Cairoli and Herlings Take the GP Victories in Bulgaria
OutdoorHub 04.21.14
Red Bull KTM’s Antonio Cairoli and Jeffery Herlings made it an orange day at the mud soaked track at Sevlievo, Bulgaria on Sunday sealing both the MXGP and MX2 GP for the factory team.
Cairoli of Italy now has a substantial 28-point lead in the 2014 championship. Herlings, who missed the Brazil GP through injury picked up two impressive race wins for his top step narrows the gap to MX2 championship leader Arnaud Tonus to just four points.
MX2 Action
Cairoli was sparkling form on the KTM 350 SX-F, picking up the holeshot in the opening MXGP moto. He relinquished the lead to Gautier Paulin 21 minutes into the race and was content to sit behind him in second place. While the rain stayed away at least for this race, ruts in the technically and physically demanding track got deeper and more difficult as it progressed.
The weather turned on riders as they lined up for the second MXGP moto but Cairoli, shot out of the gates to grab the holeshot and hung onto the lead throughout.
This was a perfect tactic to stay out of the worst of the mud chaos behind as track conditions got worse. He was in front by 11 seconds going into the final laps, enough to preserve his lead when he did make a couple of errors in the deep and muddy ruts in the closing stages.
Antonio Cairoli: “I was happy to win in Bulgaria, the last time here was 2007, and I’m happy to gain some good points after we lost a few in Trentino. That’s good for the championship. The track was very slippery in the second moto and we had to find different lines. The two motos were in completely different conditions and we don’t often see that in a GP.”
MX2 Action
Herlings was second on the grid for the opening MX2 moto but it was teammate Jordi Tixier who rocketed out of the gates, took the holeshot and quickly distanced himself from the rest of the field. And while Tixier was in charge in the first half of the race, Herlings sat around 4-5 among a group of riders who have been his biggest challengers this season.
Swiss rider Tonus caught Tixier with 11 minutes left of race time race. Herlings moved up to third, made the pass on Tixier and set out to close down on Tonus. Then Tonus crashed after a mistake a right-hander in the closing stages and handed the win to Herlings.
There was no double about Herlings’ intentions as he quickly moved into the lead in lap three of his second moto. The Dutch teenager was challenged by Tonus throughout the race but he was unmoved and went on to seal his double race win.
Jeffrey Herlings: ‘I am trying to fight back after my injury problems and now we have won four of four GPs this year and we’re only 4 points away from the leader so I try to keep on charging. I struggled with arm pump in the first moto but it was okay after that. The track today was difficult for me. I’m not used to these conditions and especially with the rain but we showed that even on a bad day we can still win.”
Sevlievo was a confidence-boosting outing for Tixier, who finished with a 3-3 result for overall third, even though he was hampered by a slight hand injury.
Tixier said he had had a long talk with team manager Stefan Everts and Technical director Dirk Gruebel on Saturday night and they decided to change something on the bike.
“It was working pretty good today,” Tixier said. “I had two good starts and I had a good rhythm all the time. The second moto was difficult for me because I had to throw away my goggles after 3-4 laps because there was water inside them. It wasn’t easy to come back on Ferrandis but I found a good line to pass him for third.”
Herlings and Cairoli, who both enjoy riding in the sand are looking for another good result in Valkenswaad, Netherlands on May 4. Herlings will be racing in front of his partisan home crowd on a track that he knows intimately and on which he has never been beaten.
Strong KTM riders in EMX at Sevlievo
In EMX125, KTM rider Davy Pootjes of the Netherlands finished with a 1-3 result for his second GP victory to retain the red plate as championship leader. He came back strong after a crash in race one on Saturday but said he was stiff and sore ahead of Sunday’s second race. “But I took the holeshot and after about three laps I felt good again and even though I had a crash I came back from seventh to third which was good enough for the overall win.”
The opening round of the EMX 250 class saw British KTM riders Ben Watson and Steven Clarke pick up 2-3. Watson finished with equal points to GP winner Jorge Zaragoza but came away with the red plate for having picked up a race win.
It was also the opening round of the EMX 300 class, won by Italian rider Samuele Bernardini but KTM riders picked up the places 2-5 through Italian Marc Maddii, Toms Macuks of Latvia and Hungarian duo Bence Szvoboda, and Mark Szoke.
