TEAM USA wins FIM MXoN in Italy - Dirt Rider Magazine

David Philippaerts

FRANCIACORTA (ITALY), 4 October 2009 - An eventful Red Bull FIM Motocross of Nations got underway today, with Team USA winning and home Team Italy being hit by bad luck.Debutants Ryan Dungey and Jake Weimer, together with MXoN veteran Ivan Tedesco, handed the USA their 20th Chamberlain Trophy as the Nation remains the most successful at this event. France was second on the podium courtesy of Frossard, Musquin and Paulin, with the latter crashing in the final heat and dropping the squad off the first step of the podium. Belgium completed the podium with Desalle, Roelants and Ramon.Germany and Great Britain rounded off the top five ahead of unlucky Italy.With an entry list of 37 National Teams and a crowd of 90000 weekend spectators this Red Bull FIM Motocross of Nations unveiled to be the best of all times at the end of a fantastic weekend of racing and general entertainment offered to the many passionate fans.RACE 1 (MX1 & MX2)
Right from the start to the heat Tony Cairoli holeshot and runner up Reed showed the moto was going to be theirs through an opening lap dogfight. Eventually Cairoli came out on top with Reed following. The Italian opened up a gap which the Australian was not able to close, settling for an eventual second.Dungey worked his way up from the bottom of the top five until the third position with Desalle following in fourth. The latter was handed the position by Barragan, who made a mistake after a solid start and dropped down to 12.Musquin steered his MX2 bike to fifth being the best placed MX2 rider in the heat ahead of experienced Coppins and Searle, another MX2 rider inside the top ten.Race 1 top ten: 1. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, Yamaha), 2. Chad Reed (AUS, Suzuki); 3. Ryan Dungey (USA, Suzuki), 4. Clement Desalle (BEL, Honda), 5. Marvin Musquin (FRA, KTM), 6. Joshua Coppins (NZL, Yamaha), 7. Tommy Searle (GBR, KTM), 8. Jake Weimer (USA, Kawasaki), 9. Gareth Swanepoel (RSA, Kawasaki), 10. Ken Roczen (GER, Suzuki)Nations top ten: USA, Italy, Great Britain, Australia, Belgium, France, Republic of South Africa, New Zealand, Switzerland, Germany.RACE 2 (OPEN & MX2)
Paulin started well onboard the Open class bike and did dominate the second heat to place France ahead of the rest. Paulin headed the pack for the whole moto while Tedesco remained a steady second until the last lap, when a hard charging Philippaerts stormed to his tail and moved past at just four corners from the chequered flag.The Italian's manoeuvre, which set the crowd on fire, was not matched by team mate Guarneri. Australian Byrne crashed into him at lap two, with both remaining out.Tanel Leok took fourth ahead of Musquin, who could do no better than fifth onboard the MX2 bike. MX2 fellow rider Weimer instead made a mistake and dropped to 25th.Race 2 top ten: 1. Gautier Paulin (FRA, Kawasaki), 2. David Philippaerts (ITA, Yamaha), 3. Ivan Tedesco (USA, Honda), 4. Tanel Leok (EST, Yamaha), 5. Marvin Musquin (FRA, KTM), 6. Maximilian Nagl (GER, KTM), 7. Steve Ramon (BEL, Suzuki), 8. Ken Roczen (GER, Suzuki), 9. Brett Metcalfe (AUS, Honda), 10. Tyla Rattray (RSA, Kawasaki),Nations top ten: France, Belgium, USA, Great Britain, Republic of South Africa, Italy, Germany, Australia, Estonia, New Zealand.RACE 3 (MX1 & OPEN)
The final moto opened with a massive tangle at the start straight, where moto 1 winner and Italy leader Cairoli went down. The MX1 World Champion's bike broke and he could not rejoin the race.Barragan led the opening laps with Dungey following in second until he found an open door and snatched the top spot. The American would continue leading until taking victory at lap 17.Barragan struggled and dropped down to fourth, with both Ramon and Philippaerts entering the top three.Frossard made up for a difficult first heat courtesy of a fifth place finish but it was French countryman Paulin who could not provide the necessary support to the squad. The Open class rider went down at lap one, landing on some riders' bikes which had previously crashed.Race was finished for Paulin and team France dropped down to second behind overall winner Team USA. Despite a tangle damaging Desalle's bike, Belgium made it to the podium in third. Germany took fourth ahead of Great Britain and Italy.Dungey (USA) took the individual MX1 victory, Musquin (France) won the MX2 and Philippaerts (Italy) won the Open class. The Ricky Carmichael Award went to Dutch Herlings, who turned 15 on September 12.Race 3 top ten: 1. Ryan Dungey (USA, Suzuki), 2. Steve Ramon (BEL, Suzuki), 3. David Philippaerts (ITA, Yamaha), 4. Jonathan Barragan (ESP, KTM), 5. Steven Frossard (FRA, Kawasaki), 6. Joshua Coppins (NZL, Yamaha), 7. Ivan Tedesco (USA, Honda), 8. Maximilian Nagl (GER, KTM), 9. Chad Reed (AUS, Suzuki), 10. Shaun Simpson (GBR, KTM),Nations top ten: USA, France, Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Australia, Estonia, Republic of South Africa, Switzerland.

