Round 1 – World Championship –
Valkenswaard, Netherlands 5/6th April 2008

Simpson sets world championship personal best

Team KTM UK’s Shaun Simpson’s fantastic 2008 continues to run and run. The Scot set personal best finishes with a moto placing of fifth and overall result of sixth in the first round of the 2008 MX2 World Championship at the Valkenswaard circuit for the Grand Prix of Netherlands.

The 20 year old travelled to a cold and wet venue near the city of Eindhoven hot off the back of victories in the British and Belgian championships. With the team’s profile at an all-time high thanks to Simpson’s rich vein of form the crew were under the gaze and tuition of the factory team and personnel from Austria as their sole rider qualified with a decent third position (also a landmark) through an oozing and soaked terrain on Saturday that caused the notorious Dutch sand to be rough, technical and extremely demanding for Sunday’s motos. His accomplishment was even more impressive due to the fact that he raced for 20 minutes without any rear brake lever.

Simpson started brightly in the first moto run under cloudy but bright skies with a cold wind, and took part in a six rider group battling for the lead in the opening exchanges. As the competitors settled into a race pace Simpson fought with local specialist Erik Eggens and finally passed the chequered flag in sixth to record his highest Grand Prix finish to-date.

Any hopes of an overall top five were dashed with a crash in the second outing but Simpson recovered to pass nine riders and enter the top ten with ninth place. The fact that the rider was slightly disappointed with his end to the Dutch GP was a measure of his progress. Ninth position in previous seasons would have been a worthy result. In fact Simpson’s haul of 28 points from this one race is more than a quarter of what he gained through all of last season and more than he captured in 2006.

“I finally made two decent point-scoring races,” he said. “I came into this weekend knowing that I had some decent speed but I wanted to keep my feet on the floor and see do what I could. It was a shame I made a small mistake in the second moto otherwise I think I could have repeated what I managed in the first. When you get one point you want two, when you finish sixth you want fifth; it is always the same. I am really happy but also a little disappointed by that second race. I definitely can’t complain about being sixth in the championship though. I want to keep the confidence going into the next round now and I really think some podiums might be possible this year.”

Simpson’s content was a complete contrast to the feelings directed towards James Noble, who missed making his MX1 debut for the team though illness.
“James had some x-rays and tests last week and he wasn’t fit to be here but should hopefully be OK at least for the next Grand Prix if not the British round next weekend,” commented Team Manager Roger Magee. “I would just like to thank everybody at KTM UK and at Red Bull for their continued support. Hopefully we will have more results like Shaun’s throughout the season. Alex Snow also maintained his lead in the British Under 21 Motocross Championship after finishing 2nd in both races at round 2 today. It has been a good day at the office for Team KTM UK !”

Team KTM UK now head to Torrington in Devon for the third round of the Maxxis British Championship before then heading south through Europe to Bellpuig and the Grand Prix of Spain.

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