SIDI GP of Città Di Faenza To Spell Thrilling End of 2008 Campaign

FUNCHAL (PORTUGAL), 10 September 2008 – A vibrating final round of the 2008 season will get underway this weekend at Faenza, Italy, where both the MX1 and MX2 World Titles will be taken after what will be an intense SIDI Grand Prix of Città di Faenza.

Home rider David Philippaerts is on top of the MX1 standings and will be pumped for this final weekend of the season where he aims at collecting his maiden World Title. On the other hand Steve Ramon had a tough GP in Lierop by failing to make up ground on the rival, though he is still runner up and has a chance to take his second consecutive MX1 crown. Ken de Dycker completes the trio of those who can still give the Title a go.

In the MX2 class leader Tyla Rattray has been pulling away from runner up Tommy Searle in each of the latest two GP’s taking two consecutive overall wins. Third placed Nicolas Aubin can only aim at holding the spot from hungry Shaun Simpson and Rui Goncalves who are now completing the top five.

Faenza will give the last starts of the 2008 season.

MX1

David Philippaerts and the Italy based Yamaha Monster Motocross team have dealt very well with the penultimate round on the sand at Lierop, where runner up Steve Ramon of Teka Suzuki WMX1 could have left a heavy mark on the Championship. Instead Philippaerts rode as strong as ever to secure fourth overall while Ramon had a tough day and finished eighth.

David Philippaerts aims at taking the title in front of his home crowd.

Philippaerts added nine more points to his Championship lead even though Ramon and team mate Ken de Dycker are still close. The latter even took the podium in Lierop to close in again on Philippaerts.

Faenza will decide who in this trio will take the Title home.

Ken de Dycker is inside of the three way fight for the MX1 crown to be taken at Faenza.

Fighting for fourth in the Championship are AXO KTM Silver Action’s Jonathan Barragan and Yamaha Monster Motocross’ Joshua Coppins who are spread in just four points.

After finishing on the podium at Lierop last weekend also Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Max Nagl looks at the top five as he is sixth in the standings with a 21 point gap from Coppins.

Max Nagl is charging to find a spot inside the top five.

GPKR’s Sebastien Pourcel follows the German from very close as he looks forward to his Faenza comeback; the Frenchman, who is currently the only Green rider onboard a fuel injection machine, took his maiden double heat win last year at the Italian venue.

Following his dominant home win in Lierop Martin Honda’s Marc de Reuver will be back to action on Italian soil where he collected his first season’s win in Mantova. The hard pack course will represent a new challenge for the 25 year old sand master.

MX2

A strong Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Tyla Rattray has reinforced his MX2 leadership in the latest two rounds courtesy of back to back GP victories in Ireland and Benelux. The South African is showing an impressive form as the season is coming to a close.

Tyla Rattray has a 33 point advantage when he enters this final round with Title ambitions.

On the other hand team mate and runner up in the Championship Tommy Searle has not been able to keep up with the South African and is now 33 points adrift. Tommy took the red plate just once in France while Rattray has kept it from Germany onwards.

Tommy Searle will be flat out in Faenza to exploit his small Title chance at its fullest.

The third red plate holder this season who would have loved to enter this final round in Faenza is two time MX2 World Champion Tony Cairoli. The Yamaha Red Bull De Carli rider injured himself at round 10 in South Africa and has never been able to rejoin the series since that knee injury.

Though Cairoli will be present at the SIDI GP of Città di Faenza in both days of the weekend.

Even though he will not race Tony Cairoli will be present at Faenza.

Cairoli just saw himself drop from third to sixth in the points standings as Ricci Racing Yamaha’s Nicolas Aubin took the third place courtesy of Lierop’s podium. Also KTM fellow riders Shaun Simpson and Rui Goncalves have moved up by one position as they are currently rounding off the top five and can still complete an all KTM podium in the MX2 Championship.

Running the opening laps with the front runners in Lierop, Latvian Matiss Karro put together his best season’s finish with seventh overall and is expected to take on the challenge again in Faenza.

Young gun Matiss Karro rode extremely well in Lierop.

Making his GP debut last year at Faenza and ending with an astonishing 11th overall, Marvin Musquin will come back to the GP scene this weekend after Loket’s injury saw the 18 year old French miss the following two GP’s.


MONTE CORALLI AND FAENZA

The Monte Coralli at Faenza is spread on a hill area of seven hectares. The course itself is 1550 metre long approximately as the minimum width has been extended to eight and a half metres. The ground has been enriched with sand and woodchips while the visibility from the spectators’ areas has been improved by reshaping the track which still features its classic downhill and uphill sections. In the final part of the race track a wave section has been added.

Faenza hosted its first World Championship event in 1979 (500cc class) and this SIDI Grand Prix of Città di Faenza will be the ninth World Championship round to be held. The only Italians winning at home in Faenza have been Corrado Maddii (125cc/1985) and Cristian Beggi (MX3/2006). 2007 established a milestone in the history of Motocross as Faenza saw the Pourcel brothers taking the GP victory in the MX1 (Sebastien) and MX2 (Christophe) classes both onboard Kawasaki machinery.


The whole region of Emilia Romagna enjoys a solid motorsports tradition and Faenza is one of its most beautiful cities hosting one of the Italy’s main motocross tracks. Faenza is in between Forlì and Imola, another city well known for its road racing facility. Bologna and sea resort Cervia are just 50 km away from Faenza and its splendid porcelain –in Italian “ceramiche” - arts and crafts, which have developed since the Renaissance period. In the city of Faenza there are currently 60 porcelain arts and crafts manufacturers as most of their traditional shops are part of the beautiful city centre scenery.


THE EVENT’S SCHEDULE

Saturday September 13: KTM Trophy Free Practice 1 at 09:05 am; MX2 Free Practice at 10:00 am; MX1 Free Practice 1 at 11:00 am; MX2 Pre-Qualifying Practice at 12:00 am; KTM Trophy Free Practice 2 at 01:35 pm; MX1 Free Practice 2 at 02:00 pm; MX2 Qualifying Race 1 at 03:00 pm; MX2 Qualifying Race 2 at 03:45 pm; MX1 Time Practice at 04:30 pm; MX2 Last Chance Qualifying Practice at 05:15 pm; KTM Trophy Time Practice at 05:55 pm (local time).


Sunday September 14: KTM Trophy Warm Up at 09:00 am; MX2 Warm-up at 9:30 am; MX1 Warm-up at 10:00 am; KTM Trophy Race 1 at 11:10 am; MX2 Grand Prix Race 1 at 12:10 am; MX1 Grand Prix Race 1 at 01:10 pm; KTM Trophy Race 2 at 02:10 pm; MX2 Grand Prix Race 2 at 03:03 pm; MX1 Grand Prix Race 2 at 04:03 pm (local time).



LINKS
Youthstream
FIM
SIDI
FMI-Federazione Motociclistica Italiana
DBO
Monte Coralli and Motoclub Faenza
Faenza

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