Turning to 'stone...
By TMX Archives on 5th Mar 08
THE new season has most certainly arrived. Under thankfully clear skies the tenth anniversary Hawkstone Park International Motocross exploded into life with undoubtedly one of the most enthralling and entertaining runnings of the infamous event that saw Red Bull KTM's Tyla Rattray repeat his 2007 success with overall victory in MX2 from Molson Kawasaki's returning Stephen Sword and Dutch veteran Erik Eggens, while Martin Honda's latest signing Marc De Reuver re-lived his past glories at the venue and put an end to the Rinaldi Yamaha domination of the pre-season with a stunning win in a fiercely competitive MX1 class from reigning world champ Steve Ramon and Rinaldi's title favourite Josh Coppins.
THE hard working Salop club got a break with the fine weather and after cancelling all racing activities for a good eight months the tortuous Shropshire track had rarely looked in as good condition as it did on Sunday, and despite a disappointing crowd turnout those in attendance were treated to probably the best racing in the decade-long history of the International.
The racing at the front in both classes was simply superb with the KTM-mounted trio of Rattray, Tommy Searle and Shaun Simpson particularly impressing with their outright speed in MX2, while MX1 was, for the first in years, the class of the day with home hero Billy MacKenzie, Coppins and team-mate David Philippaerts, the Teka Suzuki duo of Ramon and Ken De Dycker, and overall victor De Reuver duking it out for the duration of both motos.
De Reuver only snatched the overall two laps from home in the second moto, and by less than two seconds, that's how close it was.
MX2
Although the results don't necessarily show it, MX2 was the KTM show.
From the moment the gate was opened for the first of two qualifying sessions in the early morning, Tommy Searle and Shaun Simpson in particular looked to be on another level to the rest. Tellingly, Simpson topped the polls with a scorching time of 2:09.9, just over a quarter of a second up on Searle, while next man, Suso MVR-D's Carl Nunn was almost four seconds in arrears. Rattray had to contend with a track that was already beginning to cut up in the second group but both he and Stephen Sword slipped inside the 2:14 mark, and Rattray looked to be taking things very easy.
Qualifying times often don't mean much, especially at a track like Hawkstone, but within a lap of the opening MX2 moto it was clear that the KTM boys had really been putting in the work over the winter.
Searle grabbed the holeshot with Simpson, Rattray and Belgian Jeremy van Horebeek in tow, as Sword, reigning British champ Mike Brown – kitted out in the CAS Honda teams new Monster Energy colours for the first time – and Nunn all got away mid-pack.
By the end of the opening lap the leading KTM trio were beginning to gap the field already, and by the time Simpson forced his way past Searle for the lead on lap two the gap was already up to a few seconds and growing.
Searle admitted later from the podium that he had "Not been riding well today”, but the same could not be said for Simpson who looked superb and very smooth out front.
He held off the early challenge of Searle, and even began to creep away slightly toward the middle part of the race as Searle had to fend-off Rattray, and his win was guaranteed on lap nine when Searle stalled his machine, only to get clattered to the ground seconds later by an unsighted Rattray who had failed to be warned by marshals.
The impact took both riders down for what seemed like an eternity and saw them remount sixth and tenth respectively, with Searle and his machine, obviously a bit battered after getting hit, struggling to 16th at the flag.
With his two main rivals out of contention, Simpson found himself the proud owner of a huge lead up around the 20-second mark, such was his pace, while Sword had worked his way through quickly from 11th on the first lap to assume second.
Veteran sand-master Erik Eggens was on the move though too, and even a spirited fight from Swordy could not stop the Dutchman's charge to snatch the runner-up spot three laps from home, while van Horebeek claimed fourth from a recovering Rattray, a slight off-pace Mike Brown, Martin Barr, impressive Frenchman Xavier Boog, Joel Roelants and Swift Suzuki's Elliot Banks-Browne who impressed with one of his best rides for a while.
