The 9rd round of the FIM MX World Championship took place in Uddevalla, Sweden, about 100km north of Gothenburg. Uddevalla has been a consistent and reliable part of the World Championship since the beginning of the century and More than 19,000 spectators followed the race, scaled the rocky hillside, confirmed the popularity of the event in hot and sunny weather conditions.MX1 CLASS
Another victory for the 33 year old Belgian Stefan Everts. He won both of the motos, dominating the first one and sorting out a little inconvenient, caused by a slip, granted him the second one as well as a good recovery crowned by overtaking Steve Ramon in the last lap.It is clear by now that the Yamaha/Rinaldi rider wants to end his career with 100 GPs won and with this last one he’s up to 96; he might even try to win his tenth world title before the championship’s over in the GP held in Namur. The odds are in his favour as he stands at the top of the league with 442 points, ahead of Kevin Strijbos with 328 and Tanel Leok with 294.Steve Ramon got second overall thanks to a second and fourth place: the young Belgian, like last year, is demonstrating to be more consistent in the second half of the championship. However he should have been more incisive during the last lap with Everts behind him.Joshua Coppins got an absolute third place and this is the second GP he’s disputed so far. He’s just got back in the game after a bad injury to his shoulder who kept him away from the circuit for 2 and half months.The Honda/Cas rider has demonstrated once again his great charachter thanks to a third and a fifth place but he’s still not in very good shape.It’s time now for some market operations as far as pilot hares concerned: the Estonian Tanel Leok and the Belgian Kevin Strijbos has resigned the contract with their current teams, respectively Team Kawasaki factory De Groot and Team Suzuki factory Sylvain Geboers.But the bomb news comes from the Team Yamaha, in fact with the retirement from the racing of Stefan Everts at the end of this season , the Yamaha have signed with the New Zealand Joshua Coppins and the Netherlands Marc de Reuver, the new riders will race in the 2007 MX1 world championship.We’ll get to know more about this MX market in the next few days.MX1 Moto1
The Spansih Jonathan Barragan at the wheel of his KTM model year 2007 performs his first holeshot of the season, but it’s unfortunately the mere beginning of dream that doesn’t last too long: Stefan Everts overtakes him during the first lap. Barragan tailed after Everts hoping for a mistake from the world champion but unfortunately for him Everts will cross the finishing line in first position, followed by Barragan and Coppins.MX1 Moto2
The second moto is the exact photocopy of what happened two weeks ago in England: Stefan Everts started holeshot but slipped during the first lap and while getting his YZ back up, he got overtaken by Coppins,Strijbos,GarciaVico and Ramon. Everts starts over from the sixth position and distached from the group of pilots in the lead.Recovering after slipping is seen as a handicap for a “normal/common” pilot, but such a recovery for Stefan Everts, who’s certainly not a “normal/common” pilot, is a stimulus to show off his worth and so he jumps into it without hesitating, for the plain joy of the audience.In the meantime, Strijbos took the lead after overtaking Coppins, but behind him lies the sinister shadow of his team mate Ramon, ( the Belgian pilots riding the latest evolution of the RM-Z 450 frame, pre-series 2008) who during the 11th lap manages to steal the lead off Strijbos, but has no time to relax as Everts has pushed his bike so much that he’s now in second position. During the last lap, Everts steals the lead off Ramon and goes on to win this moto as well as the first one, in front of a dejected Ramon and Gordon Cockard.Barragan fell off his bike during the 8th lap and he damaged the clucth meaning he had to retire.Stefan Everts:
“This is not my favourite track here in Sweden so I knew it would be tough because in the past two years I had been struggling. However I took a good pole when everybody was close together and the first Moto went OK. Barragan kept close and I had a three second lead but I made a mistake in the whoops and he caught up, then we were into the lappers. It was tight at the end and I felt a bit tired because of the heat. I rested in between the races and then the second one was better. After the mistake the first few laps were pretty hard because everyone was going fast and it was not easy to pass. I saw the Suzuki guys pull away and I thought second might be possible but first was a long shot. At one stage Steve stopped gaining seconds on me and then started to lose them; that gave me some wings! I pulled harder and it was close. It was exciting for the crowd.”Steve Ramon:
