KTM Red Bull Racing Team's Tyla Rattray raced to overall third in the replacement race in Faenza Italy for the originally planned motocross GP in his home town in Durban, South Africa.
The South African KTM factory rider showed no signs of the knee injury sustained in the last race of the series in Sweden. Rattray was third across the finish line in both races at the Italian track of Faenza, the first time it has hosted MX1 and MX2 GPs.
"Considering this kind of track is not my favourite, it was not a bad day for me," Tyla said. "There was a lot of water on the track and I lost the lead many times. I tried not to lose pace but it was not easy."
Rattray has been third a string of times in recent races and said he hopes to be able to match the pace of the front runners in the remaining races and finish higher on the podium. "I am looking forward to the sandy tracks," he said.
Tyla's young teenager teammate Briton Tommy Searle was eleventh and fifth for overall sixth place, adding more points to his championship tally for the season. "I got away well in the first race and I was in the front group but then I had some difficulties and had to fight my way back from the back of the pack," Tommy said. In fact he did very well to finish in the top half of the order. The slippery surface of the track in the second race also made it difficult to find and hold the right line.
Both Rattray and Searle confirmed at a KTM press conference in Faenza that they will remain with the KTM Red Bull Racing Team for the MX2 world championship season in 2008. They are currently third and fourth in the championship standings with five races to go.
Results - Christophe Pourcel, France , Kawasaki
- Antonio Cairoli, Italy, Yamaha
- Tyla Rattray, South Africa, KTM
- Pascal Leuret, France, Honda
- Rul Goncalves, Portugal, KTM
- Tommy Searle, Britain, KTM
Images - Archer R.
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