VOL. 52 ISSUE 9 MARCH 3, 2015 P89
a serious "weapon" in a bid to
"own" the sport that they spon-
sor and cherish, and have seen
dominated by Red Bull KTM
riders every year since 2010.
There were plots and sub-plots
all over the shop for Villopoto.
Some believed that he would
come in and win off-the-bat (and
the last two editions of the Grand
Prix at Losail had presented a
hard-pack, largely flat, fast and
jumpy race course, ideal for his
MXGP induction), others insisted
that some tracks to come would
prove too rough and idiosyn-
cratic, some questioned whether
the 26 year old would have the
desire to dispose of a very fast
European racing corps in what
he admits is a pause on his
retirement plans.
The supposed duel with
Cairoli was an incredibly entic-
ing storyline but one that also
did a little disservice to the other
MXGP campaigners and winners
that have been keeping Cai-
roli on his toes for the last half a
decade.
"It is a bit of a surprise that
they are not up here because
everybody is talking about Tony
and Villopoto at the moment,
but there are so many good
riders that it will not be so easy
for them. We also do our job by
training hard," offered Red Bull
IceOne Husqvarna Factory Rac-
ing's Max Nagl who was utterly
dominant with two holeshots and
two victories in his first outing on
the white FC450 and from the
confines of F1 driver Kimi Raik-
konen's set-up. "All through the
winter my name was not really
there," he mentioned in refer-
ence to hype. "In one way you
Briefly...
not so bad and they fixed the track well
when they had to," said MXGP runner-
up Desalle. Philippaerts, who retired
in the second moto after breaking his
second rear wheel of the weekend,
was not quite as receptive and wanted
revisionary measures put in place.
"The jumps are too long. They are
crazy and the ruts leading up to them
as well," said the 2008 World Cham-
pion now running his own DP19 team.
"There were two [jumps] that were too
dangerous. For me I think we need a
meeting every Friday among the riders
and we need to check the track. I think
two or three guys had big problems to-
day and I saw many others taking kick-
ers or landing short. The jumps are not
nice when you have to go full gas just
to get over them. My hope is that we
can have meetings and look over the
tracks."
There was a lot of buzz surrounding
Red Bull KTM's Tommy Searle after
the Briton had spent the majority of his
prep time through the winter living in a
camper in Italy and riding and training
with Claudio De Carli's championship
winning team and alongside Tony
Cairoli and Ken De Dycker. Reports
from the camp indicated that Searle
was extremely fast and happy with the
works 350SX-F. Sadly the 25 year old
would not get the chance to show his
potential as a yanked right thumb liga-
ment in Friday's qualification heat was
a heavy handicap and he couldn't fin-
ish a lap of the second moto despite
repeated injections. Searle suffered
the same injury in 2014 and the ef-
fects meant that he was very rarely in
contention for podium positions. Sur-
gery and replacement of the ligament
would require a two-month hiatus and
wreck his designs on a championship
push.
