Josh Coppins still leads the world championship despite missing his second Grand Prix in a row. The New Zealander has seen his advantage narrowed from 77 to 43 and now to 12 as main rival Steve Ramon could only finish fifth. Yamaha Motocross Team's Marc de Reuver was seventeenth after scoring points in just one moto in front of 18,500 people.
De Reuver started the third-to-last meeting of the year in sixteenth position after riders of both classes on a wet Saturday had only 45 minutes to practice and qualify on the brand new course created for this Grand Prix and with a view towards the 61st Motocross of Nations in September 2008.
The heavy rain on Friday and Saturday meant that the track was deep and swampy and could not cope with a full practice programme. The schedule was vastly reduced and thankfully the showers stayed away from Sunday even though a chilly wind swept the open circuit.
The track itself drew compliments from most of the paddock for its challenging layout and big array of jumps, but the riders were not able to really test the terrain until good work had been carried out by the circuit staff to prepare the course for Sunday. The landings and take-offs were still dangerous and difficult due to the softness of the mud.
De Reuver rode his own pace to pick up nine points for twelfth position in race one but did not look capable of breaking into the top ten. The second outing was not positive for the Dutchman as he simply could not get to grips with the track from the rear of the field and retired from the moto.
Joshua Coppins is hopeful of being able to ride for the first time this week since fracturing his shoulder in the Czech Republic. The British Grand Prix will take place next Sunday at Donington Park - another new racing course - before the Grand Prix of the Netherlands wraps up the season at Lierop in two weeks time.
Kenneth Gundersen took his first steps towards a return to the MX1 by entering the premier category with a view towards assisting Yamaha's plight to retain the manufacturer's title and gained two points for 19th in the first moto but crashed out of the second.
Marc de Reuver, Yamaha Motocross Team"Practice and qualifying was OK but there was not much time on the track and it was really muddy. I was sixteenth, which was nothing special. In the first heat I was twenty-third at the start and I came up to twelfth but I had a really bad start in the second heat and could not get a rhythm. I wasn't jumping anything and could not get into it today."
Carlo Rinaldi, Team Manager, Yamaha Motocross Team"Josh still has a twelve point lead so it could have been a lot worse today and we are happy about that but we are really disappointed for Marc. We expected a quite good race at least. He had two very bad starts but there was no reaction afterwards."
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