Two teenage tearaways
By TMX Archives on 28th Apr 10
Home success attracts crowds, and 22,000 fans flocked to Valkenswaard at the weekend to see Holland's new teenage superstar, Jeff Herlings, take maximum points from his home GP as 15-year-olds went 1-2 in MX2 with Ken Roczen making it five seconds and a third so far this year to take over the red plate by a single point as Marvin Musquin hit the quick release button and ejected on each day. And Herlings now trails by just eight-points.
Britain's fortunes took a turn for the better as Shaun Simpson narrowly missed the podium but came home third in race one. Jake Nicholls raced leaderboard for longer than ever before and hung in for tenth in race two. Zach Osborne had top six pace but had to chase twice from first lap falls. Maxxis series leader, Evgeny Bobryshev, proved he can run top six in MX1 and there were deserved scores for Gareth Swanpoel, Tom Church, Matiss Karro and Mel Pocock while Toni Cairoli swept MX1.
No-one was taking prisoners in MX2 qualification. Herlings put one of his patented big-air passes on Musquin on the first full lap to take over up front in Saturday's 20-minute moto but went down hard in the rhythm section six-laps later to earn just 14th gate pick, and Roczen also passed the Frenchman two-laps from the chequers.
Keen to claim bragging rights that evening, Musquin tried to emulate Herlings' pass on him 200-yards from the chequered flag. "I thought he was going to land on my head,” admitted the German.
Instead the defending champion came down on the rear fender of lapper Mike Van den Bogaerdt's KTM. Out cold for a minute, ‘Marvellous' was classified 21st.
The Frenchman was a shadow of his regular self on Sunday for eighth place in race one, and a gritty third in the second encounter was converted to fifth late on when he fell and lacked the energy to kick a hot SX250F – the only bike in the Austrian family still without an electric-starter – back to life quickly.
Herlings shrugged off his poor gate: "Stefan (Everts) told me last night not to worry. Rui (Goncalves) won here last year from gate pick 25. I didn't holeshot, but I led every lap. The last two laps took ages. Now I know how it is, I want to win more GPs, but I know I have to keep my feet on the ground.”
Roczen maintained the chase at arm's length throughout: "I knew Jeffrey would be fast here. Second place is what I wanted. I just want to keep a cool head, and getting the red plate for the first time is a nice present to myself.”
The German, who now has five seconds and a third this year, was four days shy of his 16th birthday on Sunday.
Although Herlings has claimed his first GP win at only his third attempt (Kenny needed five attempts last year), Roczen remains the youngest-ever winner – 15 years and 53 days to 15 plus 225.
Simpson's first job from gate two had been to block the Suzuki, and he controlled third from early in the first moto, never allowing Steven Frossard to get too close to his rear wheel: "I could keep my pace going for the whole race, now I need to get to their speed.”
It wasn't to be in race two as he emerged ninth from the initial sort-out to finish seventh: "I couldn't find the lines the first few laps and tired myself out trying to make passes.”
Nevertheless the Scot is now a strong sixth in the points table.
Osborne spoilt two good starts with opening lap falls which forced him to chase back through to tenth and 12th, but how had he learned to ride sand so fast? "A lot of motos last week.”
Nicholls too could have gone home with more, particularly after "...virtually holeshotting all three races this weekend. I had a coming together with Butron in the first one. I was inside but he just came across me.”
After pitting to straighten up the bike, the ‘Reverend' took a point at the final turn, and then ran top six for half of race two before stalling just after he had been passed by Simpson.
A broken ignition wire put Matiss Karro out of race one after three turns, but he made amends with a 15th place later in the day, while Mel Pocock narrowly failed to add a second score on the day to his first moto 16th: "It was an argy-bargy start, but I came back to top 15 until I landed on a haybale with a lap to go.”
WORLD MX1 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 3 – Valkenswaard, HOLLAND
1 Toni Cairoli (I - Red Bull KTM) 25 + 25 = 50
2 Steve Ramon (B - Teka Suzuki) 20 + 22 = 42
3 David Philippaerts (I - Rinaldi Yamaha) 22 + 18 = 40
4 Tanel Leok (EW - LS Honda) 16 + 20 = 36
5 Max Nagl (D - Red Bull KTM) 18 + 15 = 33
6 Ken DeDycker (B - Monster Ricci Yamaha) 15 + 14 = 29
7 Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS - CAS Honda) 12 + 16 = 28
8 Jimmy Albertson (US - Martin Honda) 13 + 13 = 26
9 Davide Guarneri (I - LS Honda) 14 + 10 = 24
10 Gareth Swanepoel (ZA - CAS Honda) 9 + 11 = 20
11 Kevin Strijbos (B - Bo KTM) 7+9=16, 12 Xavier Boog (F - KRTE Kawasaki) 10+6=16, 13 Manuel Monni (I - 3C Yamaha) 8+7=15, 14 Sebastien Pourcel (F - KRTE Kawasaki) 5+8=13, 15 Josh Coppins (NZ - Aprilia) 0+12=12, 16 Marc De Reuver (NL - Beursfoon Suzuki) 11+0=11, 17 Rui Goncalves (P - Red Bull KTM) 4+2=6, 18 Tom Soederstrom (S - Van Beers Yamaha) 6+0=6, 19 Mathias Walkner (A - Hillinger KTM) 0+5=5, 20 Tom CHURCH (GB - Buildbase CCM) 0+4=4, 21 Yentel Martens (B - KTM) 1+3=4, 22 Cedric Soubeyras (F - Sarholz KTM) 3+0=3, 23 Anthony Boissiere (F - Bo KTM) 2+0=2, 24 Gunther Schmidinger (A - Delta Suzuki) 0+1=1.
