TAKE LAT!
By Alex Hodgkinson on 20th Jul 12
Tommy Searles World MX2 title hopes took a severe knock at Kegums, in Latvia as the Brit suffered two DNFs neither of his own making to wipe out all of the gains he has made in recent weeks.
His only consolation was a second-moto problem for title rival Jeffrey Herlings, but the Dutch teenager has a cushion of 41 points with Jeremy Van Horebeek just 12 back from Tommy.
In MX1 Toni Cairoli responded in style to his zero scoreline from a fortnight earlier in Sweden by claiming a resounding GP victory to regain the MX1 red plate.
He did, though, have to surrender the second moto to Kevin Strijbos, his first GP win since 2007.
A series of showers made track conditions unpredictable all weekend, but other considerations played an even more significant role for the world leaders in both classes.
Herlings had lost a seemingly clear victory in Saturday qualification when the rear Pirelli came off the rim – and the start arena in Kegums, with a tight 180 degree first turn, is not the place to start from an outside gate.
Just 13th on the opening lap of the first MX2 moto, the series leader faced a long ride through to an eventual second and only achieved that courtesy of the misfortune of others.
"I quickly settled in third and had the leaders in my sights,” explained Searle.
"But I soon realised I wasn't going to see the chequered flag. I could see the oil coming out and it seized on the second lap.”
The pipe from the oil cooler had come adrift, presumably dislodged by a rock, but the diagnosis was little comfort to Searle: "I just lost all of my gains of recent weeks through no fault of my own,” he moaned.
In an orange-dominated leader-board hole-shotter Jose Butron was causing chaos.
First he punted Van Horebeek off the track as the Belgian went for the lead, and next in line for the treatment was Jake Nicholls.
"He was holding me up and when I finally went for a gap, he tried to put me in the fence and Roelants got past both of us,” he said.
The Belgian agreed: "I couldn't find my rhythm in the first few laps but it was only a matter of time before something happened so I was patient. Once I was in front I was able to ride my own race and build a big lead.”
Nicholls was quickly back to second as Butron's defences wilted, but the Brit soon felt Herlings breathing down his pipe. "I knew it was a Red Bull KTM, but I didn't know which one.
"It didn't matter anyway – I was second and determined to defend it.”
FOR FULL REPORT AND PICTURES SEE TMX NEWS JULY 20
WORLD MX1 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 10 – Kegums, LATVIA
1 Antonio Cairoli (I - KTM) 25 + 22 = 47
2 Ken De Dycker (B - KTM) 22 + 20 = 42
3 Kevin Strijbos (B - KTM) 11 + 25 = 36
4 Rui Goncalves (P - Honda) 20 + 16 = 36
5 Gautier Paulin (F - Kawasaki) 18 + 15 = 33
6 Clement Desalle (B - Suzuki) 14 + 18 = 32
7 Tanel Leok (EST - Suzuki) 15 + 14 = 29
8 Shaun SIMPSON (GB - Yamaha) 13 + 13 = 26
9 Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS - Honda) 16 + 10 = 26
10 Xavier Boog (F - Kawasaki) 10 + 12 = 22
11 Christophe Pourcel (F - Kawasaki) 12+9=21, 12 Mark De Reuver (NL - Kawasaki) 5+11=16, 13 Jonathan Barragan (E - Honda) 8+8=16, 14 Gert Krestinov (EST - Honda) 6+7=13, 15 Sebastien Pourcel (F - Kawasaki) 7+4=11, 16 Milko Potisek (F - Honda) 3+6=9, 17 Davide Guarneri (I - KTM) 9+0=9, 18 Santtu Tiainen (SF - Kawasaki) 0+5=5, 19 Augusts Justs (LAT - Honda) 2+2=4, 20 Matteo Bonini (I - KTM) 4+0=4, 21 Kim Lindstrom (S - Kawasaki) 0+3=3, 22 Davis Livs (LAT - Kawasaki) 1+1=2.
RACE ONE: 1 Cairoli, 2 De Dycker, 3 Goncalves, 4 Paulin, 5 Bobryshev, 6 Leok, 7 Desalle, 8 SIMPSON, 9 Christophe Pourcel, 10 Strijbos, 11 Boog, 12 Guarneri, 13 Barragan, 14 Sebastien Pourcel, 15 Krestinov, 16 De Reuver, 17 Bonini, 18 Potisek, 19 Justs, 20 Livs.
