War of the Worlds...
By Alex Hodgkinson on 5th Apr 11
Theres just one week to go to the start of the 2011 GP season and few of the leading teams have racing commitments this weekend.
If they aren't ready yet, then it's a trifle late as the team trucks face the long haul down through Italy and Greece for the opening round at the glorious hillside track of Sevlievo in Bulgaria.
And, after a subdued 2010, Britain has every reason for optimism that we will have riders at the sharp end in both MX1 and MX2 classes...
Globalisation means that riders no longer restrict their early season races to their national scene.
Indeed many front-runners have their home base outside their native shores and Britain goes into MX2 with two groups of leading contenders – those born in the UK, and those leading UK-based teams.
A broken ankle will sadly keep Jake Nicholls out of the early GPs, but the early Maxxis rounds emphasised the strength of Steve Dixon's imported stars as Zach Osborne and Arnaud Tonus dominated the racing, while the switch to Honda has worked wonders for the confidence of Matiss Karro and the MVR-D squad.
The new lean Osborne was sharp and fast all day at the opener in Devon, only a mechanical DNF standing in the way of a maximum score and the world number four's determination to improve his world ranking yet further can mean only one thing – a medal!
Osborne has a new side-kick in the Bike It Yamaha squad in Arnaud Tonus. The son of former Swiss national champion, Charly, the 19-year-old has arguably the smoothest classic style in the game as well as condition and a vigorous consistency. Arnaud (pronounced Arn-o) has yet to finish off the podium this year and also has only one direction to go from his current world ranking of seven.
Suzuki's budget switches didn't leave MVR-D out in the cold for long as Honda recognised the potential of former World Junior champion, Karro, and their faith has been justified in a string of front-line scores. The team is ready to take the 19-year-old Latvian where he belongs – the world top ten.
But the BIG interest in MX2 for UK fans comes from a Japanese manufacturer, a French team, based in Holland, using American tuning and two ferociously talented English riders – Tommy Searle and Max Anstie.
Tommy has had a dire couple of years in America with team politics and a succession of injuries, but has already proved that the fire which took him to consecutive world silver medals in 2007 and 2008 is still there as he has swept unbeaten through the warm-up races. British fans got a taste of this class act at the Hawkstone International. The 21-year-old from Kent has his sights firmly set on gold !
Team-mate Max, 17, had a more torrid time during his first couple of rides this year, but the most enigmatic teenager in the game refused to drop his head and gave a glimpse of what we can expect when he ran away from a bunch of MX1 world title candidates in the Shropshire Superfinal.
The main continental opposition know just how hard a nut he is to crack from their communal time on the youth scene when Max crossed swords through the classes with Ken Roczen and Jeff Herlings.
KTM's brace of 16-year-olds won five GPs between them last year and German Roczen goes into the campaign hot favourite after ending last season winning eight of the last 11 GP motos. His preparation in the US through the last couple of months has merely confirmed his ranking.
But that means nothing when the gate drops, and his first task will be to confirm his number-one ranking within the Teka team!
Six-months younger than Roczen, Herlings actually has a higher win ratio with two GP victories from just 12 starts, and what the Dutch youngster still lacked in race craft last summer, he more than made up for with raw pace. He has already confirmed this asset through three warm-up races, an also has determination, as he came back from an horrific no-fault start crash at Gemert.
The final title challenger is Gautier Paulin. Rinaldi Yamaha's 21-year-old Frenchman has slugged it out with the 450s through the Italian warm-up races and undoubtedly has pace. But in the past he has lacked consistency, and that could again be his downfall.
Short made-for-TV tracks means that the top names will already be running through traffic mid-way through the motos, and a clear divide between several groups of starters marks out the MX2 field.
While Searle, Osborne, Roczen, Herlings and Paulin should dispute the title with Anstie and Tonus snapping at their heels, Karro and a host of others talented youngsters will ensure that they can never relax.
Jeremy Van Horebeek and Joel Roelants will challenge in sand; Michael Leib will be a threat if Varese can get the new Husky running; Valentin Teillet is set to restablish himself on the lone factory Suzuki, and both Christophe Charlier and Harri Kullas should not be underestimated. Jake Nicholls should also be in this group once he returns to action.
As the class is made up of youngsters, there will inevitably be surprises and the most talented amongst the rest appear to be Holland's Glenn Coldenhoff, Bulgaria's Petar Petrov and Euro champs Jordi Tixier and Steven Lenoir.
FOR FULL PREVIEW SEE T+MX APRIL 1
