Honda & KTM share MX2 wins, Cairoli & Yamaha dominate MX1

Double podium joy for Honda at Agueda

Antonio Cairoli won the Grand Prix of Portugal at a warm but cloudy Agueda circuit for the Grand Prix of Portugal and the fifth round of fifteen in the 2009 FIM MX1 World Championship and Rui Goncalves claimed the MX2 class honours in front of 25,000 spectators. Honda were able to celebrate podium appearances in both categories thanks to LS Honda’s Clement Desalle and NGS Honda’s Marvin Musquin.

Honda’s representation in the premier class in Portugal was severely dented by pre-event training accidents that side-lined their riders in both the Martin Honda and CAS Honda teams. Their absence leaving Desalle to steer the CRF450R to third place in both Motos after bright starts for third place overall across the undulating Agueda slopes. He is the top Honda rider on current form and deserved his second rostrum appearance of the season.

Martin Honda were not able to wheel their machines out of the awning over the weekend as Kevin Strijbos had broken his scaphoid the previous week and several days after Strijbos’ demise Marc De Reuver sustained a dislocated hip and three broken vertebrae after a training crash. Strijbos will face a month on the sidelines while the season is most certainly over for De Reuver.

CAS Honda had Cedric Melotte absent through a back complaint leaving teammate Billy Mackenzie hoping for a positive weekend to lift Honda spirits. But fate determined otherwise when a minor fall, while attempting a flying lap in the second practice session, left the Scot with a swollen right thumb. Despite a pain-killing injection the British Champion had to withdraw from the first moto and also the Grand Prix.

In MX2 NGS Honda’s Musquin enacted an incredible first race to blast through from last position to be among the leaders in the opening laps. The Frenchman had crashed in the Saturday qualification heat and started from almost the final slot in the gate. He overtook main rivals Goncalves and Steven Frossard in the first moto to capture his first chequered flag since the round at Bulgaria in early April. In the second Moto he was not able to fight through the pack as effectively and two small slips saw him cross the line in sixth spot for third overall on the CRF250R.

In the World Championship standings Desalle is unsurprisingly the first-ranked Honda rider and lies seventh, 16 points from the top five. Strijbos is just inside the top ten. Musquin has closed ground in the MX2 table and is just six points away from Paulin at the top.

Martin Honda hopes to find a replacement rider for the British Grand Prix at the end of the month while Melotte should return to action for the following meeting.

The Portuguese round also saw the second grand prix for the Women’s World Championship. Reigning number one Livia Lancelot won her second race of the year and was chased onto the podium by AMA champion Ashley Fiolek. The American is now second in the standings with her CRF250R but returns to the US this week to prepare for her national campaign.

Round six of both the MX1 and MX2 World Championships takes place next weekend at the Bellpuig circuit, Spain, for the Grand Prix of Catalunya.

Clement Desalle, LS Honda: “I took my first podium at Faenza but that was in crazy weather conditions so this one feels a bit better. I had to work hard for this but I am very happy with the result. I tried my best and I think for Honda it is good because there has been some bad luck with the other riders. I had a problem with my throttle cable at the start of the second moto but it was nothing major and I could continue.”

Marvin Musquin, NGS Honda: “It was impossible to take the holeshot today! I pushed really hard in the first moto to come back as high as I could. I found it was possible to gain ground and pass Paulin, Frossard and Goncalves and the whole first race was just so good. I felt a bit tired in the second one, and two small crashes in the same place before the whoops did not help. Anyway this was a good track for me and I am looking forward to Spain. I am second in the championship now and I have four podiums; I want to keep on trying my best each GP.”

Billy Mackenzie, CAS Honda: “The weekend started off mega. We got the bike working really well and I was happy and confident and we made some decent times in the first session. I went to make a lap in the pre-qualifying and I knew it was a flyer because it was the fastest split and the front end washed out. I must have put my hand out and jammed my thumb. It started swelling and then turned black and blue. I had an injection but I could not hold onto the bars and was also having a lot of pain. I managed to get through qualifying and then had plenty of ice and anti-inflammatory cream overnight but nothing stopped it getting bigger. To be honest I think I might have broken it. I tried the first race but was battling far down the field and was having a few dodgy moments so I had to stop before doing more damage.”

Ashley Fiolek, LS Honda: “Yesterday was OK, I did not ride as well as I could have and felt much better and faster today and could stay closer to Livia. The track got a lot rougher today and I am more used to this kind of terrain. I would really have liked to stay here and compete in the next round but I need to get back and get ready for the AMA series that begins in a few weeks. I hope to be back for Sweden though.”

Roger Harvey, Off-road Racing Co-ordinator, Honda Motor Europe: “These are difficult times for us at the moment but this is the nature of the sport and we have to just accept the circumstances and try to find some suitable replacements where we can. However, today absolutely full credit to the excellent rides from Clement and Marvin; they did us proud and Marvin’s recovery from almost last in the first moto was splendid to watch, a really special effort.”

—  KTM Report

Rui Goncalves triumphs in home MX2 GP in Agueda, Portugal

Portuguese rider Rui Goncalves made his dream come true and those of his team and his many fans, on Sunday when he won his home MX2 GP at the Agueda circuit with a 2-1 result in the two motos, launched with two holeshots.

