World MX: Damp Italian Grand Prix Delivers Surprise Results

When you think about Italy you probably think about Roman ruins, old palazzos and cobbled streets. And wine and pasta and sunshine, fashion, fast cars and fast bikes. And hard-baked, sun-burnt ground. Not sand. Mantova, or Mantua in the local Lombardian dialect, is a fantastic old city in the south east corner of Lombardia, and it hosts the annual Mantova Starcross, one of the three or so races that comprise the pre-season in motocross. The track is in walking distance from Mantova's second-most famous landmark, the Palazzo Te, and it is, quite literally, Italy's sandbox.

As in 2007, Mantova hosts the Gran Premio d'Italia, the Italian Grand Prix, and many teams have made the journey across the Balkans from Sevlievo in Bulgaria to the land of pasta, pizza and wine during the week. It all looks to be a great, sunny weekend ahead - And then the rain comes. Soft but persistent, it starts to soak everything in sight. On Saturday morning the track is wet, but still very much rideable. The second round of the Women's Motocross World Championship is also held here, and it is the ladies who work the track over before the MX2 and MX1 classes go out.

At noon, the MX2 class pre-qualifying practice sees Inotec Suzuki's Xavier Boog take pole on the slippery track, beating Red Bull KTM's Tyla Rattray and Red Bull De Carli Yamaha's Antonio Cairoli to the punch by the smallest of fractions of a second. MX2 qualifying at three o' clock delivers few surprises. Cairoli wins his qualifier, followed by Molson Kawasaki's Stephen Sword in second and Boog in third. The second qualifier goes to Red Bull KTM's Tommy Searle, followed by Rattray and Team KTM UK's Shaun Simpson.

In the MX1 class timed qualifying practice it is Martin Honda's Marc de Reuver who makes an incredibly good impression at the head of the pack, beating Monster Yamaha's David Philippaerts and Teka Suzuki's Steve Ramon. The MX2 last chance qualifying practice session has Molson Kawasaki's Gautier Paulin on pole after his ungraceful exit from his qualifier earlier in the afternoon.

The final qualifier for the day is the women's qualifier in which GPKR Kawasaki's Livia Lancelot is on pole, followed by Pfeil Kawasaki's Maria Franke and Van Beers Yamaha's Katherine Prumm.

Sunday morning dawns to the song of soft rain on the roofs and roads and in the trees. The prognosis of the visitor figures is not great. It wasn't all that great on Saturday either, but whether the race day itself would be well-visited remains to be seen. The morning warm-up practice sessions start at 8:30am, much earlier than usual, because the day aims to still squeeze in the second race of the Trofeo KTM, a KTM-only race, immediately after the warm-up sessions.

The races that everyone has come to see, start an hour earlier too. If there was any doubt about the spectator figures, those doubts disappear into the sky as the banks that shape the bowl of Mantova fill with people armed with raincoats and umbrellas.

The Women's World Championship race is out first. It is the young deaf American girl, Ashley Fiolek, who goes on the attack to go out front and stay there. For three laps she also remains there, before the French championship leader, Livia Lancelot, makes a pass for the lead. Lancelot herself soon makes a mistake which costs her a spot in the top five, and it is KTM-mounted Steffi Laier from Germany who takes the lead instead, keeping it for the remainder of the race. Prumm has tracked Lancelot, Laier and Fiolek throughout much of the race, and with the last few seconds ticking down on the electronic timer board, makes her pass on Fiolek to slip into second overall. A last lap mistake drops Fiolek down another two places to make way for Inotec Suzuki's Larissa Papenmeier and Maria Franke.

Then, as the clock strikes noon, the young guns (and the older ones) of the MX2 class end their customary ritual of preparing their start gates and rejoin their mechanics on the start line. The TV crew makes its rounds to capture the line-up before the riders mount their bikes for a sighting lap. At ten minutes past the hour the roar of thirty finely-tuned race bikes swells over the track. Ricci Racing Yamaha's Nicholas Aubin has the hole shot down pat and leads the inaugural lap, having escaped the mêlée of the second corner. Searle takes advantage of the fact that the strongest man on the circuit has been caught up in the back of the pack, attacks Aubin and takes the lead. It looks to be his day, albeit a somewhat grey one, but Aubin remains nearby. A mistake in the closing minutes costs Searle his lead to Aubin.

There is still plenty going on behind the leaders. Cairoli makes an astonishing run to return to the top five. While the rest of the pack still settle into their individual race rhythms, he makes rapid gains, and just after the halfway point, Cairoli stalks Red Bull KTM's Rui Gonçalves. Four laps later Gonçalves falls to his pressure, and it is Rattray who is in his sights next. But – time runs out; there is a quarter of a minute left across the finish line.

