Tommy Searle, Gautier Paulin and Jeremy Van Horebeek each took their Kawasakis into the top eight in the final round of the FIM MX1 Motocross World Championship at Lierop in the Netherlands.
Team CLS Monster Energy Kawasaki Pro Circuit’s Tommy Searle was handicapped by a poor start in the first moto and faced a long hard ride from seventeenth place on the opening lap to finish seventh on a track made even more difficult by the overnight rain. He made a better start in race two and held seventh place for most of the moto before being passed late in the race by Gautier Paulin. The Englishman finished sixth overall to retain the same position in the final series ranking.
Gautier Paulin of the Kawasaki Racing Team is still recovering from a heavy concussion suffered at the end of July and rode sensibly to score as many points as possible whilst avoiding any incident which might set back his recovery. He maintained ninth place throughout the first moto and snatched seventh place in the closing laps of race two to give him seventh overall in the GP and fifth in the final championship standings.
Teammate Jeremy Van Horebeek made an excellent start in the opening moto but a fall on the opening lap left him to battle from the rear of the field to finish sixth. Another great start in race two saw him complete the opening lap third, but falls cost him several positions and he eventually finished tenth. These results gave him eighth place overall on the day and seventh place in the final championship standings of his rookie season of MX1 GP racing.
Tommy Searle: “This track is always tough, and I finished seventh and sixth in the two motos. I cant’ be really happy with these results, but in the first moto the track was more enduro than motocross ! Maybe I need to come and work on my sand technique a little bit more often; if it had been important for the championship I would have done it but it has been a long season and I came here just to do my best. The season is over now; we need to make a lot of improvements on our setup and we’ll do that this winter.”
Gautier Paulin: “The track was very different than the previous years, but my real goal now in the MX of Nations. I have a better feeling with the bike again the last two weeks, but I wasn’t so confident with the track on Sunday after the rain overnight. I finished both races in the top ten, and now we have three weeks to prepare for the Nations. I love this race, I know what I can do, and for sure I will be fit for this event.”
Jeremy Van Horebeek: “I tried to finally get my first MX1 podium, but here in Lierop you need strong arms to hold a 450 and it’s just my first season in this class. I crashed at the start of the first race and came back to sixth place at the finish; that was a good ride but I used a lot of energy! Then in the second race I was third at the start. I gave everything but made a couple of mistakes and crashed. The season is nearly over, it was a good season for us and I learned a lot.”
