Turning Japanese
By TMX Archives on 26th Aug 11
THE 2011 SPEA FIM World Trials Championship made its controversial trip to Japan last weekend with a depleted field of European riders boosted by an influx of home riders looking for their day of glory on the world stage.
This cut Bou's Championship lead to just 13-points although with just the final two-days of competition in France to come he is still a comfortable favourite to retain his crown.
The Japanese event was once again staged at the Twin-Ring Motegi race circuit where the steep perimeter bankings play host to most of the 15 sections which were tackled twice each day. The sections were in very slippery state on both days with Saturday's being affected by heavy overnight rain while a steady drizzle on Sunday ensured a further lack of grip.
Bou, on the Repsol Montesa and Raga on the factory Gas Gas, with Dougie Lampkin on duty as team manager, were a class apart after Fujinami, on the second factory Repsol Mont gave himself an insurmountable handicap by fiving the third and fourth sections and Fujigas eventually finished a distant third.
Raga led Bou by a single mark after the opening 15 subs but Bou managed to put a two mark buffer between himself and his rival second time round and that proved the crucial difference.
Fuji only just kept Ossa's Jeroni Fajardo off the podium as Jeroni fived the final man-made section – just as he had on the opening lap – and those ten marks cost him a certain third.
Kenichi Kuroyama, a former World Championship crowd favourite, was the best of the nine Japanese enjoying a one-off ride in the series on the four-stroke Yamaha in fifth with Loris Gubian sixth while Michael Brown was pushed back to ninth by home riders Fumitaki Nozaki and Tomoyuki Ogawa, both former WTC regulars.
On Sunday the scores were even higher as the incessant rain made conditions very difficult but Raga rose to the occasion to take a convincing victory by ten marks from Fujigas with Bou a further ten marks in arrears. Fujigas took a tremendous fall in the tough tenth hazard and it looked all over but the tough Barcelona resident incredibly bounced back and took second from his Repsol Montesa team-mate Bou.
Kuroyama kept up his good form to improve on his opening day fifth with fourth place on Sunday while Britain's Gas Gas ace Michael Brown jumped-up to fifth place, a much better result while Fajardo was heading the other way to a disappointing ninth following a miserable string of eight fives in succession to finish his weekend off.
For Brown, the prize was to jump ahead of James Dabill in the series standings as Dibs and his Beta team elected not to travel to Japan.
All stand for Jack Sheppard – World Youth Trials Champion!
For Britain's Jack Sheppard, going to Japan was always a big risk, but one worth taking. Jack has been nursing a wrist injury all season that will not get better without an operation. Worse, it could also fail completely at any moment. Which is why Jack wanted to take the risk and attempt to tie-up the title in Japan -- then come home and have the op first thing to allow plenty of time for it to heal before tackling next season.
And that is exactly what the tall, quietly-spoken 18-year-old East Anglian feet-up prospect did. With his main title rivals staying home in Europe there were at least two other Europeans in the class, which again was boosted by several home grown challenger, Spaniards Jesus Martin and Ignacio Martin. On the opening day Jack got the job done, dropping 64 marks to the 85 of Jesus and 95 of Ignacio.
On day two, after the organisers eased several of the sections, Jack moved into overdrive and enjoyed a superb ride, dropping a mere 26 marks in total, with laps of 14 and 12, while his rivals could not make much headway over their previous day's effort and Jack's winning margin was an incredible 45 marks.
Said Jack: "I am just happy to get the job done. This is what we set out to achieve at the start of the year and now it has come true!"
FOR FULL REPORT AND PICTURES SEE T+MX AUGUST 26
WORLD TRIALS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 7 – Twin Ring Motegi, JAPAN
DAY ONE
1 Toni Bou (E - Montesa) 15 + 16 = 31
2 Adam Raga (E - Gas Gas) 14 + 18 = 32
3 Takahisa Fujinami (J - Montesa) 26 + 38 = 64
4 Jeroni Fajardo (E - Ossa) 38 + 27 = 65
5 Kenichi Kuroyama (J - Yamaha) 39 + 34 = 73
6 Loris Gubian (F - Gas Gas) 47 + 46 = 93
7 Fumitaka Nozaki (J - Yamaha) 55 + 48 = 103
8 Tomoyuki Ogawa (J - Honda) 60 + 49 = 109
9 Michael BROWN (GB - Gas Gas) 52 + 58 = 110
10 Tsuyoshi Ogawa (J - Beta) 61 + 65 = 126
11 Akira Shibata (J - Future) 67 + 68 = 135
12 Masatoshi Okamura (J - Gas Gas) (time) 75 + 73 = 148
13 Masahiko Sunada (J - Honda) (time) 75 + 73 = 148
14 Akio Saito (J - Honda) (time) 75 + 73 = 148
15 Tsubasa Matsuura (J - Honda) 75 + 75 = 150
DAY TWO
1 Adam Raga (E - Gas Gas) 20 + 21 = 41
2 Takahisa Fujinami (J - Montesa) 22 + 29 = 51
3 Toni Bou (E - Montesa) 30 + 31 = 61
4 Kenichi Kuroyama (J - Yamaha) 35 + 40 = 75
5 Michael BROWN (GB - Gas Gas) 40 + 43 = 83
6 Fumitaka Nozaki (J - Yamaha) 56 + 41 = 97
7 Tomoyuki Ogawa (J - Honda) 49 + 49 = 98
8 Loris Gubian (F - Gas Gas) 60 + 42 = 102
9 Jeroni Fajardo (E - Ossa) 52 + 59 = 111
10 Tsuyoshi Ogawa (J - Beta) 63 + 50 = 113
11 Akira Shibata (J - Future) 57 + 66 = 123
12 Masahiko Sunada (J - Honda) 69 + 72 = 141
13 Tsubasa Matsuura (J - Honda) 73 + 73 = 146
14 Masatoshi Okamura (J - Gas Gas) 75 + 72 = 147
SERIES STANDINGS after 7 (of 8) rounds: 1 Bou 167 points, 2 Raga 154, 3 Fujinami 131, 4 Fajardo 102, 5 Albert Cabestany 99, 6 Gubian 74, 7 BROWN 71, 8 James DABILL 69, 9 Jack CHALLONER 52, 10 Grattarola 47, 11 Kuroyama 24, 12 Alexz WIGG 24, 13 Francesco Iolitta 22, 14 Nozaki 19, 15 Tomoyuki Ogawa 17, 16 Dougie LAMPKIN 15, 17 Tsuyoshi Ogawa 12, 18 Shibata 10, 19 Sunada 7, 20 Okamura 6,...