The first MX1 race is a combined freight train of GPKR Kawasaki's Sébastien Pourcel and Teka Suzuki's Ken de Dycker. Both make it through the tricky first and second corners unscathed, as does de Reuver, followed by Monster Yamaha's Josh Coppins and Kawasaki Racing's Tanel Leok. Monster CAS Honda's Billy MacKenzie makes his way into the top five too and soon stalks de Reuver for third place. He succeeds and runs in third until he gets it all wrong in the rhythm section, ending in the dirt. He restarts in eighth place, mentally kicking himself for a rudimentary mistake that will definitely cost him the podium.

His mistake is in turn de Reuver's fortune; de Reuver moves back into third place with Coppins, the toughest man on the circuit, right behind him. Philippaerts, the championship leader, has started in the back of the pack, but in the final minutes of the race returns to the top five of the pack after a tough campaign against Ramon, Leok, and Sarholz KTM's two-some Marcus Schiffer and Kornel Nemeth.

The second half of the race day starts with the second women's race. This time Laier dominates from the first corner to the last jump, initially pressured by Lancelot, but soon pulling away. Lancelot herself comes under pressure by Prumm and has to submit to the pressure that the New Zealander exerts with three laps to go. Fiolek ends in fourth after forcing Papenmeier back a place.

Laier ends the day in first, seconded by Prumm. Papenmeier ends in third, her third place in the first race together with her fifth place giving her a one-point advantage over Lancelot's results of a sixth and a third. Lancelot retains her championship lead though, leading Prumm by two points. Fiolek, third in Bulgaria and fifth today, also retains her position in third.

Cairoli makes up for his bad start in the first race by clearing the pack perfectly in the second. Team KTM UK's Shaun Simpson makes the first attempt to stop Cairoli, but it is Rattray and Searle who soon go after the quick Sicilian. Simpson remains in fourth, keeping CLS Racing Kawasaki's Steve Frossard at bay. Aubin and Champ KTM's Jeremy van Horebeek have their own battle in sixth and seventh, one which Aubin wins. At the end of the day it is Cairoli who wins the Grand Prix by a mere point over Rattray and Searle. Rattray in turn beats Searle to second on the basis of his second race result ahead of the young Briton. Rattray retains his championship lead, although it has shrunk. Cairoli in turn keeps a five point lead over Searle in number three.

And then, the final race of the day. This race upsets the apple cart somewhat, and this race will deliver a surprise. Red Bull KTM's Max Nagl pulls a surprise lead out of the bag after beating Coppins to the punch. Philippaerts muscles his way past the Kiwi too to take up the chase of the German in the lead. Silver Action KTM's Jonathan Barragán also joins in, but he soon sees his day end worse than expected when his bike stops dead a third into the race. De Reuver and MacKenzie join the crush for the front, and again Coppins is forced back. MacKenzie keeps control this time; although de Reuver is ahead of him, he makes no mistakes and ends the race in fourth behind Nagl, Philippaerts and the Dutchman.

There is an uproar in the pit lane in the last few minutes as the staff of Martin Honda realise that the Grand Prix is theirs for the taking. De Reuver, the man often discounted as a never-could-be, as someone who would never take a Grand Prix crown again, takes the win. Martin Honda has not won a Grand Prix in two years, their last having been Mickaël Pichon before his retirement. De Reuver's team is jubilant, his parents and his sister are beside themselves. This is such a big turnaround, one that gives him the much needed boost of confidence.

De Reuver is joined on the podium by Pourcel in second and Philippaerts in third. Although Pourcel's second race was one he'd rather forget, his first race win pips Philippaerts to second place by one point. It is Philippaerts though who has the last laugh; he retains the red plate, and indeed increases his lead over second-in-command Ramon and Coppins in third. For Philippaerts this is a good day, a year before he did not finish either race, having crashed hard in both his races.

In the end, the day is well-attended. Twenty-nine thousand spectators attend over the weekend, which translates easily to over eighteen thousand spectators on race day alone. With all the rain, the puddles in the paddock and the mud on the banks, this has been a really good weekend for motorsport in Italy, especially considering that the famous Mille Miglia made its run through the streets of Mantova on Saturday afternoon, giving the local populace a taste of both the old cars of yesteryear, and the new off-road warriors of the future the day after.

For Mantova, fly into Verona (VRN, 20 mi) or Bologna (BLQ, 60 mi) with British Airways, Verona-Brescia (VBS, 35 mi) or Milan Bergamo (BGY, 90 mi) with Ryanair, or both Milan airports (MXP/LIN, 180 mi) with Easyjet. Stay at the Class Hotel or the Mantegna hotels.

Results:

Championship Standings:

www.motocrossmantova.it
www.motocrossmx1.com

Related Galleries

World Motocross - Round 5, Mantova

Related Articles   mx : World MX: Wet Weather Starts The Championship Off With A Cracker   mx : World MX: Mud Mayhem In Spain   mx : World MX: Blazing Action Ignites Championship In Portugal

Comments Leave Your Comment: » Register now to leave comments! It's free and only takes a few seconds.