Cairoli makes a boob and his double DNF hands the MX1 series lead to Rockstar Suzuki’s Clement Desalle after he takes a dominant double win in Uddevalla…
The land of pine furniture, saunas, safe cars and moose (there are millions of ’em) is well known for its epic amounts of rainfall. This epic amount of rainfall always seems to fall on GP weekend. It’s not like the gravelly Uddevalla racetrack needs making any slippier as it’s already as slick as a Swedish porn star but when wet it’s more or less lethal.
Several MX1 contenders suffer in the sea of slop – most notably series leader Tony Cairoli who gets a rock jammed in his drive train in race one before beaching himself in a mud puddle in the early laps of race two. Two DNFs are definitely bad for business but Cairoli takes it on the chin and behaves impeccably throughout.
With Cairoli out of the picture Clement Desalle picks up a double win by mastering the conditions and waiting for the races to come to him. Simply unstoppable the Belgian star takes two wins and turns a 47 point deficit between himself and the Sicilian into a three point lead heading into Latvia in two weeks time. Desalle’s joined on the podium by Christophe Pourcel and HM Plant KTM UK’s Kevin Strijbos who’s without doubt the quickest man on the track for much of moto two.
You can’t beat a rejuvenated Woody – although the results actually say otherwise – and Shaun Simpson puts a smile on British fans’ faces by finishing fifth overall. The Scot did have a trip to the podium lined up until he got a little buckwild in the ruts and lost places to Strijbos and Tanel Leok.
Alfie Smith adds two points to his tally while J-Law suffers a similar fate to Cairoli with a clogged up drive train and a sticky situation with a pile of mud ending his points scoring chances. Who’d have thought that with five world titles between them Law and Cairoli would make such errors. There’s more bad news for Team STR as Matiss Karro has a huge crash on Saturday and takes no further part in the action. Although it’s unconfirmed yet it’s believed Karro has crushed vertebrae and a monster concussion. Get well soon Matiss…
Results
MX1 series standings
1 Clement Desalle Rockstar Energy Suzuki348
2 Antonio Cairoli Red Bull KTM 345
3 Christophe Pourcel CP377 336
4 Gautier Paulin Kawasaki Racing Team 315
5 Ken de Dycker Red Bull KTM 257
6 Kevin Strijbos HM Plant KTM UK 243
7 Xavier Boog Kawasaki Racing Team 236
8 David Philippaerts Monster Energy Yamaha 212
9 Tanel Leok Rockstar Energy Suzuki201
10 Rui Goncalves Honda World Motocross183
11 Shaun SimpsonMonster Energy Yamaha 159
15 Matiss Karro STR KTM 112
27 Alfie Smith JK Racing Yamaha 14
44 Nathan Parker STR KTM 2
48 Jamie Law STR KTM 2
50 Martin Barr LPE Kawasaki 1
