Fuel stop
By TMX Archives on 14th Mar 14
Controversy over the race fuel legalised for the weekend by the FIM to counteract the Thai import ban, overshadowed maximum scorelines for Toni Cairoli and Jeffrey Herlings, as KTM renewed its dominance at the Thai GP in Sri Racha.
The world champions were a class act on the loose-surfaced track, but the performance of bikes from each of the Japanese manufacturers appeared to be adversely affected by the race fuel.
Nobody felt the consequences more than Kawasaki, as Tommy Searle broke a wrist after his KX bogged on take-off over a big jump.
CLS technical boss, Harry Nolte, said: "I've seen it in the past. These race fuels have a lower boiling point, and it's no coincidence that so many 450s have had problems this weekend.”
Vapour lock appeared to be causing bikes to cut out intermittently and other riders seriously affected were Clement Desalle and Gautier Paulin.
The Belgian, who led the second MXGP moto for 25-minutes, explained: "I had no problem in race one, but the bike bogged and it was scary there on that jump where Toni passed me.”
Paulin was fuming and said: "I couldn't jump anything on the last lap and lost four places.
"I don't think the bike would have done another lap.”
Team-mate Steven Frossard had already pulled out of the race with the engine cutting out.
Honda had their problems too as early as the start of race one.
Max Nagl said: "The motor nearly died on me as I left the gate.”
But, back to the racing...
Herlings, who had flown back to Europe after his ‘lucky' win in Qatar, was out to restore his pride and was outstanding from lap one of practice.
His narrow defeat at the hands of Dylan Ferrandis in the qualification race was caused more by external factors: "I lost a lens in my goggles on the third lap and couldn't risk taking his roost,” Herlings admitted.
Watch any MX2 start this year and you can see clearly that his gate neighbours are ganging up on the champion, but his flair and skill still prevails.
Last up the start straight in race one, Jeff slipped under half the field as they ran wide in the long sweeping first turn and hammered round the outside of the rest at turn two.
"That's the closest I've come to a holeshot for a while,” he grinned after leading for all bar the first 300 yards.
First man up the straight was Max Anstie, still on the 2013 model Dixon Yam.
"I overshot the turn and came out about sixth, he said.
"Moving forward again through the first half of the race, his challenge for the top three wilted in the second half:
"The track was getting really choppy as the race went on, and we were struggling with set-up,” admitted Max.
Glenn Coldenhoff eventually ran down Ferrandis to complete a Dutch 1-2, but he was coming under pressure at the end from Arnaud Tonus.
The Swiss rider admitted: "I need to sort out the first half of my races. I'm taking too long to find my rhythm and attack.”
Race two saw Herlings boxed in again at the start, this time by Coldenhoff, and Anstie made no mistakes at turn one to grab the holeshot award and check out.
After rounding Coldenhoff on lap two, the champion was content to observe for 20-minutes before making his play on Anstie.
The long-time friendly rivals had a scintillating stand-off for a couple of laps before the champion prevailed and both were in buoyant mood post-race.
Herlings said: "I know we can go at it hard because Max won't wipe me out.”
Mel Pocock had two solid rides for 15-14.
Cairoli and Desalle had outrun the pack by 30 seconds in MXGP qualification, with Shaun Simpson a superb fourth.
For the GP motos the big guns didn't leave the Scot the inside gate he had used so effectively on Saturday.
But Simpson still got the jump and pulled across them to lead for nearly two laps, before Cairoli sneaked past to race away for the win.
Again in control of fourth 15 minutes into the race the Scot suffered badly at the hands of Paulin: "I was railing the berm and he cut across the inside of the turn and wiped me out,” he said.
Two laps later there was another serious blow for Britain as Searle, running fifth, came up short on a ‘big air' jump.
The force of impact was so great that the forks were demolished and Tommy was carted off with severe concussion and a wrist broken in two places.
The Wilvo Forkrent teamsters were already long back in the paddock.
Both Matiss Karro and Jake Nicholls ploughed into the back of Frossard as he fell entering turn two.
The Latvian's bike was badly mangled and he soon realised the fruitlessness of carrying on, while the Brit was also forced to pull out after another biggie on his own two laps later. Cairoli was first up the straight in race two, but went wide to hand the holeshot award to Jeremy Van Horebeek, before a typical ‘TC' stalking ride from third to pass the Yamaha 15-minutes in.
He also ran down Desalle ten-minutes later.
Simpson started seventh, but was in trouble and admitted: "I realised on the sighting lap that the Paulin incident had tweaked the right wrist I hurt last month in Lommel.
"It finally loosened up after about 20 minutes but it was too late to salvage more than 11th.”
Karro crossed the line two places further back, with Nicholls a brave 15th: "That race was agony. The track was so wrecked that my back was feeling every bump,” he said.
A host of MX2 boys had already succumbed to the track in race two, but Livia Lancelot was made of sterner stuff: "I actually stopped too,” she said.
"I never rode such a rough track and I was scared to jump anything anymore, but my mechanic told me the guys were also stopping and to get back out there for a point.”
It was the first MX2 point ever scored by a lady.