HAWKSTONE PARK INTERNATIONAL MOTOCROSS
Hawkstone Park, Shropshire
MX1
1 Marc de Reuver (NL - MartinHonda) 25 + 30 = 55
2 Steve Ramon (B - Teka Suzuki) 27 + 25 = 52
3 Josh Coppins (NZ - Rinaldi Yamaha) 23 + 27 = 50
4 Ken de Dycker (B - Teka Suzuki) 30 + 19 = 49
5 David Phillipaerts (I - Rinaldi Yamaha) 21 + 21 = 42
6 Lauris Freibergs (LAT - Van Beers Yamaha) 17 + 17 = 34
7 Brad Anderson (GB - Suzuki Swift) 19 + 15 = 34
8 Billy MacKenzie (BG - CAS Honda) 0 + 23 = 23
9 Yoshi Atsuta (J - CAS Honda) 10 + 13 = 23
10 Marvin van Daele (B - Teka Suzuki) 11 + 11 = 22
11 Mark Jones (GB - ARB Kawasaki) 9 + 7 = 16
12 Sven Breugelmans (B - JM Racing KTM) 15 + 0 = 15
13 Tom Church (GB - Molson Kawasaki) 4 + 10 = 14
14 James Noble (GB - KTM UK) 13 + 0 = 13
15 Bas Verhoeven (B - Kawasaki) 0 + 9 = 9
16 Yentel Martens (B - JM Racing KTM) 3+6=9, 17 Manuel Priem (B - Kawasaki Racing) 0+8=8, 18 Julien Bill (SUI - Martin Honda) 8+0=8, 19 Jamie Lewis (GB - ARB Kawasaki) 2+5=7, 20 Jim Murro (GB - STR Honda) 7+0= 7, 21 Richard Lawson (GB - Twisted 7 Kawasaki) 6+0=6, 22 Glen Philips (GB - JCS KTM) 1+4=5, 23 Wayne Smith (GB - Pioneer Yamaha) 5+0=5, 24 David Willet (GB - Yamaha) 0+3=3, 25 Ben Saunders (GB - Delkevic Kawasaki) 0+2=2, 26 Alex Rach (GB - Eurotek KTM) 0+1=1.
MX2
1 Tyla Rattray (SA - Red Bull KTM) 21 + 30 = 51
2 Stephen Sword (GB - Molson Kawasaki) 25 + 25 = 50
3 Erik Eggens (NL - Beursfoon Suzuki) 27 + 23 = 50
4 Jeremy van Horebeek (B - Champ KTM) 23 + 19 = 42
5 Joel Roelants (B - Champ KTM) 13 + 21 = 34
6 Tommy Searle (GB - Red Bull KTM) 5 + 27 = 32
7 Shaun Simpson (GB - KTM UK) 30 + 0 = 30
8 Martin Barr (GB - U Tag Yamaha) 17 + 8 = 25
9 Xavier Boog (F - Inotec Suzuki) 15 + 9 = 24
10 Carl Nunn (GB - Suso Suzuki) 7 + 15 = 22
11 Neville Bradshaw (GB - DB Honda) 8 + 11 = 19
12 Mike Brown (US - CAS Honda) 19 + 0 = 19
13 Mike Kras (NL - Honda) 1 + 17 = 18
14 Gareth Swanepoel (SA - Molson Kawasaki) 10 + 5 = 15
15 Pascal Leuret (F - Suzuki Swift) 0 + 13 = 13
16 Valentin Teillet (F -???) 3+10=13, 17 Marcus Norlen (NOR - Suso Suzuki) 6+7=13, 18 Elliot Banks Browne (GB - Suzuki Swift) 11+0=11, 19 Shannon Terreblanche (SA - Beursfoon Suzuki) 9+0=9, 20 Rob van Vijfeijken (NL - Vijfeijken Yamaha) 4+4=8, 21 Jake Nicholls (GB - Suzuki Swift) 0+6=6, 22 Pascal Brons (NL - Voorwinden KTM) 2+2=4, 23 Robert Hamilton (GB - Pioneer Yamaha) 0+3=3, 24 Rinus van de Ven (NL - Van de Haar KTM) 0+1=1.
INTERNATIONAL GRAND FINAL
1 Tommy Searle*, 2 Steve Ramon, 3 David Phillipaerts, 4 Billy MacKenzie, 5 Shaun Simpson*, 6 Tyla Rattray*, 7 Joel Roelants*, 8 Josh Coppins, 9 Gareth Swanepoel*, 10 Manuel Priem, 11 Marc de Reuver, 12 Bas Verhoeven, 13 Marvin van Daele, 14 James Noble, 15 Stephen Sword*, 16 Carl Nunn*, 17 Mark Jones, 18 Sven Breugelmans, 19 Yoshi Atsuta, 20 Neville Bradshaw*.
* = MX2
For full story and pictures, see T+MX NEWS, Friday, February 29, 2008