UDDEVALLA, 1 July 2007- This ninth round of the FIM Motocross World Championship was loaded with surprises, with Ken De Dycker winning his maiden GP in the MX1 class and Tommy Searle making it to his first career heat win in the MX2 class, that was once again dominated by Sicilian Antonio Cairoli.
The hole day was sunny, and a demanding Glimminge Mototstadion –packed with 28900 spectators- hosted great racing today, also in the second round of the FIM Women’s Motocross World Cup, that was won by Kiwi Katherine Prumm.
MX1
Ken De Dycker of CAS Honda clinched his first career GP win after grasping also his maiden heat win –the first one of the FIM Motocross Grand Prix of Sweden. Steve Ramon of Suzuki finished with a brilliant second place after winning the final heat, and Kawasaki Racing Europe’s Tanel Leok completed the podium. David Philippaerts was just three points behind Leok, and brought a fourth place home ahead of Joshua Coppins, sitting out of the podium for the first time this season.
 | Belgian giant Ken de Dycker rode to his maiden GP win today |
MX1 GRAND PRIX RACE 1
Ken de Dycker had a storming start, jumping to the lead of the pack at the first corner, and leading for the whole race. Having an empty track in front of himself, the Belgian also clocked the fastest lap, while Tanel Leok had to work his way up to second after a decent start from fourth place.
Kevin Strijbos finally settled down for a satisfactory third place –the Belgian was coming back from a knee injury- after he chased De Dycker for the first half of the heat.
Joshua Coppins was not on his favourite track, but rode a solid first heat to pass Ramon with four laps to go, and secure an eventual fourth place ahead of the Suzuki factory representative.
David Philippaerts started from fifteenth, but rode strong until a brilliant sixth place ahead of Billy Mackenzie.
Seb Pourcel chased Strijbos for second in the early stages, but crashed and completed the heat with an eighth place.
 | Steve Ramon won the final heat with style |
MX1 GRAND PRIX RACE 2
Ken De Dycker and Mike Brown put up a fight for the holeshot, but the winner of the opening moto finally got the lead and begun to pull away from the rest of the pack.
Ramon was the only one who came out of the group to give chase to a strong De Dycker; Steve came to De Dycker’s back wheel and passed, unleashing all the power of his RMZ 450 to clinch his second heat win with the factory Suzuki machine.
Ken settled down for second; Philippaerts was not a threat for the Belgian anymore, as the heat was not long enough to let the Italian make up ground on the overall winner.
Philippaerts was actually under assault by Billy Mackenzie, who rode on the back of the German GP winner for a few laps, then let David arrive to the chequered flag in third place.
Mackenzie was then reached by team mate Leok, who was incredibly fast in the final laps after having suffered a problem in the first half of the heat –a stone was blocking his gear lever. Leok did not make to pass and arrived fifth right behind Mackenzie.
Kevin Strijbos used up all his energies in the opening heat, and finished seventeenth in the final one.
MX2
The MX2 class was dominated once again by Antonio Cairoli of Yamaha de Carli, who had a tough first moto after crashing at the start. KTM Red Bull’s Tommy Searle was second overall on his fifth season podium, with KTM fellow rider Marcus Schiffer of the Sarholz Team clinching his maiden third place overall since he started to race GP’s in 2004. Christophe Pourcel fixed a bad weekend and brought the bike home with fourth overall, ahead of Davide Guarneri.
 | Tony Cairoli won his eighth Grand Prix even after a disastrous start to the first heat |
MX2 GRAND PRIX RACE 1
With Tyla Rattray and Antonio Cairoli crashing at the start, Kenneth Gundersen took the holeshot and pulled away with the lead for the first half of the race.
Tommy Searle got rid of Rui Goncalves to start chasing Gundersen for the win, but the Norwegian broke his rear brake. Tommy came closer and closer to him, and finally moved up to first.
In the meantime Cairoli and Rattray were coming up fast through the field. The South African made a mistake and twisted his knee, going back to the pitlane before the end of the race. On the other hand Cairoli arrived to Searle’s tail, but made a mistake and lost the contact with the Brit, settling down for a solid second after he restarted the race from the back of the field.
Gundersen brought the bike home in third place, ahead of Pascal Leuret. The Frenchman earned the position by fighting with a very fast Jeremy van Horebeek, who rounded off the top five for the first time this season –his debut in the World series.
