Loket and loaded

Meanwhile the MX2 title moved further away from Brit Tommy Searle's grasp as a patched-up Jeffrey Herlings took the second double win of the day for KTM; indeed the Brit was the crowd's bad boy after the title rivals had clashed twice in race two.

 

Zach Osborne joined the pair on the podium after a 

tie-break decider with Jake Nicholls and Max Anstie made it four UK runners in the top seven. Shaun Simpson had an eighth in the MX1 opener, Jamie Law and Nez Parker returned to the points and Elliott Banks-Browne finally broke his duck.

"I had to pack up and go home when I tried to ride on Thursday. 

 

I brought my doctor with me and I'm on a lot of painkillers,” reckoned Herlings as, following his car crash while returning from the GP is Russia, he turned up with sticking plaster on his forehead and dark glasses at the Saturday evening press conference after running away with MX2 qualification. 

 

But the show was not kidding anyone, the Dutch teenager was in Czecho to win.

 

He had to make his way around Butron and Van Horebeek for the first moto win, but Searle was way back: "Elliott went straight on at turn one, there were bikes everywhere ... and I was nearly last !”

 

With a succession of one minute 50 laps the Brit was up to third by half distance, inheriting second when Van Horebeek somersaulted out of the race, but Herlings was already 10 seconds down the track and the race was run.

 

Nicholls raced to his first moto podium - "I only rode the new five-speeder once before I came here, and I'm having to think about what gear to be in, but I got out of the gate and hung in there. 

 

I struggled for a couple of laps in the middle, but picked it up again after Tommy came past.” - while Osborne and Anstie charged from seventh and 10th to haul in Butron in the closing laps.

 

EBB had struggled on Saturday, but got to grips with the track on race day after gating sixth: "I crashed on lap two when the front end slipped away, but I picked up the pace again and was running top ten until my goggles steamed up and I had to take them off.” But only Roelants and Tixier could take advantage.

 

The big names all got away at the front in race two, and the title rivals locked horns for second as Van Horebeek led the way.

 

"I touched Jeremy's rear wheel and fell down but I was far enough ahead not to lose second,” admitted Herlings as he blocked Searle for lap after lap.

 

"Jeffrey was making mistakes and it was difficult to find somewhere to pass. 

 

I was faster at that part of the track and thought I could get through, but we touched and he went down,” explained Searle of their first clash.

 

Despite desperate signals from the pit crew to settle for a safe 20 points, the Dutch teenager was fired up: "Tommy cleaned me out and I just wanted to win. 

 

He apologised at the podium, but I don't understand why he did it; we've been racing clean since Fermo.”

 

Hauling back 10 seconds in just three laps there was no mistaking Herlings' action, but Searle was man enough to admit: "I knew he'd take me out. 

 

And I was just riding so bad, missing all of my lines.”

 

FOR FULL REPORT AND PICTURES SEE TMX NEWS AUGUST 10

 

WORLD MX1 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP

Rd 12 – Loket, CZECH REPUBLIC

 1 Antonio Cairoli (I - KTM) 25 + 25 = 50

 2 Christophe Pourcel (F - Kawasaki) 22 + 20 = 42

 3 Clement Desalle (B  - Suzuki) 18 + 22 = 40

 4 Max Nagl (D - KTM) 20 + 18 = 38

 5 Xavier Boog (F - Kawasaki) 15 + 14 = 29

 6 Ken De Dycker (B - KTM) 14 + 13 = 27

 7 Rui Goncalves (P - Honda) 10 + 16 = 26

 8 Gautier Paulin (F - Kawasaki) 16 + 10 = 26

 9 Tanel Leok (EST - Suzuki)  9 + 15 = 24

10 Gregory Aranda (F - Yamaha) 11 + 12 = 23

11 Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS - Honda) 12+11=23, 12 Shaun SIMPSON (GB - Yamaha) 13+7=20, 13 Davide Guarneri (I - KTM) 8+8=16, 14 Kevin Strijbos (B - KTM) 6+9=15, 15 Cedric Soubeyras (F - Honda) 7+6=13, 16 Martin Michek (CZ - KTM) 2+4=6, 17 Jonathan Barragan (E - Honda) 0+5=5, 18 Sebastien Pourcel (F - Kawasaki) 5+0=5, 19 Milko Potisek (F - Honda) 4+0=4, 20 Jamie LAW (GB - KTM) 0+3=3, 21 Nathan PARKER (GB - KTM) 1+2=3, 22 Mark De Reuver (NL - Kawasaki) 3+0=3, 23 Santtu Tiainen (SF - Kawasaki) 0+1=1.

RACE ONE: 1 Cairoli, 2 Christophe Pourcel, 3 Nagl, 4 Desalle, 5 Paulin, 6 Boog, 7 De Dycker, 8 SIMPSON, 9 Bobryshev, 10 Aranda, 11 Goncalves, 12 Leok, 13 Guarneri, 14 Soubeyras, 15 Strijbos, 16 Sebastien Pourcel, 17 Potisek, 18 De Reuver, 19 Michek, 20 PARKER.