RACE ONE: 1 Cairoli, 2 Philippaerts, 3 Ramon, 4 Nagl, 5 Tanel Leok, 6 DeDycker, 7 Guarneri, 8 Albertson, 9 Bobryshev, 10 De Reuver, 11 Boog, 12 Swanepoel, 13 Monni, 14 Strijbos, 15 Soederstrom, 16 Pourcel, 17 Goncalves, 18 Soubeyras, 19 Boissiere, 20 Martens.
RACE TWO: 1 Cairoli, 2 Ramon, 3 Tanel Leok, 4 Philippaerts, 5 Bobryshev, 6 Nagl, 7 DeDycker, 8 Albertson, 9 Coppins, 10 Swanepoel, 11 Guarneri, 12 Strijbos, 13 Pourcel, 14 Monni, 15 Boog, 16 Walkner, 17 CHURCH, 18 Martens, 19 Goncalves, 20 Schmidinger.
SERIES STANDINGS after 3 (of 15) rounds: 1 Cairoli 138 points, 2 Nagl 120, 3 Desalle 79, 4 DeDycker 94, 5 Philippaerts 100, 6 Ramon 101, 7 Barragan 56, 8 Boog 70, 9 Pourcel 50, 10 Coppins 49, 11 Guarneri 56, 12 Monni 46, 13 Swanepoel 51, 14 Tanel Leok 66, 15 Albertson 55, 16 Bobryshev 53, 17 Boissiere 23, 18 De Reuver 27, 19 Strijbos 31, 20 Soederstrom 14,... 22 CHURCH 11,...
NEXT ROUND: May 9 – Agueda, PORTUGAL.
WORLD MX2 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 3 – Valkenswaard, HOLLAND
1 Jeff Herlings (NL - Red Bull KTM) 25 + 25 = 50
2 Ken Roczen (D - Teka Suzuki) 22 + 22 = 44
3 Steven Frossard (F - CLS Kawasaki) 18 + 20 = 38
4 Shaun SIMPSON (GB - Red Bull KTM) 20 + 14 = 34
5 Marvin Musquin (F - Red Bull KTM) 13 + 16 = 29
6 Joel Roelants (B - JM KTM) 14 + 15 = 29
7 Jeremy Van Horebeek (B - CLS Kawasaki) 10 + 18 = 28
8 Christophe Charlier (F - Yamaha) 15 + 13 = 28
9 Arnaud Tonus (CH - Teka Suzuki) 16 + 12 = 28
10 Harri Kullas (SF - Gariboldi Yamaha) 12 + 10 = 22
11 Zach Osborne (US - BikeIt Cosworth Yamaha) 11+8=19, 12 Dennis Verbruggen (B - JM KTM) 8+9=17, 13 Loic Larrieu (F - Ricci Yamaha) 9+5=14, 14 Jake NICHOLLS (GB - HMP Red Bull KTM) 1+11=12, 15 Petr Smitka (CZ - Sarholz KTM) 6+3=9, 16 Nikolaj Larsen (DK - SRS Honda) 7+1=8, 17 Alessandro Lupino (I - Ricci Yamaha) 0+7=7, 18 Matiss Karro (LAT - MVR-D Suzuki) 0+6=6, 19 Mel POCOCK (GB - BikeIt Cosworth Yamaha) 5+0=5, 20 Khounsith Vongsana (F - TM) 0+4=4, 21 Aleksandr Tonkov (RUS - ESTA Suzuki) 4+0=4, 22 Nico Aubin (F - Bud Kawasaki) 3+0=3, 23 Michael Van Wezel (NL - KTM) 0+2=2, 24 Jose Butron (E - Beursfoon Suzuki) 2+0=2.
RACE ONE: 1 Herlings, 2 Roczen, 3 SIMPSON, 4 Frossard, 5 Tonus, 6 Christophe Charlier, 7 Roelants, 8 Musquin, 9 Kullas, 10 Osborne, 11 Van Horebeek, 12 Larrieu, 13 Verbruggen, 14 Larsen, 15 Smitka, 16 POCOCK, 17 Tonkov, 18 Aubin, 19 Butron, 20 NICHOLLS.
RACE TWO: 1 Herlings, 2 Roczen, 3 Frossard, 4 Van Horebeek, 5 Musquin, 6 Roelants, 7 SIMPSON, 8 Christophe Charlier, 9 Tonus, 10 NICHOLLS, 11 Kullas, 12 Verbruggen, 13 Osborne, 14 Lupino, 15 Karro, 16 Larrieu, 17 Vongsana, 18 Smitka, 19 Van Wezel, 20 Larsen.
SERIES STANDINGS after 3 (of 15) rounds: 1 Roczen 130 points, 2 Musquin 129, 3 Herlings 122, 4 Frossard 107, 5 Tonus 90, 6 SIMPSON 87, 7 Van Horebeek 80, 8 Osborne 78, 9 Kullas 61, 10 Christophe Charlier 60, 11 NICHOLLS 59, 12 Roelants 54, 13 Verbruggen 47, 14 Lupino 31, 15 Karro 22, 16 Larsen 21, 17 Smitka 20, 18 Triest 18, 19 POCOCK 18, 20 Butron 14,... 32 ALLINGHAM 2,...
NEXT ROUND: May 9 – Agueda, PORTUGAL.
For full report and pictures see T+MX Friday April 30