“I feel tired now! It was a good GP. In the first moto I made a mistake and the leaders got away so then I pushed hard to catch and pass Leok before the flag. My start was better for the second race. I lost a few positions on the first lap but then I tried really hard to get to the front. I was leading the whole race but getting tired towards the end and making little mistakes. I almost went down and lost a bit of concentration when Stefan came past. Second overall was good enough.”Josh Coppins:
“Gordon Crockard hit me pretty hard in that second moto but I left the door open so it was a little bit my fault. It was an aggressive move but that is motocross and I am not complaining. I was in that position because I was not fit enough and this is what I need to work on. I also need more race speed at the start and with more motos this will get better. A few weeks ago if you would have offered me two podiums on my two first races back then I would have taken that for sure. I am not improving as fast as I would like but I am doing my best.”MX1 Moto1
1 S. Everts Yamaha
2 J. Barragan KTM
3 J. Coppins Honda
4 S. Ramon Suzuki
5 T. Leok Kawasaki
6 K. Strijbos Suzuki
7 G. Crockard Honda
8 K. De Dycker Honda
MX1 Moto 2
1 S. Everts Yamaha
2 S. Ramon Suzuki
3 K. Strijbos Suzuki
4 G. Crockard Honda
5 J. Coppins Honda
6 K. Nemeth Suzuki
7 J. Garcia Vico Honda
8 J. Noble Honda GBR
After 9 round of 15
1 Stefan Everts Yamaha BEL 442
2 Kevin Strijbos Suzuki BEL 328
3 Steve Ramon Suzuki BEL 294
4 Tanel Leok Kawasaki EST 294
5 Ken De Dycker Honda BEL 292
6 Jonathan Barragan KTM ESP 212
7 Javier Garcia Vico Honda ESP 165
8 Pascal Leuret Honda FRA 159
MX2 CLASS
This is the third GP won consecutively by David Philippaerts; it must mean that Geroges Job’s “healing potion” ( who’s been following Philippaerts for the last three GPs) has started giving its fruits. The italian pilot has won incredibly the first moto, after a splendid recovery and a very challenging duel with Antonio Cairoli, that ended 2 meters before the last jump.David got second in the second Moto and he’s now ahead of Cairoli in the championship chart with a fantastic second position with a total of 304 points. Cristophe Pourcel got instead an absolute second place thanks to a third and first position.He has once again shown that the red plaque of leadership in the championship is fairly in his hands: calm, reflective, with a smooth and proficuos guide, he was victim of the pressure put on him by the 2 “unleashed” Italians Philippaerts and Cairoli during the first moto but never get too distant from them.In the second Moto, the Kawasaki rider had the turbo on right from the start and nobody managed to reach him.With 46 points on his direct chasers (Philippaerts and Cairoli), he’s making big steps towards the MX2 title.Tommy Searle’s performance is definitely worth mentioning: the 16year old English rider, disputing his first full world season, is demonstrating real intentions to challenge the great names of this sport. He got a seventh place in the first Moto and a definitely much more interesting third place in the second Moto, that he recovered from the 8th position.MX2 Moto 1
This has been the most ecxiting Moto without the shadow of a doubt. Full of coup de theatre and very thrilling.Rattray jums in the lead followed by Cristophe Pourcel, Gundersen, Chiodi, DeReuver, Cairoli and Philippaerts.Pourcel is in great shape and even before the end of the first lap he’s onto Rattray and he overtakes him, making sure he’s the one in the lead.Philippaerts tries to apply the same intention of winning to his riding and his bike assertively lets him. He pulls off a good recovery and manages to reach Rattray and Pourcel. This is the start of the most fascinating and exciting part of the Moto, featuring Philippaerts who tries to come up with incredible trajectories to overtake Rattray, only to manage during the 7th lap. It’s time for Philippaerts to attack Pourcel, but the French pilot on his Kawasaki, in spite of his young age, is a tough one and so forces the Italian into a long and challenging duel. Eventually Philippaerts is in front of Pourcel who doesn’t give up so easily and gets back in the lead. Philippaerts is very determined and gets finally ahead of the French during the 10th lap.In the meantime the actual world champion Cairoli, who was relegated