The rutty, hard soil of Teutschenthal was again the platform for Grand Prix motocross after starring as the host of the 67th Motocross of Nations last summer. The German round of the FIM Motocross World Championship drew the show to the Talkessel facility near the city of Halle for the eleventh stop of seventeen on the 2014 fixture list. The premier MXGP class was again backed by MX2 and the likes of the FIM Women’s World Championship (the penultimate round for WMX) and there was bar-bashing and some frantic scenes throughout the weekend as 31,000 fans found a spot on the shallow slopes that somehow seem to wrap around this time-honoured circuit.
Some great racing between principal FIM Women’s World Championship rivals Kiara Fontanesi and Meghan Rutledge saw the Yamaha and Kawasaki stars tied on points with a win a piece. The Australian celebrated her second triumph of the year (thanks to her success in the second race) and trails Fontanesi by just four points with a nail-biting last round to go. The title decider will take place at the Czech Grand Prix at the end of next month with Livia Lancelot also in the running. The former champ was third in Germany and is 23 points adrift.
There were some big-hitters in the German paddock with AMA Supercross Champion Ryan Villopoto continuing his European tour from MotoGP last week and again setting tongues wagging about a possible Grand Prix campaign for 2016. Joining the American in the KRT awning was Gautier Paulin. The winner of the opening round of the MXGP term was in town to meet fans and perform sponsorship duties but also update his followers on his recovery from a broken thumb and the Frenchman is still over a month from being active on the motorcycle.
The punishing edge to this violent, poetic and thrilling sport pushed through during the opening laps of the weekend. MX2 star and current runner-up in the championship standings, Arnaud Tonus, crashed from a double jump, knocked himself out and briefly dislocated his left shoulder, immediately putting him out of the Grand Prix. Also wounded was Thomas Covington still struggling from a break in his foot sustained last weekend in Italy. The American attempted practice and qualification on Saturday but could not bear the pain so decided to withdraw and make the most of the two week period of downtime to heal-up.
Aside from the ladies some standout results came from Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Steven Frossard with a third place in the first MXGP moto on the factory KX450F (he retired from the second with broken goggles) and CLS Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Dylan Ferrandis with another third spot in the first MX2 sprint (the Frenchman suffered a first lap crash in the second). CLS’ Tommy Searle was seventh overall in MXGP after poor starts wrecked his podium potential.
Grands Prix in Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, Belgium, Brazil and Mexico remain on the calendar. MXGP takes a week off to close the month of June but an atmospheric double header in Scandinavia will open July and drive the series into the heights of summer.