MX-Panda now fourth!

Photo: Ray Archer

One would almost forget that the weekend started off on the wrong foot for Desalle. He crashed early in Saturday’s qualifying race in the wavesection. TM’s Aigar Leok went down in front of Clément and it was too late to avoid him. Luckily ‘MX Panda’ managed to get going again, contrary to Leok himself. However his GP chances received a heavy blow because the LS Motors-Honda star had to continue with bent handlebars and only managed a miserable 21st position on the gate as a result.

Cool, calm and collected Desalle made the best of the situation powering his CRF450R skilllfully through the first corner, thus putting him near the front of the pack. Settling into third place Clément never looked back even when he came under serious pressure from Cairoli. The second moto saw a slightly less effective start, although Desalle took the fifth place before the end of the opening lap. The Ufo-sponsored rider remained close to Philippaerts (third) and De Dycker (fourth) for most of the race, but settled for fifth in the end.

Clément Desalle ”I’m glad I was able tot turn my chances around after a disastrous qualifying race! The track was not in a great shape either on Saturday, but conditions got better as the weekend went along. In general I’m quite happy with the GP, because I was able to climb up another spot in the championship. I was third in front of Cairoli in the first moto, but in the second race my start was not so good. I was staying close to De Dycker and Philippaerts. Then I had a small battle with De Dycker for fourth but then I lost contact again. I started making up ground on them onceagain but then I made a mistake and settled for my position.”

Heat 1: 1 Nagl (DUI-KTM), 2 De Dycker (B-Suzuki), 3 Clément Desalle (B-LS Motors-Honda), 4 Cairoli (ITA-Yamaha), 5 Philippaerts (I-Yamaha), 6 Coppins

(NZ-Yamaha), 7 T. Leok (EST-Yamaha), 8 Aranda (FRA-Kawasaki), 9 Swanepoel (RSA-Kawasaki), 10 Bryan Mackenzie (GBR-Honda) / Heat 2: 1 Cairoli (ITA-

Yamaha), 2 Nagl, 3 Philipaerts, 4 De Dycker, 5 Clément Desalle (B-LS Motors-Honda), 6 Leok T., 7 Coppins, 8 Vuillemin, 9 Swanepoel, 10 Bill

GP of Sweden classification: 1 Nagl 47, 2 Nagl 43, 3 De Dycker 40, 4 Philippaerts 36, 5 6 Clément Desalle (LS Motors-Honda) 36, 6 T. Leok 29, 7 Coppins 29, 8 Swanepeoel 24, 9 Bill 19, 10 Bryan Mackenzie 18

MX1 World Championship standings; 1 Cairoli 428, 2 Nagl 375, 3 Philippaerts 363, 4 Clément Desalle (LS Motors-Honda) 345, 5 Coppins 343, 6 De Dycker 338, 7 T. Leok 299, 8 Barragan 215, 9 Swanepoel 175, 10 A. Leok 167

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

Elien De Winter remains ninth

Photo: Ray Archer

The Swedish was the penultimate round in the WMX series. Replicating her MX2 team mate Dennis Verbruggen, De Winter finished the GP in eleventh on her CRF250 R. However Elien had few reasons to be overwhelmed with joy because she produced a great start in every moto. Regrettably she failed to make the best of those starts. In the championship standings she remains the best Belgian and highest placed Honda lady. The GP was won by Steffi Laier in front of Maria Franke and the Irish Nathalie Kane scored her first ever career podium. The world’s fastest girls travel to Holland, Lierop at the end of August to compete in the final round of the championship.

Elien De Winter: “Looking back on Uddevalla I’m not really satisfied. In fact I pulled off my best starts of the weekend twice, getting out of the gate in third, but this weekend I lacked the confidence needed for a strong performance. At the start of the moto my times were pretty good, then they would drop and I bounced back by the end of the race again. That’s surely something that I need to work on. On top of that, I had a hard time to find the right rhythm on this track. I’m not looking for excuses, although I have to admit Uddevalla is not a track that I’m particularly fond off! The changing soil switching from sand to hard pack or gravel stone makes it pretty difficult to read. So in that respect it was good to get the GP of Sweden out of the way!”