to the fifth position, decides to change his pace and in no time manages to get by Gundersen and Rattray to get near enough to see the 2 other competitors in front.This definitely stimulates the pilot’s confidence (Cairoli for the DeCarli Team) and he gives all of himself to reach the second position, behind the trail of his conational/friend Philippaerts, with Pourcel behind his back. From this moment on it’s a real challenge and the crowd witnessed a lot of fair play between the two, who swapped trajectories many times, got into lots of elbowing one another which is what definitely thrilled the audience.In the end Cairoli overtakes Philippaerts, during the last lap, but there’s a real coup de theatre that takes place 2 meters before the finishing line. Cairoli during the last corner that takes the pilots towards the finishing line goes in tight and his Yamaha set itself across and Philippaerts who was a few meters behind, not to hit his friend/rival, ends on the fencing but in the lead.Cairoli passes in front of the FlagMan first, but the winner of the Moto is Philippaerts who crossed the official finish line first. Cairoli is second ahead of Pourcel.MOTO 2 MX2
A much more tranquil second moto sees Pourcel starting holeshot and takes the lead of the group as well as setting an extremely fast pace, so fast that nobody during the race will ever catch him up. The victory will be his to demonstrate once again he’s a real champion.Philippaerts, who started off fourth, takes long before he manages to overtake Mackenzie andand Gundersen. This will happen during the fourth lap when Pourcel has gained a too big advantage to be attacked, and the KTM pilot, Philippaerts, settles for a second place who grants the victory for this GP.Cairol’is Moto is a lot more animated: he falls off his bike during the first lap and he’s now down to the 30th placement. He doesn’t give up though and he’s right into a mad chase which takes him to 11th position by the 19th lap; unfortunately another slip will make him lose precious time and in the end he’ll only get 12th.Tommy Searle’s performance is excellent, the Kawasaki/Molson pilot manages to get up to the last step of the podium despite a start in 8th position as well as overtaking pilots such as DeReuver, Nunn e Gundersen .David Philippaerts:
“Today was really good. In the first heat I picked up a decent speed after starting around tenth and beat Cairoli by less than a second at the flag so I was really pleased by that. I don’t know I had won but Alice came up to me and gave me the good news. In the second heat I saw that Pourcel was really fast and that Cairoli had gone and the others like Tyla and Marc were also behind. To win the GP and take some extra points was perfect. The second moto was very tiring because the track was so bumpy and there were a lot of lines so it was difficult.”Christophe Pourcel :
“In the first heat I had a good start in second position, and passed promptly Rattray in the opening lap. But I couldn’t find the good lines and took a false rythm, Philippaerts and later Cairoli both passed me. I was right behind them and prepared a move when I made a mistake in the last lap and stalled the engine. Before the second heat I was working on the lines with Olivier Robert from the French federation, and I was focused on the start. I got the holeshot and then pushed really hard, I wanted a great result. I knew that I was able to do better than third on this track, I found the good lines and I was happy to win. It was not really important mentally for me, but it was good to show to my rivals than I have the speed to win races.”Tommy Searle:
“I didn’t know where I was in the race. I didn’t have a clue and thought that I must have been quite far forward. I started in eighth but I wasn’t looking at the pit-board so much so I just kept going and going. I was losing time on the guys in front at the start but they must have got tired because I started catching and passing them. It was a hot day. Gareth really helped with this result because he overtook two riders on the last lap which was great for me. I am looking forward to more podiums!”MX2 Moto1
1 D. Philippaerts KTM
2 A. Cairoli Yamaha
3 C. Pourcel Kawasaki
4 M. De Reuver KTM
5 T. Rattray KTM
6 G. Swanepoel Kawasaki
7 T. Searle Kawasaki
8 A. Chiodi Yamaha
MX” Moto2
1 C. Pourcel Kawasaki
2 D. Philippaerts KTM
3 T. Searle Kawasaki
4 G. Swanepoel Kawasaki
5 M. De Reuver KTM
6 D. Guarneri Yamaha
7 C. Nunn KTM GBR
8 K. Gundersen Yamaha
After 9 round of 15
1 Christophe Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 350
2 David Philippaerts KTM ITA 304
