WORLD MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS: ROCZEN BEGINS TO INCH AWAY WITH THREE RACES LEFT

On Aug 7, 2011

Ken Roczen wins again. Photo: Ray Archer

Clement Desalle and Ken Roczen were the 450 and 250 overall winners of the GP of the Czech Republic this weekend in Loket. The rain was present during the first motos, which made the track more muddy and technical, but in the second motos the sun came up and dried up all the mud.

Tommy Searle is the next closet rider to Roczen and Herlings in the points, but he is 100 points adrift.

250 CLASS

Leaving the sands of Lommel and the dominance of teammate Jeffrey Herlings behind Ken Roczen took both motos to win a convincing overall victory in the Czech Grand Prix. Jeffrey Herlings, master the sand of Lommel, could not keep pace with Roczen in the mud of the Czech Republic.

The first moto was a start to finish romp for the young German as he took another holeshot to catapult himself into an unassailable lead after only a handful of laps of the Loket track. Herlings was with him at the start, but had nothing to match his KTM compatriot. Nicolas Aubin made a welcome return to form and the moto podium with a strong ride to third in moto one, but was unable to repeat in moto two after a crash early on.

After Roczen and Herlings it was a dogfight for third as the Kawasakis of Searle and Anstie fought with the Suzuki of Valentin Teillet and Yamaha of Arnaud Tonus Gautier Paulin (who DNF’ed moto one). Max Anstie was denied a trip to the podium by his teammate Tommy searle (who came from 12th place at the start.

CZECH GRAND PRIX: 250 CLASS RESULTS
1. Ken Roczen…1-1
2. Jeffrey Herlings…2-2
3. Tommy Searle…6-3
4. Max Anstie…4-6
5. Arnaud Tonus…9-4
6. Valentin Teillet…8-7
7. Joel Roelants…7-8
8. Jake Nicholls…5-11
9. Nicolas Aubin…3-32
10. Jeremy van Horebeek…15-8
11. Harri Kullas…13-10
12. Jordi Tixier…10-13
13. Gautier Paulin…32-5
14. Petar Petrov…16-12
15. Jose Butron Oliva…11-28
Other notables: 17. Christophe Charlier (12-33); 18. Matiss Karro (31-14); 21. Filip Bengtsson (21-15).

Jeffrey Herlings couldn’t repeat last week’s dominance. Photo: Ray Archer

250 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS STANDINGS
(After 12 of 15 events)
1. Ken Roczen…540
2. Jeffrey Herlings…513
3. Tommy Searle…435
4. Gautier Paulin…389
5. Arnaud Tonus…325
6. Max Anstie…318
7. Zach Osborne…295
8. Harri Kullas…268
9. Nicolas Aubin…227
10. Joel Roelants…206
11. Christophe Charlier…179
12. Jake Nicholls…165
13. Jordi Tixier…150
14. Alessandro Lupino…124
15. Jeremy van Horebeek…118

Clement Desalle’s 2-1 beat Antonio Cairoli’s 1-4.

450 CLASS

Suzuki’s Clement Desalle won his fourth GP win of the season and his first overall win after he injured his shoulder in the Belgian Championship. The Belgian has the same number of GP victories as Cairoli, but he is 48-points behind the Italian leader.

Cairoli dominate the first moto, but in the second one, he did not have a good start and had to push hard from sixth position. By the end of the second moto, Cairoli overtook Pourcel and Nagl and finished fourth, which gave him second overall.

The 450 start with Pourcel (377) next to Nagl (2), Desalle (25), Goncalves (999), Frossard (183) and Bobryshev (777).

After missing the podium in Lommel due to a mechanical problem in the last lap, Honda’s Goncalves obtained his first-ever 450 podium?finishing third ahead of TM’s Tanel Leok and Max Nagl. Goncalves finished third in both motos.

TM Racing Factory’s Leok, who was third last year in Loket, finished 12th in the first moto, but he took the holeshot in the second one and led the moto for ten laps. Desalle overtook the Estonian at 13 minutes to go, but Leok kept the second position until the end and finished fourth overall.

Xavier Boog was seventh overall.

Max Nagl had to settle for a fifth overall. After obtaining a seventh place in the first moto, Nagl managed to ride in fourth for most of the second moto, but with two laps to go, the German was overtaken by Cairoli and Christophe Pourcel and ended seventh. Kevin Strijbos, who is replacing the injured Steve Ramon at Team Suzuki, had consistent weekend on his first ride for Rockstar Energy Suzuki. Strijbos went 6-8.

Christophe Pourcel was ninth, but did get to battle with Cairoli in moto two. Russian Evgeny Bobryshev had a weekend to forget. He was fourth in moto one, but suffered a DNF in the second moto(after a first turn crash and a follow-up crash a lap later).

CZECH GRAND PRIX: 450 CLASS RESULTS
1. Clement Desalle…2-1
2. Tony Cairoli…1-4
3. Rui Goncalves…3-3
4. Tanel Leok…12-2
5. Max Nagl…7-5
6. Kevin Strijbos…6-7
7. Xavier Boog…8-6
8. Steven Frossard…5-12
9. Christophe Pourcel…13-4
10. Jonathan Barragan…11-9
11. Shaun Simpson…10-10
12. Ken de Dycker…15-8
13. Evgeny Bobryshev…4-26
14. Davide Guarneri…9-16
15. Gunter Schmidinger…14-14
Other notables: 18. Carlos Campano (17-17); 21. Tom Church (20-19); Loic Leonce (21-25)

Max Nagl (2) pursue Steven Frossard’s Yamaha YZ450F. Photo: Ray Archer

Christophe Pourcel is on the right foot now. He didn’t pull off the track, quit or whine at the Czech GP. He had a good second moto.

450 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS STANDINGS
(After 12 of 15 events)
1. Antonio Cairoli…509
2. Clement Desalle…461
3. Steven Frossard…428
4. Evgeny Bobryshev…387
5. Max Nagl…378
6. Rui Goncalves…349
7. David Philippaerts…308
8. Ken de Dycker…268
9. Xavier Boog…262
10. Jonathan Barragan…254
11. Tanel Leok…229
12. Steve Ramon…229
13. Kevin Strijbos…204
14. Shaun Simpson…170
14. Anthony Boissiere…154