Team USA, Team South America And More - The Nations Of Motocross - Dirt Rider Magazine

The Motocross of Nations came to America for the first time in 20 years, and Team USA dominated the racing. Ryan Villopoto holeshot both motos against bigger bikes and pulled two leads that you had to see to believe. Ricky Carmichael made an exciting come-from-behind charge in his first moto and then a fitting runaway victory to dominate his final Motocross of Nations (and possibly his final outdoor) moto. And Timmy Ferry, a replacement for the injured James Stewart, proved he was more than worthy to represent America with a day similar to Carmichael's-one great charge through the world's best and a second moto class win.But there's more to the story of the 2007 Motocross of Nations. The pits were filled with riders from 35 different countries. Many knew their chances of winning the race were slim, for others even qualifying into the 20-country main program was unlikely, but they made the trek and went out and did battle for country and pride and ... fun.The Czech team almost didn't make it when their travel visas were pulled just two weeks before the event. The team manager had listed too many people in each team role. Jiri Cepelak and teammate Michal Kadlecek went to the American embassy and cleared things up a week before the race. Jiri's reward: "From first two lap I go so free, and I make all jump over and I realize I am here! This is something special!"Team New Zealand was out before the end of practice when Ben Townley landed on his shoulder and Daryl Hurley landed on his head.Team Italy had their bikes stuck in customs when food items were discovered with the machines. The bikes arrived on time-just barely-but the Italians' bad luck continued. MX2 World Champion Antonio Cairoli bent a disc in Moto One and damaged a wheel in Moto Two.Kazumasa Masuda rides for factory HRC in Japan on a fuel-injected Honda, but he rode a production 2008 250F with a Yosh pipe for Team Japan at the MXoN.The Latvian team felt the MX2 and MX3 classes would be less competitive overall, so they put their stronger riders there. Ivo Steinbergs, who normally races a 478cc in the MX3 class, raced the MXoN on a 250F. "I hope next year maybe I ride full season here. I don't know who will be my sponsors or team, but I like it, I like it more than Europe."Martin Davalos of Team Ecuador was racing, "Just to have fun, represent my country, to say we were at the Nations. Ecuador was there trying to make it."Tarah Geiger made moto history as the first woman to compete at a MXoN. She rode for her country, Puerto Rico. "Competing against all the people from all over the world, really, it's awesome. Then to line up on the gate with Villopoto, Carmichael and all, it's definitely going to be a memory."Team Chile was made up of three brothers-Jeremy and twins Vincent and Benjamin Israel.Team Australia riders Chad Reed and Michael Byrne suffered mechanical problems, and Andrew McFarlane's day ended just a few feet out of the gate in Moto One when he went down hard."A lot of countries make a long journey, but hopefully one day they'll get the chance to have a home Motocross of Nations. I think in that sense it's good because it creates a lot of worldwide interest again." -Grant Langston, Team South AfricaGreg Albertyn wasn't only the team manager for Team South Africa, he was the title sponsor with his U.S. real estate company, Diamond Capital Group. "Everybody puts in time, everybody puts in effort, nobody gets paid, and it means a lot to everybody to contribute to the greatness of the sport."Britain's MX3 rider James Noble seriously injured his shoulder and could only manage a handful of laps in each of his races.Team Greece had to get used to unfamiliar strokes-their riders compete on two-strokes at home but all rode KTM four-strokes for the MXoN. Panagiotis Kouzis explains, "It's new bikes for us, it's no problem."Neccarios Papavasiliou of Team Greece is a big Dirt Rider fan but doesn't speak, read or write English. Our photographers love to hear things like this.