3 Antonio Cairoli Yamaha ITA 302
4 Marc De Reuver KTM NED 284
5 Tyla Rattray KTM RSA 261
6 Billy MacKenzie Yamaha GBR 213
7 Carl Nunn KTM GBR 205
8 Tommy Searle Kawasaki GBR 196
Another victory for the 33 year old Belgian Stefan Everts. He won both of the motos, dominating the first one and sorting out a little inconvenient, caused by a slip, granted him the second one as well as a good recovery crowned by overtaking Steve Ramon in the last lap.It is clear by now that the Yamaha/Rinaldi rider wants to end his career with 100 GPs won and with this last one he’s up to 96; he might even try to win his tenth world title before the championship’s over in the GP held in Namur. The odds are in his favour as he stands at the top of the league with 442 points, ahead of Kevin Strijbos with 328 and Tanel Leok with 294.Steve Ramon got second overall thanks to a second and fourth place: the young Belgian, like last year, is demonstrating to be more consistent in the second half of the championship. However he should have been more incisive during the last lap with Everts behind him.Joshua Coppins got an absolute third place and this is the second GP he’s disputed so far. He’s just got back in the game after a bad injury to his shoulder who kept him away from the circuit for 2 and half months.The Honda/Cas rider has demonstrated once again his great charachter thanks to a third and a fifth place but he’s still not in very good shape.It’s time now for some market operations as far as pilot hares concerned: the Estonian Tanel Leok and the Belgian Kevin Strijbos has resigned the contract with their current teams, respectively Team Kawasaki factory De Groot and Team Suzuki factory Sylvain Geboers.But the bomb news comes from the Team Yamaha, in fact with the retirement from the racing of Stefan Everts at the end of this season , the Yamaha have signed with the New Zealand Joshua Coppins and the Netherlands Marc de Reuver, the new riders will race in the 2007 MX1 world championship.We’ll get to know more about this MX market in the next few days.MX1 Moto1
The Spansih Jonathan Barragan at the wheel of his KTM model year 2007 performs his first holeshot of the season, but it’s unfortunately the mere beginning of dream that doesn’t last too long: Stefan Everts overtakes him during the first lap. Barragan tailed after Everts hoping for a mistake from the world champion but unfortunately for him Everts will cross the finishing line in first position, followed by Barragan and Coppins.MX1 Moto2
The second moto is the exact photocopy of what happened two weeks ago in England: Stefan Everts started holeshot but slipped during the first lap and while getting his YZ back up, he got overtaken by Coppins,Strijbos,GarciaVico and Ramon. Everts starts over from the sixth position and distached from the group of pilots in the lead.Recovering after slipping is seen as a handicap for a “normal/common” pilot, but such a recovery for Stefan Everts, who’s certainly not a “normal/common” pilot, is a stimulus to show off his worth and so he jumps into it without hesitating, for the plain joy of the audience.In the meantime, Strijbos took the lead after overtaking Coppins, but behind him lies the sinister shadow of his team mate Ramon, ( the Belgian pilots riding the latest evolution of the RM-Z 450 frame, pre-series 2008) who during the 11th lap manages to steal the lead off Strijbos, but has no time to relax as Everts has pushed his bike so much that he’s now in second position. During the last lap, Everts steals the lead off Ramon and goes on to win this moto as well as the first one, in front of a dejected Ramon and Gordon Cockard.Barragan fell off his bike during the 8th lap and he damaged the clucth meaning he had to retire.Stefan Everts:
“This is not my favourite track here in Sweden so I knew it would be tough because in the past two years I had been struggling. However I took a good pole when everybody was close together and the first Moto went OK. Barragan kept close and I had a three second lead but I made a mistake in the whoops and he caught up, then we were into the lappers. It was tight at the end and I felt a bit tired because of the heat. I rested in between the races and then the second one was better. After the mistake the first few laps were pretty hard because everyone was going fast and it was not easy to pass. I saw the Suzuki guys pull away and I thought second might be possible but first was a long shot. At one stage Steve stopped gaining seconds on me and then started to lose them; that gave me some wings! I pulled harder and it was close. It was exciting for the crowd.”Steve Ramon:
