Shaun Simpson experienced a disappointing weekend at the fourth round of the 2011 FIM Motocross World Championship held at Indaiatuba, Brazil.
Struggling to find a competitive race pace the LS Honda rider qualified in 21st position, going on to place 13th and 18th in the two main motos. With glorious weather and a capacity crowd attending the impressive Indaiatuba circuit, the fourth event of the 15-leg tour was set to be one to remember. Having recorded his best MX1 GP result to date only one week earlier, Shaun arrived at the event brimming with confidence hoping to reproduce a similar performance.
Saturday’s busy schedule of practice and qualifying started reasonably well as the former MX2 British champion placed 12th during free practice.
Unfortunately come the qualifying race Shaun’s luck had changed and after finding himself at the back of the pack going into the first corner he could not find a way past the rest of the field as the race progressed. Simpson crossed the line in a lowly 21st spot. Having failed to find the speed to fight with the front-runners during qualifying, Shaun was left with a poor gate pick for the main motos.
Determined to make up for a disheartening Saturday’s qualifying result, Simpson went into his first race sure he could fight for a top 10 finish. A reasonable start saw him running towards the front of the pack however, ultimately, he was unable to sustain the pace, eventually finishing in 13th position. By the second moto Shaun was again confident he could battle with the faster boys. Another good start looked promising for the 23-year-old as he established himself in 12th place and looked to push forward as the race wore on.
Typically, Shaun’s luck ran out and come lap 13 he crashed heavily, dropping down to 18th where he eventually finished.
Showing strength and commitment he remounted and completed the remaining seven laps of the demanding circuit to pick up 11 valuable championship points over the course of the weekend which leaves Simpson sat in 16th place in the overall standings.
“I felt like I lacked a bit of speed all weekend. In the heat race I was near the back around the first corner and went back to 21st and it gave me a bad gate pick. I don’t know why I struggled to get into any kind of rhythm.
“Thirteenth was the level of where I was at in the first moto, though I was looking better in the second until I made a mistake going up the rolling hill and had quite a big crash. Luckily I am okay and can work on trying to meet the pace of these other boys and get up the front a bit more for the next GP.”
