Crusty podiums in Lommel!

Photo: Ray Archer

LS Motors Honda rider Dennis Verbruggen (22) took his first ever GP podium by finishing third in today’s GP of Limburg- Belgium in Lommel. A fifth and third place in the heats meant Verbruggen ended up on the third step of the podium behind Joël Roelants and Marvin Musquin.

As often Verbruggen experienced some problems during the opening stages of the first heat. Laying in 27th after the first lap, the sand specialist cut once again through the field. Lap after lap Verbruggen gained some valuable positions to finally finish fifth. In the second heat Verbruggen found himself fourteenth after lap one. “Crusty” would once again work his way up to the top 5, whilst duelling with KTM Factory Rider Rui Goncalves in the process. In the final stages “Crusty” got rid of Gonçalves, who wasn’t capable of keeping up with the Honda rider’s speed. In the very last lap “Crusty” even passed Nicolas Aubin to take third in the heat and third overall. Dennis Verbruggen his now 15th in the World MX2 standings, just 4 points off 13th placed Anthony Boissière.

Dennis Verbruggen “I’m really happy with this result, to take your first podium in front of your home crowd is unbelievable! However I don’t think this is just because I’m strong in the sand. My riding has consistently improved over the last few months and my fitness has never been better. So I think I can aim for a strong result in Loket as well. Today it was the battle of the fittest out there, especially the first race was hard with my bad start and the rain. I had to take off my goggles early on, but I kept on pushing. In the second race I was gaining ground on Musquin and Roelants, unfortunately I crashed and lost all the time that I had made up. That’s when I decided to settle for my podium finish.”

Heat 1: 1 Musquin, 2 Goncalves, 3 Roelants, 4 Van Horebeek, 5 Dennis Verbruggen (BEL-LS Motors Honda), 6 Roczen, 7 Guarneri, 8 Jorgensen, 9 Monni,

10 Larrieu / Heat 2: 1 Musquin, 2 Roelants, 3 Dennis Verbruggen (BEL-LS Motors Honda 4 Aubin, 5 Schiffer, 6 Roczen, 7 Jorgensen, 8 Goncalves,9 Guarneri, 10 Monni

GP of Limburg classification: 1 Musquin 50, 2 Roelants 42, 3 Dennis Verbruggen (BEL-LS Motors Honda) 36, 4 Goncalves 35, 5 Roczen 30, 6 Jorgensen

27, 7 Aubin 26, 8 Guarneri 26, 9 Monni 23, 10 Van Horebeek 23

MX2 World Championship standings: 1 Musquin 421, 2 Goncalves 383, 4 Paulin 372, 5 Guarneri 357, 6 Frossard 284, 6 Roczen 269, 7 Aubin 229, 8

Roelants 222, 9 Moni 222, 10 Boog 197, 15 Dennis Verbruggen (BEL-LS Motors Honda) 143

Successful MX2 debut for Verbruggen

Photo: CDS

LS Motors-Honda's MX2 rider Dennis Verbruggen rode to an excellent fifth overall in what was his first outing on the Honda CRF450R, yesterday in Nismes at the third round of the Belgian championship. Verbruggen jumps rom a tenth to a sixth in the championship standings..

In the first heat Dennis came back from seventh to fourth but would be overtaken by Josh Coppins in the last lap. Together with team mate Clément Desalle, Crusty would even dominate the opening stages of the second heat. While Desalle extended his lead lap after lap, Verbruggen was a shock third leaving many top MX2 regulars behind hilm. Unfortunately the former European champion was a bit to generous with the power of his CRF450R and lost his thirdposition to Josh Coppins. Dennis ended up fourth in front of Ramon and Priem.

In the last heat Dennis Verbruggen had his weakest start of the day and wouldn’t find the speed of his previous heats. This meant he lost every chance to be on the podium, although he would end the heat in sixth. His fifth overall was also a new career best for Dennis in the open class, who previously raced the United Telecom Trophy in 2007.

