Podium champagne coated plenty of ‘green and black’ in the MX2 class of the MXGP of Spain as CLS Monster Energy Kawasaki duo Dylan Ferrandis and Arnaud Tonus soaked the girls as well as their machinery after running to second and third positions respectively. The second MX2 affair at a steaming Talavera de la Reina was ‘buenissimo’: an edgy unpredictable slugfest between five riders for second position and the highlight of this latest episode in the FIM MXGP 2014 story.
Motorcycle racing will always find a welcoming home in Spain and the reawakening of MXGP on the Iberian Peninsula after an unusual three year hiatus proved as much. A bumper 16,000 crowd somehow found space around the inclines of Talavera, south of Madrid to welcome back the FIM Motocross World Championship for what was the seventh round of eighteen.
Back on the slate for the first time in fourteen years there was a feeling of ‘yesteryear’ about Talavera. There is barely a flat section on the track and the many steep hills and weaving sections of the layout gave a fast and intense flow to the racing. The site boiled in the sunshine on Saturday and Sunday.
Dazzling brightest in the Spanish sunshine was Ferrandis and Tonus with both riders gunning their KX250F motorcycles to 3-3 and 2-5 scorecard but it was their scrap with the likes of Jose Butron (local favourite), Romain Febvre and Tim Gajser that thrilled the crowd in the second affair.
“I’m not sure if the crowd were cheering for me or for him [Butron],” Tonus joked afterwards. “The race was a lot of fun and we could see that the crowd were really ‘on it’ but that’s why we do this sport; to put on a show. I passed him pretty hard on the outside at one point…for sure the crowd was not for me after that!”
The Monster MXGP army were two men down in Spain with CLS’ Tommy Searle needing more recovery time for his wrist injury and KRT’s Gautier Paulin having his collarbone and thumb breakages suffered at the Dutch Grand Prix fixed last week. Both the Englishman and the Frenchman are rushing against the clock to be back for their respective home events on the calendar inside a month. In their place it was left to Paulin’s team-mate Steven Frossard to post a top five result.
Talavera was also the setting of the second round of the European EMX250 championship; the established feeder series to Grand Prix. The green claw was prevalent at the front with Jorge Zaragoza again taking a top three finish in the first moto but it was Bud Racing team-mate Sullivan Jaulin who walked the top step of the box for the very first time.
From the sand of Holland to the heat of Spain and now the unpredictable climate of the UK. The British Grand Prix at Matterley Basin will host round eight of MXGP and drag the series up to almost the halfway stage. The ‘bowl’ setting near Winchester can be majestic on an early summer English day but if the rain comes then motocross will certainly get muddy…