“I feel tired now! It was a good GP. In the first moto I made a mistake and the leaders got away so then I pushed hard to catch and pass Leok before the flag. My start was better for the second race. I lost a few positions on the first lap but then I tried really hard to get to the front. I was leading the whole race but getting tired towards the end and making little mistakes. I almost went down and lost a bit of concentration when Stefan came past. Second overall was good enough.”Josh Coppins:
“Gordon Crockard hit me pretty hard in that second moto but I left the door open so it was a little bit my fault. It was an aggressive move but that is motocross and I am not complaining. I was in that position because I was not fit enough and this is what I need to work on. I also need more race speed at the start and with more motos this will get better. A few weeks ago if you would have offered me two podiums on my two first races back then I would have taken that for sure. I am not improving as fast as I would like but I am doing my best.”MX1 Moto1
1 S. Everts Yamaha
2 J. Barragan KTM
3 J. Coppins Honda
4 S. Ramon Suzuki
5 T. Leok Kawasaki
6 K. Strijbos Suzuki
7 G. Crockard Honda
8 K. De Dycker Honda
MX1 Moto 2
1 S. Everts Yamaha
2 S. Ramon Suzuki
3 K. Strijbos Suzuki
4 G. Crockard Honda
5 J. Coppins Honda
6 K. Nemeth Suzuki
7 J. Garcia Vico Honda
8 J. Noble Honda GBR
After 9 round of 15
1 Stefan Everts Yamaha BEL 442
2 Kevin Strijbos Suzuki BEL 328
3 Steve Ramon Suzuki BEL 294
4 Tanel Leok Kawasaki EST 294
5 Ken De Dycker Honda BEL 292
6 Jonathan Barragan KTM ESP 212
7 Javier Garcia Vico Honda ESP 165
8 Pascal Leuret Honda FRA 159
MX2 CLASS
This is the third GP won consecutively by David Philippaerts; it must mean that Geroges Job’s “healing potion” ( who’s been following Philippaerts for the last three GPs) has started giving its fruits. The italian pilot has won incredibly the first moto, after a splendid recovery and a very challenging duel with Antonio Cairoli, that ended 2 meters before the last jump.David got second in the second Moto and he’s now ahead of Cairoli in the championship chart with a fantastic second position with a total of 304 points. Cristophe Pourcel got instead an absolute second place thanks to a third and first position.He has once again shown that the red plaque of leadership in the championship is fairly in his hands: calm, reflective, with a smooth and proficuos guide, he was victim of the pressure put on him by the 2 “unleashed” Italians Philippaerts and Cairoli during the first moto but never get too distant from them.In the second Moto, the Kawasaki rider had the turbo on right from the start and nobody managed to reach him.With 46 points on his direct chasers (Philippaerts and Cairoli), he’s making big steps towards the MX2 title.Tommy Searle’s performance is definitely worth mentioning: the 16year old English rider, disputing his first full world season, is demonstrating real intentions to challenge the great names of this sport. He got a seventh place in the first Moto and a definitely much more interesting third place in the second Moto, that he recovered from the 8th position.MX2 Moto 1
This has been the most ecxiting Moto without the shadow of a doubt. Full of coup de theatre and very thrilling.Rattray jums in the lead followed by Cristophe Pourcel, Gundersen, Chiodi, DeReuver, Cairoli and Philippaerts.Pourcel is in great shape and even before the end of the first lap he’s onto Rattray and he overtakes him, making sure he’s the one in the lead.Philippaerts tries to apply the same intention of winning to his riding and his bike assertively lets him. He pulls off a good recovery and manages to reach Rattray and Pourcel. This is the start of the most fascinating and exciting part of the Moto, featuring Philippaerts who tries to come up with incredible trajectories to overtake Rattray, only to manage during the 7th lap. It’s time for Philippaerts to attack Pourcel, but the French pilot on his Kawasaki, in spite of his young age, is a tough one and so forces the Italian into a long and challenging duel. Eventually Philippaerts is in front of Pourcel who doesn’t give up so easily and gets back in the lead. Philippaerts is very determined and gets finally ahead of the French during the 10th lap.In the meantime the actual world champion Cairoli, who was relegated to the fifth position, decides to change his pace and in no time manages to get by Gundersen and Rattray to get near enough to see the 2 other competitors in front.This definitely stimulates