World in Action
By TMX Archives on 22nd Apr 15
THE nine-round 2015 FIM World Trials Championship kicks-off this weekend in Japan with the round, as usual, taking place at Twin-Ring Motegi, a couple of hours from Tokyo.
Like all rounds this year it will take place over two days making 18 scoring days of competition.
Motegi is a Honda owned facility and a huge incentive for factory riders Toni Bou and Takahisa Fujinami to perform in front of the big bosses. For Repsol Montesa star Bou it is the beginning of a quest for his ninth consecutive World title to keep things nice and neat, matching his nine consecutive X-Trial (Indoor) crowns.
For Fuji it will be a little harder, as he has only just recovered from a knee operation and is short of riding practice.
However, 2015 is Fuji's 20th consecutive World Championship season, all with Honda-Montesa, and very likely his final year so he would love to sign-out with a win.
There's a total of 22 riders tackling the Championship class with 12 European travellers being joined by 10 Japanese riders, all keen to get in on the act.
At the sharp end it is pretty much "as you were” with Toni Bou coming under attack from the usual suspects, headed by Gas Gas' Adam Raga, the man who has really taken the fight to his Catalan rival over the last year.
Veteran Albert Cabestany keeps coming up with the results for Sherco while yet another Catalan Jeroni Fajardo again goes into battle for Beta.
On the British front, after fielding four or five riders over the last few years it is back to a two-man attack with pals James Dabill and Michael Brown.
For Dibs there is the huge incentive of being team leader for the exciting new Vertigo project and the all-new machine has proved that it is competitive right from the off.
Remember that the Vertigo only made its competitive debut in January – at the Sheffield Indoor – and has only had a handful of outdoor outings with James winning the opening two British Championship rounds. Time to move it up a gear now though.
Michael goes to Japan fresh from beating James in last Sunday's fourth BTC round in Devon and is looking for a competitive year on the World stage and will no doubt be travelling to Japan with his pal The Dibsta.
Moving up to the WTC having finished first and second in the World Cup last year are Spain's Jaime Busto and German Franz Kadlec.
It is a big jump and this year will be very much a learning experience for the lads, with Busto having the considerable advantage of a Repsol Montesa contract.
The Japanese attack also has a very familiar look about it with Kenichi Kuroyama and Fumitaka Nozaki, both of whom have contested the full World series in the past, on Yamaha (old-style Scorpa design four-strokes) and Honda's Tomoyuki Ogawa head the home charge.
The World Cup also sports 22 entries with no fewer than four Brits making the trip.
Jack Price, Billy Bolt, Dan Peace and Dec Bullock are all well capable of really good results but there is plenty of top class opposition such as France's Quentin de Carles Caudemberg, Italian Filippo Locca and Spanish duo Oriol Noguera and Miquel Gelebert.
The series will move on to take in rounds in the Czech Republic and Sweden before the big weekend in Britain which will be June 13/14 with the venue again being the excellent Nord Vue, near Penrith, Cumbria, just 10 minutes from the M6 motorway.
Meanwhile it all kicks off this weekend in Japan – read all about it with the first pics of 2015 in TMX next week!
FOR MORE TRIALS TORQUE STORIES SEE TMX NEWS, APRIL 23 (ISSUE 1968)