Dennis Verbruggen: “My first race on the CRF450R was definitely a confidence booster, although I had very few practice on the MX1 bike. Today, I felt good on it right away and I really enjoyed myself. Despite that the last heat was a bit of a bummer. I really felt that I could do better. I will do the rest of the Belgian Championship on my CRF450R. Mainly because it just increases my chances in the Open class, but also because I want to gain some experience before I could switch to MX1 full time in 2010. That's something I consider, but I haven't made my mind up yet.”

Dennis in Turbo diesel mode

Photo: Ray Archer

Seventh in pre-qualifying practice was just another confirmation: Dennis Verbruggen is getting back to where he belongs. The 21-year old showed strong pace again in the qualification race putting him in tenth behind the gate. A determined Verbruggen added a 20-points bonus to his championship tally on Sunday. However things might have been more impressive for Marnicq Bervoets’ protegé had he not missed his start twice. Not unlike Kegums last week ‘Crusty’ was again ripping through the field trading his 30+ opening positions for eleventh in both motos. The Grobbendonk-born Belgian is 16th and only 22 points behind number 13 Anthony Boissiere, Catalunya’s moto one winner. Goncalves won the GP, teenage sensation Roczen was second before France’s Paulin.

Dennis Verbruggen: “The first 180° corner offers some possibilities to make up ground in the start. So twice I tried to slice around the outside, but clearly it wasn’t meant to be! As a consequence I had to hunt from behind in every moto. I think I did a pretty good job with my comebacks getting eleventh in the end. Things could have been a lot worse, because I was a bit scared about the state the track would be after levelling works on Saturday. Luckily there were still plenty of lines to overtake. I’m happy with my riding for the moment and I know there’s more to come. In the meanwhile I will keep on giving it my best shot. I’m 16th now, but I now I can claim back another few places in the coming GP’s ! Between now and Lommel we are going to do some work on the gearbox to dial in the bike for the start. I’m absolutely convinced we can solve that problem as well.”

Heat 1: 1 Roczen (GER-Suzuki), 2 Goncalves (POR-KTM), 3 Frossard (FRA-Kawasaki), 4 Monni (Ita-Yamaha), 5 Roelants (BEL-KTM), 6 Guarneri (ITA-Yamaha), 7 Paulin (FRA-Kawasaki), 8 Karro (LAT-Suzuki), 9 Nicholls (GBR-KTM),10 Triest (BEL-KTM), 11 Dennis Verbruggen (BEL-LS Motors Honda) / Heat 2: 1 Goncalves (POR-KTM), 2 Paulin (FRA-Kawasaki), 3 Guarneri (ITA-Yamaha), 4 Roelants (BEL-KTM), 5 Monni (Ita-Yamaha), 6 Bobryshev (RUS-Yamaha), 7 Roczen

(GER-Suzuki), 8 Karro (LAT-Suzuki), 9 Schiffer (GE-KTM), 10 Nicholls (IGBR-KTM), 11 Dennis Verbruggen (BEL-LS Motors Honda)

GP of Sweden classification: 1 Goncalves 47, 2 Roczen 39, 3 Paulin 36, 4 Guarneri 35, 5 Roelants 34, 6 Monni 34, 7 Karro 26, 8 Nicholls 23, 9 Bobryshev 22, 10 Schiffer 24, 11 Dennis Verbruggen (BEL-LS Motors Honda) 20

MX2 World Championship standings: 1 Musquin 371, 2 Paulin 358, 3 Goncalves 348, 4 Guarneri 331, 5 Frossard 284, 6 Roczen 239, 7 Aubin 203, 8 Monni 199, 9 Boog 197, 10 Roelants 180, 16 Dennis Verbruggen (BEL-LS Motors Honda) 107

Dennis ‘Crusty’ Verbruggen fights to seventh!

