World MX: Mud Mayhem In Spain

Spain is the proverbial country of sun. The running joke around the world motocross paddock though is that when it comes to Bellpuig in the heart of Catalunya, you pack wellies, raincoat, and extra clothes, not t-shirts, shorts and flip-flops. This year the weather again held true to that. Friday evening was a glimpse of what was to come on Sunday – rain. Saturday dawned to sunny conditions, but the locals, knowing the fickleness of the weather, forecast yet another rainy Grand Prix.

The track is set in the beautiful countryside just east of the town of Bellpuig on the main motorway between Barcelona and Lleida. Although the motorway itself is generally not visible from the track, the paddock, which is at the top of the circuit, is visible from the motorway. To date, this is one of the more impressive tracks I've been to. A cross between Faenza in Italy and St Jean d'Angély in France, it is laid out against the side of the hill that slopes away from the motorway towards the agricultural lands beyond. The paddock, laid out on two levels, is this year dominated by the Red Bull Energy Station – Red Bull's massive hospitality area set up next to Red Bull De Carli Yamaha and Red Bull KTM.

The Saturday activities are kicked off with the practice session for the veterans racing the first round of the Veterans World Cup, after which the MX2 and MX1 practice sessions follow. At three o'clock, the MX2 qualifiers start. The practice sessions have already taken victims; Utag Yamaha's Martin Barr breaks his collarbone and immediately returns to the United Kingdom to have it fixed, Oliver Sandiford-Smith, racing for the iconic British bike marque CCM, dislocates his shoulder, putting him out of action too.

On pole in the MX2 class is Red Bull KTM's Tyla Rattray who also goes on to win his qualifier over team mate Tommy Searle and formidable opponent, Red Bull De Carli Yamaha's Antonio Cairoli. Cairoli makes a mistake early on, so he puts in some very fast laps to catch up, but he has to be content with third. The other qualifier is won by KTM HDI MX Team's Antoine Boissiere, his first qualifier win ever, followed by CLS Racing Kawasaki's Steve Frossard and 3C Racing Yamaha's Manuel Monni. Pole in the MX1 class is Sébastien Pourcel for GPKR Team Kawasaki. After the last chance qualifying session for the MX2 class, the veterans do their own qualifying; Peter Iven is the man on pole. Rattray and Pourcel collect an iPod and portable speakers as Lovemytime Pole Position award for their efforts at the evening press conference.

The evening is mild, but the weather overnight turns cold, windy, and wet. As the day dawns, it rains, and rains, and rains some more. It is not hard rain, but an insidious soft rain that soaks in, gets everything wet and clingy. The morning's warm-up practice sessions are a mess, and as the morning wears on, it is clear that things are not going to get any better. Plenty of goggles are prepared, but, as Smith Optics' representative points out, this kind of weather, together with the fine-grained mud, is hell because no matter how much preparation is done, goggles will jam up. How true that is shows itself later in the races.

The first race of the day is the first veteran race, which gives CCM its first-ever Grand Prix win thanks to British rider Greg Hanson. At twelve noon the first MX2 race goes to the line. The start line itself is just a sea of mud. It is ankle deep and the rider who can prepare his gate is lucky to be able to do so. Track staff make several changes, one being a channel that is supposed to drain water away from the start gates, but that is too little too late. The riders first to the corner through the sea of mud are Rattray, Champ KTM's Jeremy van Horebeek and Ricci Racing Yamaha's Davide Guarneri. Rattray though takes the lead while utter mayhem reigns behind him. Sarholz KTM's Joaquim Rodrigues and Boissiere fail to make it through the first lap, soon followed by Molson Kawasaki's Gautier Paulin and Swift Suzuki's Elliott Banks-Browne.

As the laps wear on, the losses mount. The biggest obstacle is a left-hander corner that continues into a massive step-up jump. The corner is knee deep mud, mud that gets thicker as time wears on, threatening to trap rider after rider. Sixteen laps later this race for survival is over. While Rattray goes on to win the race, Frossard, second in the first half, loses ground against Cairoli and Monni, then gets stuck and has to restart outside the top ten. Guarneri is third.