RACE TWO: 1 Cairoli, 2 Desalle, 3 Christophe Pourcel, 4 Nagl, 5 Goncalves, 6 Leok, 7 Boog, 8 De Dycker, 9 Aranda, 10 Bobryshev, 11 Paulin, 12 Strijbos, 13 Guarneri, 14 SIMPSON, 15 Soubeyras, 16 Barragan, 17 Michek, 18 LAW, 19 PARKER, 20 Tiainen.

SERIES STANDINGS after 12 (of 16) rounds: 1 Cairoli 492 points, 2 Desalle 462, 3 Christophe Pourcel 435, 4 Paulin 402, 5 De Dycker 368, 6 Strijbos 319, 7 Boog 306, 8 Leok 277, 9 Goncalves 273, 10 SIMPSON 223, 11 Bobryshev 217, 12 Philippaerts 212, 13 Barragan 180, 14 Sebastien Pourcel 171, 15 Guarneri 152, 16 Karro 112, 17 Soubeyras 67, 18 Frossard 66, 19 Boissiere 58, 20 Ferris 52,... 30 SMITH 15,... 44 LAW 5, 45 PARKER 5,... 60 BARR 1,...

NEXT ROUND: August 19 – Matterley Basin, nr Winchester, BRITAIN.

 

WORLD MX2 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP

Rd 12 – Loket, CZECH REPUBLIC

 1 Jeffrey Herlings (NL - KTM) 25 + 25 = 50

 2 Tommy SEARLE (GB - Kawasaki) 22 + 20 = 42

 3 Zach Osborne (US - Yamaha) 18 + 18 = 36

 4 Jake NICHOLLS (GB - KTM) 20 + 16 = 36

 5 Romain Febvre (F - KTM) 13 + 15 = 28

 6 Valentin Teillet (F - Kawasaki) 12 + 14 = 26

 7 Max ANSTIE (GB - Honda) 16 +  9 = 25

 8 Joel Roelants (B  - Kawasaki) 11 + 12 = 23

 9 Jose Butron (E - KTM) 15 +  8 = 23

10 Jeremy Van Horebeek (B - KTM)  0 + 22 = 22

11 Dylan Ferrandis (F - Kawasaki) 7+13=20, 12 Glenn Coldenhoff (NL - KTM) 8+10=18, 13 Alessandro Lupino (I - Husqvarna) 14+4=18, 14 Alexander Tonkov (RUS - Honda) 0+11=11, 15 Valentin Guillod (CH - KTM) 5+5=10, 16 Jordi Tixier (F - KTM) 10+0=10, 17 Jens Getteman (B - Suzuki) 3+6=9, 18 Elliott BANKS-BROWNE (GB - KTM) 9+0=9, 19 Samuel Zeni (I - Yamaha) 6+2=8, 20 Nikolaj Larsen (DK - Suzuki) 0+7=7, 21 Andrea Cervellin (I - TM) 4+1=5, 22 Kevin Fors (B - Yamaha) 1+3=4, 23 Priit Ratsep (EST - KTM) 2+0=2.

RACE ONE: 1 Herlings, 2 SEARLE, 3 NICHOLLS, 4 Osborne, 5 ANSTIE, 6 Butron, 7 Lupino, 8 Febvre, 9 Teillet, 10 Roelants, 11 Tixier, 12 BANKS-BROWNE, 13 Coldenhoff, 14 Ferrandis, 15 Zeni, 16 Guillod, 17 Cervellin, 18 Getteman, 19 Ratsep, 20 Fors.

RACE TWO: 1 Herlings, 2 Van Horebeek, 3 SEARLE, 4 Osborne, 5 NICHOLLS, 6 Febvre, 7 Teillet, 8 Ferrandis, 9 Roelants, 10 Tonkov, 11 Coldenhoff, 12 ANSTIE, 13 Butron, 14 Larsen, 15 Getteman, 16 Guillod, 17 Lupino, 18 Fors, 19 Zeni, 20 Cervellin.

SERIES STANDINGS after 12 (of 16) rounds: 1 Herlings 528 points, 2 SEARLE 471, 3 Van Horebeek 439, 4 Roelants 367, 5 NICHOLLS 325, 6 Tixier 319, 7 ANSTIE 263, 8 Butron 241, 9 Ferrandis 233, 10 Lupino 214, 11 Coldenhoff 193, 12 Febvre 146, 13 Kullas 132, 14 Charlier 131, 15 Petrov 131, 16 Larsen 126, 17 Tonus 121, 18 Teillet 112, 19 Guillod 104, 20 Tonkov 97,... 22 POCOCK 87,... 34 BANKS-BROWNE 9,...

NEXT ROUND: August 19 – Matterley Basin, nr Winchester, BRITAIN.