Heat 1: 1 Steffi Laier (Ger-KTM), 2 Franke (Ger-Kaw), 3 Nathalie Kane (IRL-Suz), 4 Mann (SWE-KTM), 5 Larissa Papenmeier (Ger-Suz), 6 Marielle De Mol (NED- Yamaha), 7 8. Sara Petterson (SWE-KTM), 9 Chiara Fontanesi (ITA-Yamaha), 10 Brenda Wagemans (BEL-KTM), 11 Elien De Winter (BEL-LS Motors Honda) / Heat 2: 1 Steffi Laier (Ger-KTM), 2 Maria Franke (Ger-Kaw), 3 Kane (IRL-Suz), 4 Larissa Papenmeier (Ger-Suz), 5 Mann (SWE-KTM), 6 Marielle De Mol (NED- Yamaha), 7 Nicky Van Wordragen (Ned-KTM), 8 Borchers (Ger-Suzuki), 9 Sarah Whitmore (USA-KTM), 10 Marie Romlin (SWE-KTM), 11 Elien De Winter (BEL-LS Motors Honda)

GP of Sweden classification: 1 Laier 50, 2 Franke 44, 3 Kane 40, 4 Papenmeier 34, 5 Mann 34, 6 De Mol 30, 7 Romlin 25, 8 Whirmore 20, 9 Elien De Winter (BEL-LS Motors Honda) 20, 10 Fontanesi 20

WMX World Championship standings: 1 Steffi Laier (Ger-KTM) 261, 2 Papenmeier (Ger-Suz) 224, 3 Maria Franke (Ger-Kaw) 223, 4 Nathalie Kane (IRL-Suz) 194, 5 Elin Mann (SWE-KTM) 191, 6 Livia Lancelot (FR-Kaw) 185, 7 De Mol (NED-Yamaha) 145, 8 Veenstra (Ned-Suz) 140, 9 Elien De Winter (BEL-LS Motors Honda) 128, 10 Nicky Van Wordragen (NED-KTM) 104, 15. Ashley Fiolek (USA-LS Motors Honda) 80

Full force for Sweden!

Photo: CDS

Top privateer outfit, LS Motors-Honda, will be back on full war strength for next weekend’s GP of Sweden in Uddevalla. Clément Desalle (MX1), Dennis Verbruggen (MX2) and Elien De Winter (WMX) are all eyeing good performances on the Swedish round of their respective World Championships. Located some 100 km north off Gothenburg, Udevalla is definitely one of the oldest tracks on the World Championship calendar. The first GP held there was the 1958 Swedish 500cc round. The track is fast, technical with some undulations. Originally it was a hard pack track with some pebble sections. In the last few seasons however sand has been added to its surface. As the race weekend progresses ruts will get deeper and slippery parts will surface there where the sand got roosted away.

LS Motors’ MX1 rider Clément Desalle is currently fifth in the World championship standings but he managed to collect a lot of points in Latvia. This has brought him at 19 points behind second placed Max Nagl. By taking his very first victory in a GP heat Desalle put the icing on the cake after an impressive first heat. Desalle definitely has the pace these last few weeks and clinched his fourth GP podium of the year in Kegums. Desalle now has the second most podiums this year behind hid name. An honor he has to share with Ken De Dycker and David Philippaerts. The 20-year old Belgian has proven that he is capable to ride any kind of track in almost every kind of circumstances. Last season Desalle had his best result of the season in Uddevalla when he finished six overall.

Uddevalla will be the last event out of a grueling series of six GP’s and one Belgian Championship race but Dennis

Verbruggen doesn’t show any sign of slowing down. On the contrary because Verbruggen is getting faster week after week. Verbruggen who missed one GP (Turkey) is currently 19th in World MX2 standings and wants to progress gradually towards the top 15 in the last third of the season. After his excellent seventh place in Uddevalla the former junior MX2 World Champion is eager to repeat that in Uddevalla.

Elien Dewinter, the fastest female rider from Belgium hasn’t had an easy season so far. After suffering from a massive crash at te begin of the season she is now regaining confidence. In Sweden she’ll try to post her best performance of the season. De Winter knows the track from her 2007 World Cup campaign. The Flemish physio therapy student ended eighth on that occasion.