Championship Quest For Coppins And Searle At First GP In The Midlands

FUNCHAL, 22 August 2007- The second “unseen” track of the 15 round FIM Motocross World Championship calendar will host the World’s fastest riders this weekend for the penultimate round of the series.

Fox Racing, the industry leader, values the on-going partnership with Youthstream for the 2007 FOX Grand Prix of Great Britain, and will have logo presence at the event via track signage and selected hospitality areas.

MX1 Championship leader Joshua Coppins, who has been missing the latest two rounds and scored no points at Loket when he injured his left shoulder, will come back at Donington after his last minute decision of skipping Moneyglass. In the meantime, runner up Steve Ramon has shortened the gap to 12 points.

Antonio Cairoli, who has won his second World Title at Moneyglass, will make his maiden GP appearance in the MX1 class this weekend. Christophe Pourcel is out with a broken sacrum, and British star Tommy Searle can secure the second place in the Championship by scoring only six points.

The second and final round of the FIM Veterans’ Motocross World Cup will take place this weekend with Senior class leader Dave Thorpe looking forward to his home event, where Charles “Chuck” Sun from America will enter his first round of the Cup in the Senior class. In the Veteran class, Kiwi leader Tony Cooksley hopes to clinch another double victory as he did in Namur.

MX1
Yamaha Motocross’ Joshua Coppins skipped Moneyglass to be fitter for the forthcoming FOX Grand Prix of Great Britain. The gutsy Kiwi wants to fight his hardest for this Title, and Steve Ramon of Suzuki is the first rival on the list.

Josh Coppins is ready to fight for this Title

Being the current runner up and having a 12 point gap from Coppins, Belgian Ramon could not close the entire hole when Coppins was absent, but he has still good chances to move up to the lead in the remaining two rounds.
His team mate Kevin Strijbos won the latest round; he will surely try to win more and improve on his fifth position in the standings, making up for the knee injury that kept him out of the Bulgarian GP.
Sebastien Pourcel of GPKR is as consistent as ever; Seb clinched his fourth consecutive podium last weekend, and was running away with the lead until he crashed in moto two. Pourcel has now 45 points less than Coppins, with 100 points to be taken until sandy Lierop.

Sebastien Pourcel has still got chances to grasp the Title in his first MX1 season

Also David Philippaerts of KTM Red Bull is another consistent man, as he showed with his sixth season podium at Moneyglass, but this weekend his memories will go back to last year, when he was fighting for the victory with countryman Antonio Cairoli. The latter, who just clinched his second World Title last weekend, will make his maiden MX1 appearance with a production YZ450F entered by his own Yamaha De Carli team. Yamaha, who is now second behind Suzuki in the manufacturers’ classification, hopes to close the 29 point gap and come back to the lead.
Billy Mackenzie of Kawasaki Europe will enter his home GP with high hopes; the only British winner of an MX1 GP, thanks to the victory at Sugo this year, looks forward to his fans’ support to improve on his tenth place in the standings.

MX2
KTM Red Bull’s Tommy Searle came really close to his maiden GP victory at Moneyglass last weekend, but a gutsy Tony Cairoli ruined his dreams with an incredible last lap manoeuvre. Searle will be a man out for revenge this weekend, but his two main rivals Cairoli and Christophe Pourcel will not be there –now the latter is still in hospital at Belfast with a broken sacrum.

Tommy Searle is back home this weekend

The 17 year old based in Tonge, four kilometres from Donington, will try to win in front of his fans, securing the runner up position in the Championship with gallantry, but six points will be enough to make it.
Gareth Swanepoel, who rides for the British Team Molson Kawasaki, is another rider who is about to climb up the Championship classification. The South African is now sixth, but the fifth and the fourth placed riders –respectively Pascal Leuret and Tyla Rattray- are both out for injuries.