RACE TWO: 1 Strijbos, 2 Cairoli, 3 De Dycker, 4 Desalle, 5 Goncalves, 6 Paulin, 7 Leok, 8 SIMPSON, 9 Boog, 10 De Reuver, 11 Bobryshev, 12 Christophe Pourcel, 13 Barragan, 14 Krestinov, 15 Potisek, 16 Tiainen, 17 Sebastien Pourcel, 18 Lindstrom, 19 Justs, 20 Livs.
SERIES STANDINGS after 10 (of 16) rounds: 1 Cairoli 392 points, 2 Desalle 380, 3 Christophe Pourcel 357, 4 Paulin 348, 5 De Dycker 299, 6 Strijbos 279, 7 Boog 258, 8 Leok 230, 9 Goncalves 219, 10 Philippaerts 212, 11 SIMPSON 185, 12 Bobryshev 163, 13 Sebastien Pourcel 154, 14 Barragan 151, 15 Guarneri 118, 16 Karro 112, 17 Frossard 66, 18 Boissiere 58, 19 Soubeyras 54, 20 Ferris 52,... 28 Alfie SMITH 15,... 47 Nathan PARKER 2,... 49 Jamie LAW 2,... 54 Martin BARR 1,...
NEXT ROUND: July 22 – Semigorje, RUSSIA.
WORLD MX2 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 10 – Kegums, LATVIA
1 Joel Roelants (B - Kawasaki) 25 + 22 = 47
2 Jeremy Van Horebeek (B - KTM) 20 + 25 = 45
3 Jordi Tixier (F - KTM) 16 + 20 = 36
4 Glenn Coldenhoff (NL - KTM) 13 + 16 = 29
5 Jose Butron (E - KTM) 15 + 14 = 29
6 Max ANSTIE (GB - Honda) 7 + 18 = 25
7 Jeffrey Herlings (NL - KTM) 22 + 3 = 25
8 Arnaud Tonus (CH - Yamaha) 12 + 12 = 24
9 Romain Febvre (F - KTM) 14 + 10 = 24
10 Jens Getteman (B - Suzuki) 8 + 13 = 21
11 Nikolaj Larsen (DK - Suzuki) 5+15=20, 12 Alessandro Lupino (I - Husqvarna) 9+11=20, 13 Jake NICHOLLS (GB - KTM) 18+0=18, 14 Priit Ratsep (EST - KTM) 6+7=13, 15 Dylan Ferrandis (F - Kawasaki) 11+2=13, 16 Alexander Tonkov (RUS - Honda) 10+1=11, 17 Kevin Fors (B - Yamaha) 0+9=9, 18 Christophe Charlier (F - Yamaha) 0+8=8, 19 Valentin Guillod (CH - KTM) 1+6=7, 20 Ivanovs Davis (LAT - Kawasaki) 2+5=7, 21 Rick Santink (NL - Honda) 0+4=4, 22 Julien Lieber (B - KTM) 4+0=4, 23 Zach Osborne (US - Yamaha) 3+0=3.
RACE ONE: 1 Roelants, 2 Herlings, 3 Van Horebeek, 4 NICHOLLS, 5 Tixier, 6 Butron, 7 Febvre, 8 Coldenhoff, 9 Tonus, 10 Ferrandis, 11 Tonkov, 12 Lupino, 13 Getteman, 14 ANSTIE, 15 Ratsep, 16 Larsen, 17 Lieber, 18 Osborne, 19 Davis, 20 Guillod.
RACE TWO: 1 Van Horebeek, 2 Roelants, 3 Tixier, 4 ANSTIE, 5 Coldenhoff, 6 Larsen, 7 Butron, 8 Getteman, 9 Tonus, 10 Lupino, 11 Febvre, 12 Fors, 13 Charlier, 14 Ratsep, 15 Guillod, 16 Davis, 17 Santink, 18 Herlings, 19 Ferrandis, 20 Tonkov.
SERIES STANDINGS after 10 (of 16) rounds: 1 Herlings 428 points, 2 SEARLE 387, 3 Van Horebeek 375, 4 Roelants 310, 5 Tixier 279, 6 NICHOLLS 255, 7 ANSTIE 224, 8 Butron 197, 9 Ferrandis 190, 10 Lupino 183, 11 Coldenhoff 153, 12 Kullas 132, 13 Charlier 131, 14 Petrov 131, 15 Febvre 106, 16 Tonus 98, 17 POCOCK 87, 18 Guillod 87, 19 Larsen 81, 20 Tonkov 80,...
NEXT ROUND: July 22 – Semigorje, RUSSIA.