The first MX1 race starts off controversially. Martin Honda's Marc de Reuver, off to a good start together with Teka Suzuki's Steve Ramon and Silver Action KTM's Jonathan Barragán, is black-flagged off the start because he was not lined up squarely behind his gate. At the time of writing, the team intends to appeal the decision on principle. The Spanish crowd are ecstatic as Barragán takes the lead for several laps before he is overtaken by Ramon. Three laps after that his bike stops dead. Frustrated, Barragán has to call it a day. Monster Rinaldi Yamaha's David Philippaerts takes advantage of the struggle for positions in the pack and soon advances to second, Teka Suzuki's Ken de Dycker in tow. Philippaerts' team-mate Josh Coppins, third in the first lap, drops several positions before he returns to fourth at the end of the race.

The second veteran race fills the gap between the two main Grand Prix sessions. This time it is Toine van Dijk who wins after it becomes clear that the veterans are finding the conditions very tough, and the race is stopped. Van Dijk also takes the overall win on the day, with British rider Scott Eastwood and Belgian Thierry Godfroid second and third.

At three o'clock the MX2 class goes to the line a second time. If the first race was not bad enough, the second one was worse. A lot worse. In this race, Ricci Racing Yamaha's Nicholas Aubin takes the lead. A good start, followed by Rattray and Guarneri, does not last all that long. A crash in the incredible mud that lays claim to Aubin, Rattray, Molson Kawasaki's Stephen Sword and Cairoli gives Guarneri the lead. Monni is right there with him. Paulin and Red Bull KTM's Rui Gonçalves are also hot on their heels as much as the mud allows. The step-up jumps and the corner just ahead become the battlefield. The uphills are just too difficult to master for a few, and it is almost farcical to watch riders attempt, fail, fall off, drag their bike back down, and then try again. Those most determined go on to finish, others just stand at the bottom of the hill, frustrated and helpless.

With the rain and the conditions on the start line and the step ups getting worse, there is a call to red-flag this race too and call it a day. The event management, comprising representatives from the club, the promoter Youthstream and FIM, concur. After eleven torturous laps, the red flag comes out. After winding back one lap as is customary in this situation, Guarneri is the winner, with Monni second and Paulin third. The day overall is Guarneri, Monni and Sword. Through red-rimmed eyes the riders are nonetheless happy to be on the podium, Sword especially so considering his terrible two years away from the Grand Prix circuit. Cairoli and Rattray are fourth and fifth respectively, but Rattray retains the red plate as championship leader by a scant three points.

The MX1 riders are all assembled in the parc fermé, but there is a murmur of discontent making the rounds. Surely, if the MX2 race was cancelled due to deteriorating conditions, how can the MX1 race still be held? The riders assemble and march on the event office. They request that the MX1 race be cancelled for the same reasons as the MX2 race and the veteran race before that. The troublesome section can be cut out, but the start line is a mess, and it surely cannot be safe to expect thirty riders with almost twice as much engine capacity to still be able to start safely? The argument is very convincing, and event management concurs that this is the only course of action. This kind of action is very rare, the riders do not protest often. And so the first race result of Ramon, Philippaerts and De Dycker stands as the Grand Prix day overall. De Dycker retains the red plate of the championship too, albeit by a slightly bigger margin over the incumbent champion and current runner-up, Steve Ramon.

The evening's press conferences are called shortly afterwards, the riders are all clearly relieved, and then, to add insult to injury for some, the sun breaks through the clouds as the paddock starts to pack and clean up. FIM's CMS president Wolfgang Srb waxes philosophically: "I think this weekend proves again that you can't beat Mother Nature, no matter how much you try. The club knows what needs to be done to avoid this from happening again, and we're confident that they'll make the necessary improvements in time for next year."

I can only say that there's no doubt in my mind that the management of the Circuit de Motocròs de Catalunya will do just that, because Catalunya has proudly hosted motorcycle sports for a century. And they wouldn't jeopardise all that for nothing.

The track of Bellpuig lies just south of the A2, between the towns of Tàrrega and Bellpuig, 80 miles south-west of Barcelona. Fly into Barcelona El Prat (BCN) with BA, Iberia, or Easyjet, or into Barcelona Girona (GRO) or Barcelona Reus (REU) with Ryanair. Stay either in Barcelona or Lleida (25 mi from the track). From Barcelona, take Exit 498, turn left back towards Barcelona, but remain on the service road. From Lleida, take Exit 495, turn right at the first roundabout, turn left at the next, and follow the road towards the service road and Exit 498. The circuit is signposted.

Results:

Championship Standings:

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