Riding in Denmark in the FIM European Championship 85 cc class, Jorge Prado of Spain finished third to round off a good day for the next generation of KTM riders.
MXGP of Bulgaria – Rd. 5 at Sevlievo
MXGP Results
1, Antonio Cairoli, ITA, KTM 47
2, Gautier Paulin, FRA, Kawasaki, 43
3, Jeremy van Horebeek, BEL, Yamaha 40
4, Clement Desalle, BEL, Suzuki, 36
5, Kevin Strijbos, BEL, Suzuki, 36
Other KTM
8, Shaun Simpson, GBR, KTM 23
16, Matiss Karro, LAT, KTM, 11
17, Jake Nichols, GBR, KTM 10
Championship standings after Rd. 5
1, Cairoli, 222
2, Desalle 194
3, Van Horebeek, 194
4, Paulin 180
5, Nagl, 66
Other KTM
10, Simpson, 95
16, Nichols, 60
17, Karro 54
Manufacturer’s Standings after Rd. 5
1, KTM 222
2, Suzuki 200
3. Yamaha 194
MX2 Results
1, Jeffrey Herlings, NED, KTM, 50 points
2, Arnaud Tonus, SUI, Kawasaki, 44
3, Jordi Tixier, FRA, KTM 40
4, Dylan Ferrandis, FRA, Kawasaki, 36
5, Romain Febvre, FRA, Husqvarna, 32
Other KTM
11. Ivo Monticell1, ITA, KTM, 19
12, Harri Kulas, FIN, KTM 15
15, Valentin Guillod, SUI, KTM, 12
18, Jose Butron, ESP, KTM, 5
20, Eddie Hjortmarker, SWE, KTM
MX2 Championship standings after Rd. 5
1, Tonus, 198
2, Herlings, 194
3, Glen Coldenhoff, NED, Suzuki 176
4, Febvre, 158
5, Ferrandis, 154
Other KTM
6, Tixier, 147
9, Guillod 107
10, Butron, 105
16, Mel Pocock, GBR, 46
Manufacturers Standing after Rd. 5
1, KTM, 224
2, Kawasaki, 216
3, Suzuki, 179
EMX125 Rd. 2 at Sevlievo
1, David Pootjes, NED, KTM 45
2, Michael Ivanov, BUL, KTM, 40
3, Tomass Sileika, LAT, KTM 40
4, David Herbreteau, FRA, YAM, 37
5, Brian Hsu, GER, Suzuki, 36
Championship points after Rd. 2
1, Pootjes, 95
2, Herbreteau, 69
3, Hsu, 69
4, Ivanov, 62
5, Silekia, 60
Manufacturer’s points after Rd. 2
1, KTM 97
2, Yamaha 71
3, Suzuki, 69
EMX250 Rd. 1 at Sevlievo
1, Jorge Zaragoza, ESP, Kawasaki 37 points
2, Ben Watson, GBR, KTM 37
3, Steven Clarke, GBR, KTM, 36
4, Thomas Kjer Olsen, DEN, Honda, 33
5, Michelle Cervellin, ITA, 28
Other KTM
6, Pauls Jonass, LAT, KTM 28
7, Ceriel Klein Kromhof, NED, KTM, 27
8, Brent van Doninck, VEL, KTM, 26
Championship Standings after Rd.1
1, Watson 37 (by virtue of one race win)
2, Zaragoza, 37
3. Clarke, 36
Manufacturer’s standings after Rd. 1
1, Honda, 45
2, KTM, 45
3, Kawasaki 37
EMX300 Rd. 1 at Sevlievo
1, Samuele Bernardini, ITA, TM 50 points
2, Marc Maddii, ITA, KTM 42
3, Toms Macuks, LAT, KTM, 40
4, Bence Szvoboda, HUN, KTM, 38
5, Mark Szoke, HUN, KTM, 31
Championship points after Rd. 1
1, Bernardini, 50 points
2, Maddii, 42
3, Macuks, 40
Manufacturers points after Rd. 1
1, TM 50
2, KTM 44
3, Yamaha 29
