VOL. 52 ISSUE 39 SEPTEMBER 29, 2015 P87
Briefly...
planet race the 2015 Motocross of
Nations. Gajser's crash in the quali-
fying race on Saturday proved cru-
cial as they missed out on automatic
qualification by just two points. This
sent Slovenia into the B Final where
everything was looking good early
on as the newly crowned champ
crushed the field. Unfortunately, in
the B Final, it's your country's best
two scores that count and neither
Peter Irt nor Klemen Gercar could
back up the Honda rider well enough
to see them through. They scored
nine points total while the Japanese
duo of Toshiki Tomita and Yohei
Kojima managed a third and fifth
for a total of eight. Perennial B Final
winners Ireland were already through
after they qualified automatically on
Saturday in 15th place.
Tanel Leok is Mr. Motocross of
Nations. Racing for 15 years in mo-
tocross is a tough enough achieve-
ment, but to represent your country
(Estonia) every year for the past 15
Motocross of Nations events is truly
remarkable. Since 2001 when he
rocketed up as a teenager to the fa-
mous Namur circuit in Belgium, Leok
hasn't missed out on this event in
what is a run that will probably never
be matched. Not only does he turn
up, he always brings his A-game
and his efforts in Ernée this week-
end saw Estonia come in fourth, an
amazing result for such a tiny nation.
Aside from the French/American
battle, the standout performance this
year's MXoN was Ben Townley who
rolled back the years on his way to
6-2 moto scores. It was at this same
track 10 years ago that his name be-
came known to the American pub-
tremely solid with 3-2-2 scores.
Qualification day unfortunately
confirmed what many people
had thought going into the race—
that this would be a two-horse
battle between the French and
the Americans, with no other
country anywhere near them.
Unfortunately Great Britain, who
had one of its strongest teams
racing. Team France had ridden
this track during a press event a
week or so earlier and it showed
on Saturday as they dominated
all the qualifying races, looking
almost invincible while doing it.
However Team USA wasn't far
behind and if anything, came out
of the day with more positives
because they were looking ex-
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