the pilot’s confidence (Cairoli for the DeCarli Team) and he gives all of himself to reach the second position, behind the trail of his conational/friend Philippaerts, with Pourcel behind his back. From this moment on it’s a real challenge and the crowd witnessed a lot of fair play between the two, who swapped trajectories many times, got into lots of elbowing one another which is what definitely thrilled the audience.In the end Cairoli overtakes Philippaerts, during the last lap, but there’s a real coup de theatre that takes place 2 meters before the finishing line. Cairoli during the last corner that takes the pilots towards the finishing line goes in tight and his Yamaha set itself across and Philippaerts who was a few meters behind, not to hit his friend/rival, ends on the fencing but in the lead.Cairoli passes in front of the FlagMan first, but the winner of the Moto is Philippaerts who crossed the official finish line first. Cairoli is second ahead of Pourcel.MOTO 2 MX2
A much more tranquil second moto sees Pourcel starting holeshot and takes the lead of the group as well as setting an extremely fast pace, so fast that nobody during the race will ever catch him up. The victory will be his to demonstrate once again he’s a real champion.Philippaerts, who started off fourth, takes long before he manages to overtake Mackenzie andand Gundersen. This will happen during the fourth lap when Pourcel has gained a too big advantage to be attacked, and the KTM pilot, Philippaerts, settles for a second place who grants the victory for this GP.Cairol’is Moto is a lot more animated: he falls off his bike during the first lap and he’s now down to the 30th placement. He doesn’t give up though and he’s right into a mad chase which takes him to 11th position by the 19th lap; unfortunately another slip will make him lose precious time and in the end he’ll only get 12th.Tommy Searle’s performance is excellent, the Kawasaki/Molson pilot manages to get up to the last step of the podium despite a start in 8th position as well as overtaking pilots such as DeReuver, Nunn e Gundersen .David Philippaerts:
“Today was really good. In the first heat I picked up a decent speed after starting around tenth and beat Cairoli by less than a second at the flag so I was really pleased by that. I don’t know I had won but Alice came up to me and gave me the good news. In the second heat I saw that Pourcel was really fast and that Cairoli had gone and the others like Tyla and Marc were also behind. To win the GP and take some extra points was perfect. The second moto was very tiring because the track was so bumpy and there were a lot of lines so it was difficult.”Christophe Pourcel :
“In the first heat I had a good start in second position, and passed promptly Rattray in the opening lap. But I couldn’t find the good lines and took a false rythm, Philippaerts and later Cairoli both passed me. I was right behind them and prepared a move when I made a mistake in the last lap and stalled the engine. Before the second heat I was working on the lines with Olivier Robert from the French federation, and I was focused on the start. I got the holeshot and then pushed really hard, I wanted a great result. I knew that I was able to do better than third on this track, I found the good lines and I was happy to win. It was not really important mentally for me, but it was good to show to my rivals than I have the speed to win races.”Tommy Searle:
“I didn’t know where I was in the race. I didn’t have a clue and thought that I must have been quite far forward. I started in eighth but I wasn’t looking at the pit-board so much so I just kept going and going. I was losing time on the guys in front at the start but they must have got tired because I started catching and passing them. It was a hot day. Gareth really helped with this result because he overtook two riders on the last lap which was great for me. I am looking forward to more podiums!”MX2 Moto1
1 D. Philippaerts KTM
2 A. Cairoli Yamaha
3 C. Pourcel Kawasaki
4 M. De Reuver KTM
5 T. Rattray KTM
6 G. Swanepoel Kawasaki
7 T. Searle Kawasaki
8 A. Chiodi Yamaha
MX” Moto2
1 C. Pourcel Kawasaki
2 D. Philippaerts KTM
3 T. Searle Kawasaki
4 G. Swanepoel Kawasaki
5 M. De Reuver KTM
6 D. Guarneri Yamaha
7 C. Nunn KTM GBR
8 K. Gundersen Yamaha
After 9 round of 15
1 Christophe Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 350
2 David Philippaerts KTM ITA 304
3 Antonio Cairoli Yamaha ITA 302
4 Marc De Reuver KTM NED 284
5 Tyla Rattray KTM RSA 261
6 Billy MacKenzie Yamaha GBR 213
7 Carl Nunn KTM GBR 205
8 Tommy Searle Kawasaki GBR 196