Photo: CDS

European championship success on the same track and his recent form provided Dennis Verbruggen with plenty of

confidence ahead of the Latvian GP. The sandy, fast terrain 40 kilomentres south-east of Riga certainly favoured his riding. Crusty posted the third time in Saturday’s pre-qualifying and finished ninth in the qualifying race. Grabbing his best start of the season Verbruggen created an excellent launch path for himself in the first moto. The CRF250R mounted rider ran as high as fifth, but lost a few places finally to come home eighth behind Italy’s Davide Guarneri.

Dennis had another good start but seemed to lack some aggression in the early stages of the second outing. However the 21- year old Belgian pulled himself together and quickly made headway recovering from 14th to 7th behind country man Joël Roelants. Verbruggen’s eighth and seventh culminated in a seventh place overall, making him the highest placed Honda rider of the event. He also replicated his team mate Desalle today in getting his best result of the season so far. The MX2 GP was won by the Portuguese ace Goncalves in forn of Frenchies Musquin and Paulin. Dennis Verbruggen is currntly 18th in MX2 standings, equal on points with Sword.

Dennis Verbruggen “I was feeling fine all weekend and long and finally I managed the top ten result that I have chasing for a while now. My start in the first moto was awesome and that allowed me to climb up to fifth. (grinning) Maybe that was even a notch above my own expectations, because suddenly I encountered a stress attack! I dropped back to eighth, but I was consuming quite a lot of energy as well since I was so tensed. Again I had a good jump from the gate in the second moto and I was about tenth. After that I think I rode a bit too conservatively and lost some places because of that. Still I knew how Physical Kegums can be and the warmth made it quite uncomfortable as well so conserving some energy played to my advantage later on. I was able to catch up and finish seventh.”

Dennis digs deep

Photo: CDS

A DNF in the qualifying race relegated Verbruggen to a disastrous 38th spot on the grid. However two impressive comeback rides earned the LS Motors-Honda rider 17 valuable championship points. Moreover no one gained more positions today than Crusty, making up 25 places in the second moto. The former European champ was 13th overall and is now 21st in standings, equal on points with fellow Honda rider Koungsith Vongsana.

Dennis Verbruggen: “I was a bit too forceful in the qualifier and went down twice. So that was it, I thought because I was dead last and was getting lapped after only four minutes and decided to concentrate on the races. My gate pick was horrifying so I had only one choice left: give it absolutely everything. I fought hard and got 12th and 13th. It wasn’t easy, that’s for sure, because I had to dig damn deep! Still I’m really thrilled because I’m getting close to my best shape and my riding is good as well. I was able to focus well and made hardly any mistake.”

Clément claims second in muddy Kester

Photo: CDS

In spite of its splendid natural surroundings the Kester track -close to Brussels- has rarely been blessed with good weather conditions. The 2009 edition was no exception for this former GP track. True to form LS Motors-Honda’s Clément Desalle wasn’t complaining and aimed for his first ever win in Kester. Over 6.000 race fans saw how ‘MX Panda’ animated the races together with Ken De Dycker, although it was the latter who won the overall. Clément won the opener and took two seconds. The CRF 450 mounted Belgian is now second on 127 points, trailing De Dycker by 13 points. New Zeland’s Josh Coppins was third, Tanel Leok fourth.

Dennis ‘Crusty’ Verbruggen (eighth in qualifying) only marked points in the last heat with a tenth place finish. However Verbruggen showed more than decent speed, and he’s currently the second MX2 mounted rider in the series behind Joël Roelants. LS Motors-Honda’s support rider Dennis Dierckx best result in Kester was tenth in heat 1. The third race of the championship takes place on July 19 in Nismes.

Clément Desalle: ”All in all I did all right, but I couldn’t be satisfied with my last heat where I made too many mistakes and crashed twice. In the end the gap with De Dycker was too big and I had to settle for second. A pity really, because I felt I was fast enough today to beat Ken. It seems that the championship will be between me and Ken so that’s going to be interesting. I’m really looking forward to the next race in Nismes, where I won last year.”