The final round of the 2006 World Championship didn’t changed anything in the MX2 standings, and Christophe Pourcel claimed in Ernée (France), supported by 15000 fans, his first Motocross World title. It’s the third title in this class for Kawasaki, and it’s another French rider who got it after Sébastien Tortelli (1996) and Mickael Maschio (2002).
Due to rainfalls the timing of the event was changed on Saturday, and instead of two qualifying races the MX2 riders had one timed practice session. It was a great session for the team, as Sébastien got his first ever pole position followed by his brother! Only Christophe was able to challenge his brother in this session, and after two late attempts he finished only one thousand of a second behind his older brother! The weather was much better on Sunday, and it’s on a perfect track the series ended.
In both heats Christophe started in the top five, and proved to his rivals that he wanted a win to close the season! He challenged Antonio Cairoli in both races, and offered to his fans great racing instead of just scoring the necessary points to secure the title. Second of the opening race, he had a twenty five points lead before the last heat and just needed to score a single point to be crowned. But Christophe wanted a win, and battled with Cairoli during half of the race; they passed eachothers a couple of time and he was leading at mid race when he did a mistake and crashed! Losing time to restart the bike, he was fifth but never gave up and passed Nunn. With a second and a fourth place he took the third position of the event, his tenth podium of the season and, most important, the 2006 World title.
Christophe Pourcel:It was a really great weekend, the weather was good on Sunday and the crowd was behind me. The track was slippery after the rainfalls of friday, and there were many ruts for the race day. My first start was not so great but I came third, and then second when Philippaerts made a mistake. I pushed during a few laps to close the gap with Cairoli, who was leading the race, but he didn’t gave up and I choose to keep my energy for the next heat. We started this race together and had a great battle, until I did a mistake. I was leading the race but in a rut the bike made a neutral and I crashed. I had some troubles to restart the bike but I stay quiet, even if it was more difficult for my team members! My front brake was damaged but I could battle again with Nunn and Philippaerts, I nearly passed him in the last corner for the third spot. I didn’t want to just score a few points, I really wanted to win this race. I think it was less dangerous to race like this instead of calculating, it was better for my concentration. I really enjoyed our battle with Antonio Cairoli, it was funny for both! We know eachother pretty well and I’ve a lot of respect for him, he tried to destabilize me but that’s normal, I would have done the same! Now my next goal is the Motocross of Nations, I raced against Villopoto earlier in my career and I’m ready for this race. Then I will go for ten days in Japan, where I will visit the factory and race the final round of the Japan Championship, and from there I will go to the US where I will stay until february. I will just come back in Europe to race Bercy Supercross in November, Cairoli will be there and that will be nice.”
Patrick Géladé:Tonight there’s a lot of emotion, it was a stressful and long day for us! It’s the outcome of our work, our investment, and I’ve a thought for Jan De Groot, Steve Guttridge and M.Hanawa who always trusted us when we decided to create our team. I was thinking that Christophe will just manage this race, but in fact he choose to race with gallantry and he had a lot of fun when he battled with Cairoli. It was nice to see them battling on the track, we didn’t worried so much as we know that Antonio is a fair competitor. But we stressed a lot when Christophe crashed during the second race, we didn’t saw him on the monitors during a few minutes! We tried to calm him when he was battling with Nunn and Philippaerts, but he wanted a podium result and once more he managed perfectly his races.”
Roger Pourcel:It’s done, it was a tough day for him and us but once more Christophe did good races and pushed until the last meter. It’s a winner, since he started to race he has always been like that. He wanted the title and the GP win, he made a small mistake and lost the race but he got the title and it was our goal. I’m lucky to have two kids who always want to push, and tonight there is a lot of joy in the team! It was a bet to built our team last winter, and now Christophe will have a new challenge in the US. For us the goal will be for sure to continue to support him, and to develop our team in Europe. This is our first title, I hope of course that we’ll got others in the future and today I want to thanks our mechanics, all the friends and partners who are behind us since a long time. I’m glad that we can offer them a title! Sébastien had a difficult weekend, he couldn’t practice due to his kidney troubles and he crached in both heats.”
First heat:1.Cairoli (ITA, Yamaha)
2. C.Pourcel (Kawasaki GPKR)
3. Philippaerts (ITA, KTM)
4. Nunn (GBR, KTM)
5.Caps (BEL, Honda)
6.Aubin (FRA, KTM)
7. Rattray (RSA, KTM)
8.De Reuver (NED, KTM)
9.Mackenzie (GBR, Yamaha)
10.Goncalves (POR, KTM)
14.S.Pourcel (Kawasaki GPKR)
Second heat:1.Cairoli
2.De Reuver
3.Philippaerts
4.C.Pourcel
5.Nunn
6.Rattray
7.Goncalves
8.Monni
9.Renet
10.Aubin
Final Championship standings after fifteen races:1.C.Pourcel, 581
2.Cairoli, 563
3. Philippaerts, 480
4.Rattray, 475
5.De Reuver, 408
6.Nunn, 377
7.Gonçalves, 325
8.Searle, 315
9.Mackenzie, 302
10.Pourcel, 298.
Related Links/www.kawasaki-racingteam.com
