THOR riders take top honors at the opening round of the FIM Motocross World champs.
4/3/2007
MX GP, Round 1 - Valkenswaard, The Netherlands - The first Motocross GP of the season has kicked off under the watchful eye of 25000 spectators in an unusually sunny Valkenswaard.
The notorious and demanding Dutch sand circuit, situated just south of Eindhoven, saw THOR racer, Josh Coppins of the Factory Rinaldi Yamaha Team, score a convincing 1-2 to take overall victory and the lead in the MX1 championship.
Team-mate Marc de Reuver, grabbed third position in the final moto, however a crash in the first moto robbed the Dutchman of spot on the overall podium.
THOR was represented In the MX2 class by Molson Kawasaki's, Gareth Swanepoel, who achieved his first ever podium finish. The South African lead moto one for a while before settling for third. A hard fight in moto two secured 'Swanie' third overall to keep him in contention for the MX2 title.
Josh Coppins: "This is a great start to the season. I didn't expect to be this fast in the sand but we have been putting in some hard work on the practice tracks and in the pre-season races and that has paid off here. I took my time in the first moto to get past Ken as I knew he would not be able to run a fast pace for the entire race. Once I was out front I controlled the race and won with quite a big gap. The second moto wasn't as easy and I tried to move in on Jonathan but he was riding really well so he deserved the win in the second moto. I am happy for the Rinaldi Yamaha team - we achieved more than our goal today."
Marc de Reuver: "I am happy. When I crashed in the first moto I thought 'what a disaster' but I picked up the bike and my pace. I kept looking at my board and rode my own race. The lap-times were pretty good and consistent, I passed a lot of guys but it also cost me a lot of energy. In the second moto it was much traffic the first few laps. I managed to get to third place but I was quite tired. The bike is working well although we need to practice more on our starts. It wasn't a bad first GP for me in MX1. I thought MX2 was aggressive in the first laps and believed that MX1 would be different but it is pretty similar actually"
Gareth Swanepoel: "My first podium has been awesome with all the hard work we have put in during the pre-season and I have had plenty of support from the Molson Kawasaki team. It was great to lead the GP in the first moto and I tried to go as fast as I could for as long as possible. The track was a lot rougher in the second moto. To finish top three in the first GP is great. My aim is to try and get on the podium as much as possible and focus on it race by race. I need to keep getting good starts. I need to be consistent throughout the season but if I can carry on from here maybe I can start winning some GP's. This has been an awesome start to the season."
MX2 Race 1
- Cairoli, Antonio
- Rattray, Tyla
- Swanepoel, Gareth - (THOR)
- Gundersen, Kenneth
- Eggens, Erik
- Aubin, Nicolas
- Pourcel, Christophe
- Schiffer, Marcus
- Leuret, Pascal
- Searle, Tommy
MX2 Race 2
- Cairoli, Antonio
- Rattray, Tyla
- Pourcel, Christophe
- Eggens, Erik
- Gundersen, Kenneth
- Swanepoel, Gareth - (THOR)
- Schiffer, Marcus
- Aubin, Nicolas
- Boissiere, Anthony
- Verbruggen, Dennis
MX2 championship standings:
- Cairoli, A. 50
- Rattray, Tyla 44
- Swanepoel, G 35 - (THOR)
- Pourcel, C. 34
- Eggens, Erik 34
- Gundersen, K. 34
- Aubin, Nicolas 28
- Schiffer, M. 27
- Boissiere, A. 22
- Leuret, Pascal 22
MX1 Race 1
- Coppins, Joshua - (THOR)
- Ramon, Steve
- de Dycker, Ken
- Strijbos, Kevin
- Barragan, Jonathan
- de Reuver, Marc
- Nagl, Maximilian
- Nemeth, Kornel
- Mackenzie, Billy
- Noble, James
MX1 Race 2
- Barragan, Jonathan
- Coppins, Joshua - (THOR)
- de Reuver, Marc
- Strijbos, Kevin
- Priem, Manuel
- Ramon, Steve
- de Dycker, Ken
- Noble, James
- Brown, Mike
- Nagl, Maximilian
MX1 championship standings:
- Coppins, J. NZL 47 (THOR)
- Barragan, J. ESP 41
- Ramon, Steve BEL 37
- Strijbos, K. BEL 36
- de Reuver, M. NED 35
- de Dycker, Ken BEL 34
- Nagl, M. GER 25
- Noble, James GBR 24
- Priem, Manuel BEL 19
- Brown, Mike USA 19