Just shy of his twenty fourth birthday, Rui now goes to the GP of Catalunya next weekend as the winner of the last two MX2 GPs after having vaulted into fourth place in the season’s standings. “This is what I have been working for with so much passion. It’s so great to be here on top of the box,” he told reporters straight after the race.

Emotional win
The win was very emotional for Rui, as well as for his family and the thousands of fans that flocked to see his victory. “Today it was such a great feeling to win here and it is unbelievable to follow up my win from Valkenswaard. It was a huge help to have the support of the crowd. I took the hole shot in the first heat and I led the race for the first half before Musquin got past me. Then I decided to conserve me strength for the second race. I had a good start again in the second race and I managed to get out in front. Then I tried to be consistent and not to make any mistakes. I hope to be able to be up with the front runners in the coming races but I am just taking things race by race and not thinking about the championship”.

Praise from Everts
Team boss Stefan Everts was also generous in his praise for Rui. “I want to congratulate Rui because he defended his victory in Valkenswaard so well and it is certainly not easy to win in front of your home crowd where there is always a lot of emotion and pressure. The season is long but I am confident that we will win again with Rui. He’s very strong at the moment both mentally and physically,” Everts said.

It was a great turnaround for the Red Bull Factory Racing team after their other factory rider Shaun Simpson suffered a broken leg in a recent training accident and will be out for three months. Doctors have said that they are satisfied that Shaun’s fractures are healing well and he is expected to make a full recovery. He has said he would like to be with the team in Mallory Park at the end of the month, as a spectator at least.

Fifth place in Portugal for Red Bull KTM’s Max Nagl

Max Nagl of the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team scored a 4-7 result in the two MX1 motos in Agueda Portugal on Sunday to be fifth overall despite a resurgence of his recent hand injury.

Nagl, who said after qualifying Saturday that he was after two top five results but was satisfied with his overall fifth place and in picking up 32 championship points.

“I had a good start in the first race but then I hurt my hand again, so I was pleased to hold onto fourth place because I did have some pain. I didn’t get away so well in the second race and I was about eighth or ninth at the start. I tried to push as much as I could but I couldn’t manage any better than seventh.”

This week Max will stay in Portugal and have a scan on the hand. He will take a break from training and rest up ahead of next weekend’s GP in Bellpuig. Team boss Stefan Everts said Nagl had managed quite well considering the pain. “He rode much better here than he did last year,” Everts said, adding he still believed that Nagl could finish the season among the top riders.

KTM factory rider Jonathan Barragan of Team Silver Action also put in a heroic weekend riding with a painful, heavily strapped shoulder to protect damaged ligaments and still managed to scrape together 24 championship points and remain third in the standings. “I am happy that I am still third in the standings after this weekend because I had some restriction on my movement while riding. I did my best but I did have some pain to deal with.” Jonathan will also take some time out this week to rest up for his home race in Spain next Sunday.

—  Suzuki Report

Teka Suzuki World MX1’s Ken De Dycker took second position and this third podium result of the season at a cloudy and changeable Agueda circuit and the Grand Prix of Portugal for the fifth round of the 2009 FIM MX1 Motocross World Championship.

The Belgian was second in both motos and led the second race for well over half distance on the RM-Z450.

The Portuguese event, attended by 25,000 people, offered two ‘climates’ with the first moto occurring in warm and dry conditions and the second, later in the afternoon taking place through a light shower, winds and lower temperatures. Nevertheless the undulating hard-pack track gradually got rougher throughout the day and was physically demanding courtesy of the many bumps and ripples.

De Dycker, who had taken his second pole position of the season with victory in the qualification heat yesterday, effectively fought his way through to the front of the pack from a top five start in the first moto. He passed World Champion David Philippaerts and set the pace for three laps before becoming a victim to Antonio Cairoli’s lap-times. He was able to secure the runner-up position.

In the following sprint, De Dycker was sharp negotiating the first lap and proceeded to establish a margin of at least five seconds over his pursuers. He held first spot for 15 of the 20 laps but again had no answer to Cairoli in the closing stages.

De Dycker was content with his third set of silverware and has again moved up to second in the world championship standings, 25 points behind Cairoli but 16 ahead of Jonathan Barragan.

Agueda was also the scene of the second round of the Women’s World Championship and Teka Suzuki Europe MX2’s Larissa Papenmeier took her RM-Z250 to third place overall for her first podium of the season.

Teka Suzuki WMX1 will now travel east to Spain and the Bellpuig circuit for the Grand Prix of Catalunya and round six of fifteen next week.

Ken De Dycker, 2nd:
“I am happy with second because the last GP did not go as I hoped it would. This was an improvement even if I was not strong enough to keep the lead from Antonio in both races. To be honest I did not expect him to be so good. In the second moto I tried really hard to pull away and make a big gap but it was very rough and slippery out there. I was making a few mistakes but my riding was still OK because we had reverted back to some of the suspension settings we had last year and it worked out well. Anyway the result here is still good and I hope we can get stronger next week and for the GPs to come.”