Marcus Schiffer raced a solid moto finishing seventh, as Pourcel crashed and brought the bike home in fifteenth place.
 | Tommy Searle was brilliant in moto one, winning for the first time in his career |
MX2 GRAND PRIX RACE 2
Matti Seistola had a storming start, but Cairoli and Rui Goncalves moved past him soon, pulling away from the rest of the field.
Christophe Pourcel had a decent start, working his way up from the bottom of the top ten to a strong second place, that he kept even after a crash.
Tyla Rattray took a brave decision of racing the final heat after having twisted his knee in the first moto; the South African finished third, as KTM fellow rider Goncalves’s bike stopped when the Portuguese was cruising in fourth place, being virtually third on the podium.
Goncalves handed fourth to Swanepoel, as Tommy Searle completed the top five after having encountered troubles at the start. Schiffer was sixth, racing another solid heat.
Kenneth Gundersen was hit by bad luck, as he felt sick in between the two heats and could not race the final.
IN THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS STANDINGS
Josh Coppins missed the podium but has still a solid advantage over runner up Steve Ramon, who made up a few points on Coppins. David Philippaerts secured his third place, as Seb Pourcel dropped down to sixth. Jonathan Barragan placed himself in fourth place, right behind his team mate, as Strijbos currently rounds off the top five.
In the MX2 class, leader Cairoli seems to have no rivals, as he currently leads the series with an increased advantage of 102 points. Pourcel is still second, and increased his advantage over a third placed Rattray, who scored no points in the opening heat. Tommy Searle is now fourth, 15 points ahead of Leuret.
FIM WOMEN’S MOTOCROSS WORLD CUP
Katherine Prumm of Kawasaki Molson came back to victory and made up for a disappointing opening round in Teutschenthal.
The Kiwi defending Champion went 3-1, but second placed Livia Lancelot was only one point behind her, after clinching two solid second places. Lancelot is the new series leader, conquering the red plate as previous leader Larissa Papenmeier was out of the podium, finishing fourth overall.
Maria Franke completed the podium, dropping down to third in the series, behind Lancelot and Prumm, with the latter moving up from fourth to second.
Larissa Papenmeier lost her lead to drop down to fourth in the standings, ahead of Swedish Sandra Adriansson, who was successful in her home event and finished sixth overall, behind Marie Romlin.
Stephanie Laier of KTM Germany was seventh; she won the first heat, but crashed in the second one and was then taken to the hospital. The 2005 World Cup Winner should be now ok.
 | The podium of this second round of the Cup: (from left to right) Livia Lancelot, Katherine Prumm and Maria Franke |
WHAT’S NEXT
The next round will be held in Faenza on July 15th. The preceding Saturday there will be a special charity auction for Wings for Life, where the fans will find any kind of gear from the Motocross World Championship riders.
The next and final round of the Women’s Cup will be in Lierop, on September 2.
The FIM Motocross Grand Prix of Sweden will be:
Broadcast delayed on:
EUROSPORT 2: Monday July 2, MX2 Class at 16:00 CET
SPORT ITALIA: Sunday July 1, MX1 Race 1 at 16:00 and Race 2 at 17:00 CET
EUROSPORT WORLD: Sunday July 1, MX1 Race 1 at 19:00 and Race 2 at 20:00 GMT; Monday July 2, MX1 Race 1 at 9:00 and Race 2 at 10:00 GMT; Tuesday July 3, MX2 Class at 8:00 GMT
AMERICA ONE: second Tuesday after the GP, MX2 Race 2 and MX1 Race 2, N/A (check http://www.americaone.com)
GAORA: MX2 Race 1 and Race 2, MX1 Race 1 and Race 2, N/A (check http://www.gaora.co.jp)
Info on the event can be found in the Official Guide of the FIM Motocross World Championship. To download it directly click here.
LINKS
FIM
SVEMO- Swedish Motorcycle Federation
FIM Motocross Grand Prix of Sweden
Uddevalla
Information and results on http://www.motocrossMX1.com, the official website of the FIM Motocross World Championships.
Fans worldwide can watch this and every race of the 2007 FIM Motocross & Supermoto World Championships live and on-demand exclusively on The Moto Channel on MediaZone (moto.MediaZone.com). MediaZone is a leading global online broadcaster specialized in sports, entertainment and international programming.
Youthstream is the company that manages the exclusive television, marketing and promotional world wide rights of the FIM Motocross World Championship, the FIM Motocross of Nations, the FIM SuperMoto World Championship, the FIM SuperMoto of Nations, the FIM Snowcross World Championship, the UEM Motocross European Championship and the UEM SuperMoto European Championship.
www.MotocrossMX1.com
7/2/2007 12:13pm
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