SUPER TONY CLAIMS VICTORY AND TITLE AT MONEYGLASS MONEYGLASS, 19 August 2007- What that was a brand new track until this Saturday became 2007 World Champion Antonio Cairoli's ground, as the Italian came back to victory and clinched his second World Title all in one day. On a sunny Sunday, a now dry Moneyglass Demesne course proved to be one of the most demanding tracks in the calendar, and a crowd of 18500 spectators watched this enthralling thirteenth GP of the season. In the MX1 class Kevin Strijbos clinched his third victory of the season ahead of Frenchman Sebastien Pourcel.
MX1 Kevin Strijbos of Suzuki won his third GP of the season as he exploited Sebastien Pourcel's mistake in the final moto. The GPKR Frenchman finished second overall because he crashed in moto two, when he was at the lead. David Philippaerts of KTM Red Bull rode to a solid third overall, making it to his third consecutive podium. CAS Honda's Ken De Dycker won moto one but was fourth overall after a poor second moto, while Steve Ramon, who crashed at both starts, rounded off the top five. MX1 GRAND PRIX RACE 1 After Mike Brown had taken the holeshot, Ken De Dycker moved up to first ahead of a gutsy Kevin Strijbos. The latter succeeded in passing Ken and lead for three laps, then De Dycker moved back to first to win the heat. Kevin settled down for second, suffering from an arm pump, while Jonathan Barragan secured third place with an unexpected overtaking manoeuvre on team mate David Philippaerts. The latter was fourth ahead of Sebastien Pourcel, who recovered from a bad start. After a crash in lap one, Steve Ramon made up ground from the bottom of the group to a solid eighth.
MX1 GRAND PRIX RACE 2 Pourcel got the holeshot and tried to pull away with the lead, but he slipped at lap four and handed the first place to Strijbos. Kevin just rode his own moto to finish first and secure the GP victory, while Pourcel worked his way up from fourth to an eventual second place. Mike Brown was cruising in second place when some technical problems put an end to his final heat. On the other hand, Philippaerts tried to close in on Pourcel in the final laps, but the gap was too big and the Italian finally finished third. Ramon, who crashed again at lap one, tried his best and moved up to fourth, ahead of Billy Mackenzie.
Tanel Leok crashed and twisted his left knee in heat one, and crashed again in heat two, scoring no points at the end of the day. Jonathan Barragan had some technical problems in the final heat and did not finish, while Ken De Dycker crashed and ended the second heat in twelfth place. MX2 The first Grand Prix hosted by the 1690 metre long track Moneyglass Demesne was a "Tony Cairoli day", as the Italian rider of Yamaha De Carli clinched his second World Title and ended his winless streak all in one day. Cairoli secured the Title by winning the first heat, and clinched another victory with a breathtaking last lap pass on rival Tommy Searle of KTM Red Bull. Tommy finished second on the podium, while AXO KTM Silver Action's Rui Goncalves went 3-3 for the second career podium after Namur two weeks ago. Marcus Schiffer and Jeremy Van Horebeek rounded off the top five.