Voss is boss of Dortmund
By TMX Archives on 15th Jan 09
HEATH Voss skipped Phoenix last weekend to race the Dortmund SX and was regally rewarded with his third throne of the winter.. and the keys to a brand new Toyota car!The 2003 World SX champ had posted seventh in the Anaheim opener of the AMA series the previous weekend, but still caught the plane to Germany to fulfil his contractual obligations. "I have found my own sponsors and ride for myself in the States,” explained the 30-year-old resident of Texas, "But I wasn't going to miss this race. I've heard so much about the place, the atmosphere, the show, the fans, and it's all true. The Waldmann Honda team do a great job, and yes, I earned more money here than I could have at Phoenix.”
As in Chemnitz and Zurich, where Heath was the weekend winner before Christmas, he didn't win a Main event until he had to on the decisive final day, but he hasn't missed a podium all winter.
The other winners were Australian Matt Moss and Portugal's Joaquim Rodrigues in a true festival of nations.
Ken Roczen won the ‘Prince' title in the SX2 class, but could never dominate, and both Ashley Greedy and Jack Brunell won races before crashes spoilt their chances of the big prize.
The air in the Westfalenhalle venue was wretched as permafrost kept the fumes from the bikes and the pyrotechnics in the arena. But Freddy Verherstraeten had done a wonderful job with the track and competition was fierce. Not until the final day did Eric Sorby make the Main event, and Billy Laninovich never even made the semis all weekend.
Voss and the KTMs of Rodrigues, Julien Vanni and Mike Brown dominated the preliminaries on Friday, but the KTM teams self-detonated in the main, and Voss got a shock.
The rival KTM teams were blaming each other, but it appeared to be Rodrigues who was to blame for slamming under Brown at turn two, the pair of them wiping out Vanni, to hand Voss a lead he kept for 14 of the 18 laps.
Matt Moss, the SX2 champion from Australia, was making his SX1 debut and had needed to transfer through the repacharge after going backwards in his heat, but his confidence was up by the Main.
"I was just so nervous in the heat, but my game plan worked in the Main.”
The 20-year-old, who had only ever ridden a 450 for fun in local events, had asked Suzuki to provide him with a kitted 290 for Dortmund, and the choice was perfect. The start straight that ran across the arena, was never ridden again during the race, and there was never a second for breath in the 18-laps.
"It was hard work for the guys on the 450s. I quickly got to second and just sat and waited, ready to pounce four-laps from the end.”
Voss took it like a man: "I knew it would be hard work, so I didn't push for a gap and paid the price.”
None of the KTMs got back into the top six, and the podium was completed by Euro champ, Fabien Izoird. The Frenchman crashed out, hurting his thigh, on Saturday as team-mate Alexandre Rouis stepped up to challenge the same front-runners again on night two.
Rodrigues had started the evening with a fall, but snatched a transfer on the final lap of his
heat and was dominant from there on in.
It was again Brown who holeshot the Main, and, had the race been 15-laps as in the past, the 2008 King would have won. But the Portuguese was stalking, ready to pounce, from mid-race after devastating passes up the leader-board.
Joaquim hadn't won a race since 2002, but this one had his name all over it. He had four places to pass, faked the three most obvious and then pounced where even the experienced Brown was not expecting it.
DORTMUND SUPERCROSS
Westfalenhalle, Dortmund
SX1 Friday: 1 Matt Moss (Aus - Suzuki), 2 Heath Voss (USA - Honda), 3 Fabien Izoird (F - Yamaha), 4 Nathan Ramsey (USA - Kawasaki), 5 Jacob Saylor (USA - Kawasaki), 6 Alexandre Rouis (F - Yamaha), 7 Joaquim Rodrigues (P - KTM), 8 Mike Brown (USA - KTM), 9 Robbie Reynard (USA - Suzuki), 10 Julien Vanni (F - KTM), 11 Davide Degli Esposti (I - Suzuki).
Saturday: 1 Rodrigues, 2 Rouis, 3 Voss, 4 Brown, 5 Saylor, 6 Florent Richier (F - Kawasaki), 7 Stephane Demartis (F - Honda), 8 Izoird, 9 Adrien Lopes (F - Honda), 10 Ramsey, 11 Maxime Lesage (F - Kawasaki).
Sunday: 1 Voss, 2 Rodrigues, 3 Izoird, 4 Rouis, 5 Colton Facciotti (CDN - Yamaha), 6 Brown, 7 Saylor, 8 Vanni, 9 Moss, 10 Degli Esposti, 11 Manuel Chittaro (D - KTM).
King of Dortmund: 1 Voss 61 points, 2 Rodrigues 54, 3 Rouis 43, 4 Izoird 40, 5 Moss 32, 6 Brown 31, 7 Saylor 31, 8 Ramsey 19, 9 Vanni 14, 10 Facciotti 11.
SX2 Friday: 1 Ken Roczen (D - Suzuki) 2-3, 2 Ashley Greedy (GB - Waldmann Honda) 6-1, 3 Filip Neugebauer (CZ - Kawasaki) 1-7, 4 Rinus Van de Ven (NL - Suzuki) 4-2, 5 Nick Evennou (USA - Kawasaki) 5-4, 6 Stephan Mock (D - KTM) 8-5, 7 Romain Berthome (F - KTM) 5-10, 8 Rasmus Jorgensen (DK - Suzuki) 9-6, 9 Johnny Moore (USA - Kawasaki) 7-11, 10 Dominic Habijanec (D - Suzuki) 10-9, 11 Jeremy Richaud (F - Yamaha) DNF-8, 12 Jack Brunell (GB - Ihle Suzuki) DNF-12.
Saturday: 1 Roczen 1-1, 2 Neugebauer 2-2, 3 Jorgensen 3-3, 4 Brunell 4-4, 5 Greedy 6-5, 6 Moore 5-8, 7 Dominic-Pascal Thury (D - KTM) (8-7), 8 Mock 10-6, 9 Van de Ven 7-12, 10 Dennis Baudrexl (D - Honda) 9-11, 11 Richaud DNF-9, 12 Evennou DNF-10.
Sunday: 1 Neugebauer 5-1, 2 Roczen 3-2, 3 Brunell 1-10, 4 Van de Ven 2-7, 5 Jorgensen 4-4, 6 Greedy 11-3, 7 Thury 8-6, 8 Moore 7-9, 9 Berthome 12-5, 10 Habijanec 10-8, 11 Levy Batista (F - KTM) 6-DNF, 12 Tom Soderstrom (S - Kawasaki) 9-DNF.
Prince of Dortmund: 1 Roczen 70 points, 2 Neugebauer 61, 3 Greedy 41, 4 Jorgensen 35, 5 Brunell 33, 6 Van de Ven 33, 7 Moore 25, 8 Mock 18, 9 Thury 18, 10 Berthome 16.
FOR FULL REPORT SEE T+MX NEWS, FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 2009
The 2003 World SX Champ, Heath Voss, on his way to victory and being ‘King' of Dortmund - a result which netted him a brand new Toyota.