Gareth Swanepoel is ready for a storming end of the season

Ricci Racing’s Nicolas Aubin, who was recently confirmed as Christophe Pourcel’s replacement in the French Team for the Motocross of Nations, chases Swanepoel from very close. Aubin is a dangerous opponent, who is capable of winning GP’s as he did at Loket.
KTM riders Marcus Schiffer –Team Sarholz- and Jeremy Van Horebeek –Team Champ- rounded off the top five both at Namur and at Moneyglass; they are expected to be in good form also for Donington, and so is AXO KTM Silver Action’s Rui Goncalves.
The Portuguese clinched his second consecutive podium last weekend, only two weeks after his maiden podium at Namur. Rui, who picked up two collarbone injuries in the off-season and missed the first GP at Valkenswaard, is now training hard with KTM Racing Director for Motocross Activities Stefan Everts, and can chase Searle in a special fight for the maiden GP victory.
Italian Davide Guarneri can be another solid contender this weekend, as he already won at Namur, while Yamaha fellow rider Carl Nunn will make the most of his home crowd’s support to come back to the podium; his last podium appearance dates back to the 2006 GP of Czech Republic at Loket, where Nunn ended third.

FIM VETERANS’ MOTOCROSS WORLD CUP
This year’s Cup, which is the second edition of the event, begun at Namur in early August, and will end this weekend at Donington Park.

In the Senior class, defending Champion Thierry Godfroid will have his last chance to move up to the lead; the Belgian is third, only five points away from current leader Dave Thorpe. Thorpe is dying to get back on his Honda and race his home event, but runner up Jan Blancquaert will be a tough rival for the Brit. American Charles Sun, who won the 1980 AMA 500cc National Championship for Honda and was part of the victorious 1981 Motocross of Nations team, will make his first appearance in the Cup with high ambitions.

Tony Cooksley of New Zealand is now leading the Cup; his dream of a Kiwi one-two, referring to a virtual victory of countryman Joshua Coppins in the MX1 class, did not come true in Namur, but Donington is Tony’s second chance. Frenchman Paul Barbara, who lies second in the standings, will attack Cooksley this weekend to close the 10 point gap and secure the Cup. Also third placed Philippe Dejong has victory ambitions, but Barbara, who is just two points away, is his closest target.

DONINGTON PARK AND CASTLE DONINGTON
This unique circuit is called Donington Park, such as the permanent Road Racing complex that plays host to the Motocross course. About 35,000 tons of soil were brought into the Leicestershire facility to build a high leaping and challenging circuit, which was made in about two weeks time, while the overall set up work took the organizers about four weeks. The track, which is about 1650 metre long, is located on a compact area offering good view to the spectators; the course features two high banked parabolica’s, twists and turns through a series of jumps over high rise plateaus.

Castle Donington is a small town in a corner of Leicestershire; it is 18 kilometres South East of Derby, and about 200 kilometres North of London. The town is placed on the former Nottingham to Birmingham trunk road, and is characterized by modern shops standing alongside dignified Georgian and Regency houses, in a fascinating blend of modernity and tradition. The Castle that named the town was built to command the crossing points of the River Trent in the eleventh or twelfth century, and is now merely a mound on the northern edge of the village. The Parish Church, which dates back to 1200, is still one of the main attraction for tourists.

The weather forecast predicts a sunny weekend, with temperatures around 20° Celsius.

THE EVENT’S SCHEDULE
Saturday August 25: Senior Free Practice at 8:45 am; Veteran Free Practice at 9:15 am; MX2 Free Practice at 10:00 am; MX1 Free Practice 1 at 10:50 am; MX2 Pre-Qualifying Practice at 11:40 am; Senior Time Practice at 12:30 am; Veteran Time Practice at 1:15 pm; MX1 Free Practice 2 at 2:00 pm; MX2 Qualifying Race 1 at 3:00 pm; MX2 Qualifying Race 2 at 3:45 pm; MX1 Time Practice at 4:15 pm; MX2 Last Chance Qualifying Practice at 5:00 pm; Senior Race 1 at 5:40 pm;  Veteran Race 1 at 6:30 pm (local time).

Sunday August 26: Senior Warm-up at 8:00 am; Veteran Warm-up at 8:30 am; MX2 Warm-up at 9:00 am; MX1 Warm-up at 9:30 am; Senior Race 2 at 11:08 am; MX2 Grand Prix Race 1 at 12:08 am; MX1 Grand Prix Race 1 at 1:08 pm; Veteran Race 2 at 2:03 pm; MX2 Grand Prix Race 2 at 3:03 pm; MX1 Grand Prix Race 2 at 4:03 pm (local time).

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
ACU-Auto-Cycle Union
Fox Racing
Donington Park
Visit Derby

Information, photos and results are online at 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.