"Just to do some laps with the fastest guys on the planet has given me a lot of experience." -Fabian Rodriguez, GuatemalaAndreas Hultman of Team Sweden said, "For me this race is just like a bonus. Next weekend is the final race for us in Sweden, and I lead by seven points. I can't get hurt here, I have to be safe, but I have to show sponsors that I can ride, too, so I do my best." When asked if the second-place rider in the Swedish championship was on the MXoN team, Andreas had some fun, "No, he's in Sweden because he's so bad in motocross. He's not so good, I think. He's too old. He's like 38 years old, you know. Some fans want him to be here, but he has no tactics, he sucks."Carlos Campano of Team Spain had his bike arrive late and his fuel arrive later. To add to the stress of racing, he found himself staying in a hotel 42 miles from the track. That's a long drive with heavy event traffic. The hotel had been recommended as being close to the track."I just want to ride my own race and do as good as I can. I have much pressure, and that's quite difficult for me because I'm only 17 years old."-Jeremy van Horebeek,Team Belgium"I've been to the MXoN almost every time. I went with my dad and mom also a few times when I was real little. To be here is really, really good luck. I could never imagine when Stanton and Bradshaw and everybody came over and I was there like a boy, from 5 or 6 years old, and now I'm racing on the team, so that's really incredible."-Ken DeDycker, Team Belgium"It's a good track, I really like it. Now this morning they put a lot of water-some deep ruts and there are many lines, so it's good to pass." -Steve Ramon, Team BelgiumIt was the first MXoN appearance for Einar Sigurdarson and for Team Iceland: "We have about 200 Icelandic people here. So a lot of people come with us, so it's very good. When I came to the gate, the woman asked me, 'Where are you from?' and I tell her I'm from Iceland and she said, 'Is someone left in Iceland?'""We are doing it first time, we only want to not being last. That's our goal, so we are happy." -Einar Sigurdarson, Team Iceland"Here there are big jumps, and I haven't even seen a rut in my life before I come here. I bought a bike over here. I worked a bit with the suspension but it's mostly stock. We only ride stock machines at home, too. I've never even used a holeshot device before, this is my first time." -Aron Omarsson,Team Iceland"MX in Venezuela, we have maybe 200 motocross riders total. If we make the A final, I will be happy." -Fernando Macia, Team Venezuela"On a worldwide basis, Canada isn't really known for motocross. If this were a hockey event we'd be all about it."-Blair Morgan, Team Canada"All the bikes from the KTM factory were shipped via an Italian shipping company. And with one of the Italian bike crates there was some food or something inside and customs held it back. Because our bikes were in the same bunch, they held all our bikes as well. They were supposed to be here yesterday afternoon, then it was 6 o'clock, then it was 10 o'clock then it was 2 in the morning, 4 in the morning ... we came back this morning hoping they'd be here. They weren't, so all of us started building bikes from standard bikes and 10 minutes after we finished building the bikes our race bikes showed up." -Gareth Edmonds, Team Great Britain, Tommy Searle's mechanicThe Spirit Of The RaceWho better to represent the international reach, camaraderie and the can-do attitude of every racer and team at the MXoN than Greg "Frenchie" Pamart, a Frenchman living in Pennsylvania who went the distance to help Team Iceland.

"We raced last week in Englishtown. Everything was cool. Come Wednesday night all the trailers you see here are from friends of mine who let us use it. 'I just bought a trailer last week, I'll drop it off, you can have it.' He showed up at 9:30 on Wednesday night, and we're supposed to leave Thursday morning, he showed up late because he went to buy a brand-new Yamaha 3000-watt generator for us to use! So listen to this! He showed up at my house and I say, 'There's no way I'm pulling that thing with my van! There's no way, ever!' This is my van, 305,000 miles!"All those guys showed up, they went shopping, they bought a ton of things because everything is 50 percent more expensive in Iceland! So they bought a pressure washer to bring home! Can you believe that? Clothes, tools, anything they could find! We're supposed to meet with Eric from Crossroads to get this big bus. My van is dragging its ass! Dude, I'm flooring it on the hill, I'm doing 40 mph on the turnpike! I'm like, 'We're never going to make it to Budds Creek!' I run out of gas about a mile before his house! One mile before his house! Now we're fighting to find a gas can and we end up putting race gas in it! $120 can in my van! The thing still smells like race gas, which is cool, and now we get to his house. I say, 'Dude, we're never going to make it.' He says no problem, we'll hook it up to the bus. Good idea."We go to put the receiver on his bus-how complicated is a receiver? But the thing doesn't fit in, 'cause the edges are too square, not round enough. Luckily, they bought some DeWalt cordless tools! We pull them out of the bag, we're grinding the thing on the sidewalk, people are looking at us, they're out walking their dogs and stuff, I'm dirty because all morning I've been working on my van, I didn't take a shower, I didn't shave, I didn't even comb my hair! We're underneath the bus, the thing's burning, we're smelling the fumes, and we can't get the thing to fit! There's not enough room between the bus and the trailer! And that's just the morning now, all right? I can go on forever."We made the three-hour trip from my house in about 10 hours. You want more stories?"Main Program Results
1.U.S.A.
2. France
3. Belgium
4. Italy
5. Great Britain
6. Spain
7. Japan
8. Switzerland
9. Germany
10. Canada
11. Estonia
12. Republic of South Africa
13. Ireland
14. Sweden
15. Latvia
16. Brazil
17. Czech Republic
18. Chile
19. Portugal
20. AustraliaB Final Results
(This is one moto combining all three members of each team who didn't make the Main Program. It also acts as a Last Chance Qualifier for one team to get into the Main.)1.Brazil
2. Ukraine
3. Ecuador
4. Guatemala
5. Venezuela
6. Greece
7. Costa Rica
8. Mexico
9. Puerto Rico
10. Iceland
11. Dominican RepublicDid Not Start On Sunday
Bulgaria
China
Croatia
Hungary
New Zealand