Four in a row for Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Jordi Tixier as the MX2 World Champion grabbed third overall at a busy Matterley Basin for the British Grand Prix yesterday. The Frenchman has now racked-up trophies in Italy, Holland, Spain and the UK to move up to joint fifth in the MX2 standings.
The vast dip and roll of the Matterley valley setting contained an immaculately prepared track offering wide-reaching views for spectators and some heart-in-the-mouth jumps up and down the English hillside gradients for the GP stars. 35,000 fans filled the gentle banks for the UK’s first taste of MXGP this year.
Monster Energy Kawasaki were counting the cost of injury just seven rounds into the series. Ryan Villopoto continues to convalesce from his broken Coccyx and his place on the works KX450F next to Tyla Rattray (tenth in the UK) was taken by fill-in replacement (and former KRT racer) Xavier Boog; the Frenchman also keeping the factory bike for round eight next week. Dylan Ferrandis is recovering from a knee reconstruction that has ruled him out for the rest of 2015 and his KX250F has been occupied by Bulgarian Petar Petrov for the remainder of the season. Petar kept the Dutch team busy this week with dialling-in tests and his first outing for the brand and the crew resulted in tenth overall.
Tixier was the pick of the Monster Energy elite in England but the Frenchman was just adrift of an astonishing set of MX2 motos played out between brand-mate Max Anstie, Jeffrey Herlings and Valentin Guillod for the chequered flags. Anstie had the crowd on their feet and vocal chords straining as he led all bar two of the laps in the first moto as Guillod and Herlings conducted warfare with the Kawasaki ace. In the second race – as Tixier ran a lonely third behind another Guillod and Herlings face-off – Anstie was left ruing a poor start and he could only recover to sixth which denied ‘99’ a dream podium result at his home GP.
“The first race was amazing and I have never led in front of my home crowd,” he said. “I got about fifteen minutes in and I did tighten up a little bit, I thought ‘God, this race is going on for a long time’. I pushed as hard as I could in both races and the second one did not go to plan with the gate but I came though and made as many passes as I could. Improvements each week and two solid motos. Hopefully we’ll be on the box pretty soon.”
A busy European support card filled the timetable at the British Grand Prix and the FIM Women’s World Championship was also in play. Number one, Kiara Fontanesi, suffered a hard crash in the first moto on Saturday and managed to throw a sore leg over the bike to take third on Sunday. Title rival Meghan Rutledge was disappointed to miss the trip to England after injuring her hand while training and being forced out of contention.
In EMX250 Darian Sanayei almost breached the box in his wild-card outing on Mel Pocock’s KX250F. The talented American was fourth overall and won the opening race in some style from Adam Sterry.
MXGP charges south through Europe this week. Round eight will dip into the Villars sout Ecot circuit close to the Swiss border for the first time this century where French fans will taste a sweet ‘aperitif’ before the Motocross of Nations fixture further north in Ernee in September.