Ryan Dungey: "This definitely ranks near the top for me. It has been a dream to come over here and a real experience to be a part of this, never mind actually winning it. A lot of people told me what it would be like, but when you arrive here you can't help but be amazed. We had a good time and full credit to Jake and Ivan; I had a break between the motos but they went back-to-back and that takes a lot of heart and dedication. I am glad we could work together and pull this one off."Jake Weimer: "Everything here is different from what we are used to in the States, from the food to the language, the starting gate and the tracks. We had a lot of pressure coming to this race as Team USA won the last editions, and I felt a lot of pressure. I was pretty happy with my first race, but in the second one I made a lot of mistakes and I'm just thankful to my team-mates, both of them rode amazingly well. A lot of people in the US say that we were a 'B' team but the B team won and I want to thank everyone in the team for the job we did together, including of course Mitch Payton and Kawasaki Pro Circuit. It's my first experience here in Europe, my feeling is really good and I'm super-excited. The track was difficult, rutty and rougher than what we have in the US, but that was a great experience."Ivan Tedesco: It's tough doing back to back motos and every time I race this race that I do, I had to dig deep. Philippaerts was pushing me in the Moto1 and I was tired in the last moto, but Ryan pulled off the win. The fans are amazing and they go crazy and they are cheering for us. I was disappointed (when he clashed with Philippaerts on the track), that could have lost the title when he nearly knocked me off, I could have gotten dirty, but I did not know how hot he was coming into the corner. The circuit are just so rough and in America we have different tracks.David Philippaerts won the Open class: "I am very happy for my position and to win the Open class but of course things did not work out for our team. I had to ride very hard today with two bad starts; I did the right thing yesterday with the holeshot but was pretty bad for the races, still I pushed really hard to close up to Tedesco. I think the gap was almost ten seconds but I kept opening the gas more and took some chances. When I saw the opportunity to overtake and I made it happen I thought 'this cannot be possible', this must be another David! It was another chase in the second moto. With all the people here it was a hectic but amazing experience and something I will remember for a long, long time."Tony Cairoli won the Race 1: "The first race was perfect. I knew Chad Reed was there all the time and it was pretty hard to make that rhythm all race but I guessed it was the same for him. We could pull away from the other guys and it was fun. The people here were amazing and I want to say thanks, because they helped me a lot. It was a pretty big crash at the start of the second but now I feel a bit better. I was full gas along the straight and I think it was Paulin who closed my line a bit from the inside and then someone else squashed me from the outside, once we touched then we went flying. I am happy for the first Heat but this was not a good day for Italy and we had no luck."