampkin and Sherco's Albert Cabestany.
The latter three were effectively battling for third in the series. Fujinami managed to slowly ease away from his challengers – helped by Lampkin's unlucky accident in Japan – while Cabestany pushed Doug down to fifth – by a single point!
The disappointment of the year was the form of Jeroni Fajardo who, in truth, never got near a podium placing and his sixth place was effectively nowhere.
Meanwhile James Dabill, adapting to the special 300cc four-stroke Future TRW Montesa, was involved in what turned out to be a year-long battle with Spaniard Marc Freixa who was developing the four-stroke Scorpa 250F. Dabill actually started the season brightly and looked like he could actually finish the season as high as sixth but unfortunately his results tailed-off and, to his personal disappointment and his team's, he dropped behind Freixa in the final round and had to settle for eighth. Not a bad performance but he was looking for better.
The season began in Spain at Mancha Real when the die was cast really with a Bou victory, Raga second and Dougie Lampkin getting his season away with a strong podium.
The season's surprise was next as, for the first time ever; the trials circus flew to Guatemala for the inaugural round in South America. The event itself was actually full of good natural hazards although the heat and humidity took its toll but inevitably the results all panned-out the same as ever with Bou on a maximum while Raga and Fuji disputed the podium places. Doug claimed a pair of solid fourth places.
2007 WORLD TRIALS CHAMPIONSHIP
(All scores to count) Rd 1 Rd 2 Rd 3 Rd 4 Rd 5 Rd 6 Rd 7 Rd 8 Rd 9
Apr 1 Apr 21/22 May 27 Jun 2/3 Jul 1 Jul 8 Jul 15 Jul 29 Sep 2
TOTAL SPA GUA FRA JAP ITA POL CZR GBR AND
1 Toni Bou (E - Repsol Montesa HRC) 214 20 20/20 20 20/17 20 20 17 20 20
2 Adam Raga (E - Raga Gas Gas) 191 17 15/17 17 17/20 17 17 20 17 17
3 Takahisa Fujinami (J - Repsol Montesa) 155 13 17/15 13 15/15 15 13 13 15 11
4 Albert Cabestany (E - Tarragona Sherco) 135 11 11/ 9 11 13/13 11 15 15 13 13
5 Dougie LAMPKIN (GB - Repsol Montesa) 134 15 13/13 15 10/ 9 13 11 9 11 15
6 Jeroni Fajardo (E - Beta) 104 9 9/ 8 10 11/11 8 8 11 9 10
7 Marc Freixa (E - 250F Scorpa) 95 8 10/11 8 5/ 6 10 10 8 10 9
8 James DABILL (GB - Future Montesa) 94 10 8/10 9 9/ 8 9 9 10 7 5
9 Daniel Oliveras (E - Oliveras Sherco) 52 3 7/ 5 6 4/ 3 7 6 6 3 2
10 Christophe Bruand (F - Sherco France) 37 1 6/ 4 7 2/ - 6 3 7 - 1
11 Jerome Bethune (F - Maya Beta) 31 7 5/ 2 3 1/ - 4 5 - 1 3
12 Daniele Maurino (I - Beta) 29 - 3/ 7 5 -/ 2 - 2 2 4 4
13 Jordi Pasquet (E - Beta 4T) 24 6 -/ - 1 -/ - 5 - - 6 6
14 Daniel Gibert (E - Montesa 4RT) 22 - -/ - 2 -/ - 2 4 4 2 8
15 Shaun MORRIS (GB - Prolec Gas Gas) 18 5 2/ 6 - -/ - - - - 5 -
16 Tsuyoshi Ogawa (J - Future Montesa) 18 - 4/ 3 4 -/ 1 - 1 5 - -
17 Kenichi Kuroyama (J - Yamaha) 17 - -/ - - 7/10 - - - - -
18 Tomoyuki Ogawa (J - Honda) 15 - -/ - - 8/ 7 - - - - -
19 Tadeusz Blazusiak (PL - TTT Beta) 11 4 -/ - - -/ - - 7 - - -
20 Fumitaka Nozaki (J - Yamaha) 10 - -/ - - 6/ 4 - - - - -
21 Graham JARVIS (GB - Jarvis Sherco) 8 - -/ - - -/ - - - - 8 -
22 Isao Shibuya (J - Beta) 8 - -/ - - 3/ 5 - - - - -
23 Michael BROWN (GB - TTT Beta) 7 - -/ - - -/ - - - - - 7
24 Francesco Iolitta (I - Miton Sherco) 4 - -/ - - -/ - 1 - 3 - -
25 Michele Orizio (I - Scorpa) 3 - -/ - - -/ - 3 - - - -
26 Xavier Leon (E - Gas Gas) 2 2 -/ - - -/ - - - - - -
27 Henri Himmanen (SF - Sherco) 1 - -/ - - -/ - - - 1 - -
for full report and pictures see T+MX News, Friday, December 21, 2007