De Dycker dominates as Rattray rocks it…
Published: 07th April 2008
Author: Pondo
In a busy weekend of race action the world championship kicks off in Holland with wins for Ken De Dycker and Tyla Rattray while Stateside Chad Reed does the business and Ryan Villopoto starts to apply the thumbscrews to Trey Canard…
Big Ken De Dycker came out swinging in the super-rough conditions at Valkenswaard. In his first MX1 GP as Suzuki team-mate to reigning world champion Steve Ramon, Keeno was peerless, taking the lead early in both races and winning at a canter. Ramon himself put a third and a fourth together for second overall in the book and was happy with the 38 points after falling sick on Monday which stopped him from training all week. German Max Nagl was on step three of the podium, tied on points with Ramon.
But maybe one of the noteworthy points from the meeting concerns who wasn’t on the podium. Josh Coppins had to work hard to get sixth overall, the tough Kiwi racing with a specially-modified boot over his badly-broken toes but, ill-starred as ever, a sand track as whooped-out as anyone had ever seen was exactly not what a man with sensitive tootsies needed. A tangle while running third in moto one with his Rinaldi team-mate David Philippaerts was about par for the course for the Lizzard… Billy MacKenzie was a man with 'second overall' written all over him based purely on lap times but he ran into the Bermuda Triangle, crashing while comfortably second in moto one and reappearing 10th on the radar a couple of laps later. Moto two ran smoother for the reigning British champion and an untroubled second place was a more accurate measure of his ability.
In MX2 Tyla Rattray came out like his old self, winning both motos in the rough Belgian sand. Tommy Searle came out like the pretender to the throne, charging hard early in moto one to briefly take the lead before a crash dropped him back down the pack but the KTM star recovered well to take third. Tony Cairoli came out under par, trailing Tyla home in both races and unable to mount a challenge to the South African. Tony revealed after the meeting that he's recently been concentrating on his MX1 bike for a move up a division in 2009 but will drop back down to work with the smaller bike after being unable to counter Rattray’s pace on Sunday.
Searle rode to a quiet fifth in moto two but missed the podium by two points, bested by Erik Eggens. The Dutch veteran was quoted as saying that the track was the roughest he’d ever seen it but this didn’t seem to be a bad thing for the sand specialist. Shaun Simpson put in a great performance, the KTM UK youngster gating well and taking fifth in moto one. Maybe more tellingly, a crash early in moto two put him almost out of the top 20 but Simpson just rolled his sleeves up and got stuck in, battling back into the top 10. Also in the top 10 in moto two was Molson Kawasaki’s Stephen Sword. Swordy DNF’d moto one after knocking himself senseless but came out fighting in the second, taking a decent seventh. In contrast, Carl Nunn and Jason Dougan had weekends to forget. Doogs fell at the first, failing to qualify on the Saturday, while Nunny had an awful day on Sunday and was a long way from the points.
It’s still not over in the States but the fat lass has started warming up! Chad Reed consolidated his lead in the AMA Supercross championship with victory in Texas, the Australian doing just exactly as much as he needed to to take the win barely two seconds ahead of the chasing pack. The pack consisted of Josh Hill, Davi Millsaps and Kevin Windham - Hill and Millsaps made second and third early on past the fast-starting Travis Preston but Windham gave himself a bit to do with only an average start. But K-Dub was up to the challenge with the championship at stake and made his way back on to Millsaps’s tail as Davi battled Josh Hill. Windham pushed, Windham probed, Windham rode on the edge and went to the limit but he just could not find a way past Millsaps on the slick dirt. The upshot is Reed made seven points on Windham on Saturday. Four rounds left and Reedy has 27 points in hand…
But where Reed cruised home, doing what he had to, for the first time this season the real Villopoto came out and mauled the competition. It took him two laps to get into the lead but then he dropped the hammer and put a quick 10 seconds on the competition - by contrast, series leader Trey Canard had a horrible night but put in an awesome performance. The Torco Fuels Honda rookie had a crash on lap one that saw him cross the line in 20th place but the youngster refused to give up and staged an excellent fight back to take fourth on a night when the more established stars struggled to make passes stick. Between the two, Josh Grant had an on night to take second ahead of Martin Davalos.
Closer to home, the DEP Pipes two-stroke British championships kicked off at Canada Heights on Sunday - like the Maxxis British championships a fortnight ago the perfectly-prepped track saw a growing layer of snow as the sun came up on race day but, unlike the Maxxis, this time it didn’t stop. Just to add a bit of drama, technical issues led to a problem with the timing system during the third qualifying session that meant that only the first two session times were logged - the rest went to qualifying races and the lapscorers were brought into action on a day where every bike was plastered with Kentish mud.
As the snow kept falling an abbreviated programme got underway with Jonathan Pettit leading the way in the 125 A group right from the start - the former GP rider rode cannily, clearing his own lines to avoid the gloop that was sucking everyone else down and bringing the TM home for a comparatively easy win. Behind Pettit, former British champion Greg Hanson and his young protégé Jack Brunnel were riding strong in second and third after reigning 125 champion David Willet had an off that dropped him down the field. But the irrepressible Willet mounted a fight back that saw him climb all the way back to second and marked him as the only man with the pace to match Pettit on the day. With visibility poor and without transponders to fall back on, Brunnel would provisionally finish third ahead of Darren Redman - who came from a long way outside the top 10 - and Hanson.
In the Open A class, it was all about Willet and reigning champion Mark Eastwood. Ironman Willet, in his traditional second class of the day, gated behind Eastwood but put on a charge that carried him into the lead. Easto, cunning fox that he is, played the smartest of watching briefs, staying in touch well enough so that Willet could feel the pressure but far enough back that he stayed out of the roost. Then, as the last lap flag came out, Eastwood put on a perfectly timed charge on his home circuit, catching Willet just as the number two Yamaha caught a bunch of back-markers. A quick flash of the front mudguard to Willet as he tried to forge a way through the lappers was enough for the Ironman, in his second race of the hour, to get cross-rutted and fall and with calm composure Eastwood pulled a final tear-off and cruised to a win born of great race savvy. It would be the last race of the day, however, as conditions had just got too bad for racing to continue. It’s a real shame for the organisers as the slightest bit of luck with the weather would have seen the track in brilliant condition - roll on round two at Landrake, though, as this growing series has an atmosphere and life all of its own.