WORLD JUNIOR TRIALS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 7 – Twin Ring Motegi, JAPAN
DAY ONE
1 Gianluca Tournour (I - Gas Gas) 45 + 53 = 98
2 Yoshiaki Nomoto (J - Beta) 59 + 51 = 110
3 Hikaru Takiguchi (J - Scorpa) 62 + 65 = 127
4 Yuki Sato (J - Honda) 69 + 65 = 134
5 Shinya Fujiwara (J - Honda) 69 + 69 = 138
6 Yuya Kira (J - Gas Gas) 69 + 67 = 136
DAY TWO
1 Yoshiaki Nomoto (J - Beta) 46 + 40 = 86
2 Gianluca Tournour (I - Gas Gas) 49 + 50 = 99
3 Shinya Fujiwara (J - Honda) 48 + 56 = 104
4 Hikaru Takiguchi (J - Scorpa) 53 + 59 = 112
5 Yuya Kira (J - Gas Gas) 62 + 63 = 125
6 Yuki Sato (J - Honda) 64 + 65 = 129
7 Ryoma Miyamoto (J - Honda) 62 + 70 = 132
SERIES STANDINGS after 7 (of 8) rounds: 1 Alfredo Gomez 124 points, 2 Francesc Moret 105, 3 Pol Tarres 101, 4 Benoit Dagnicourt 85, 5 Pere Borrellas 71, 6 Gianluca Tournour 69, 7 Alexandre Ferrer 66, 8 Jonathan RICHARDSON 57, 9 Traviesa 54, 10 Maxime Warenghien 44, 11 Yoshiaki Nomoto 37, 12 Tanguy Mottin 34, 13 Jake Whittaker 34, 14 Hikaru Takiguchi 28, 15 Ivan Peydro 27, 16 Fujiwara 26, 17 Sato 23, 18 Kira 21, 19 Poli 21, 20 Luca Cotone 18,... 23 Jack SPENCER 9,... 26 Ricky WIGGINS 3,... 28 Ben MORPHETT 2,...
FIM YOUTH TRIALS CHAMPIONSHIP
DAY ONE
1 Jack SHEPPARD (GB - Beta) 32 + 32 = 64
2 Jesus Martin (E - Gas Gas) 46 + 39 = 85
3 Ignatio Martin (E - Gas Gas) 49 + 46 = 95
DAY TWO
1 Jack SHEPPARD (GB - Beta) 14 + 12 = 26
2 Jesus Martin (E - Gas Gas) 33 + 38 = 71
3 Ignatio Martin (E - Gas Gas) 34 + 45 = 79
4 Kazuki Ogami (J - Gas Gas) 67 + 73 = 140
SERIES STANDINGS after 7 (of 8) rounds: 1 Jack SHEPPARD 169 points (CHAMPION), 2 Cedric Tempier 120, 3 Giac omo Saleri 99, 4 Steven Coquelin 95, 5 Jesus Martin 81, 6 Kenny Thomas 49, 7 Francesco Cabrini 49, 8 Eddie Karlsson 45, 9 Ignatio Martin 45, 10 Martin Pochez 43, 11 Jonas Widschwendter 37, 12 Bradley COX 36, 13 Mats Petit 28, 14 Romain Rigaud 26, 15 Fabien Menard 25, 16 Paul Bury 21, 17 Chris STAY 17, 18 Kazuki Ogami 13, 19 Diogo Veira 8, 20 Tom DEXTER 6,... 22 Cory DUBIK 3,... 24 Andrew ANDERSON 2, 25 George GOSDEN 2,...
FINAL ROUND: September 3/4 – Isola 2000, FRANCE.
