Round 5 – World Championship –
Mantova, Italy - 18 May 2008

Simpson fifth overall through Mantova sand

The Grand Prix of Italy, the fifth round of fifteen in the FIM Motocross World Championship, was again hit by inclement weather but the KTM UK team had again cause to feel cheerful as MX2 rider Shaun Simpson steered his SXS250F to fifth position overall at the Mantova circuit, watched by 29,000 people.

The Scot classified seventh and fourth in two eventful races that took place under a grey cloak of cloud that had already dumped its watery load through Saturday evening and Sunday morning. The Italian sand was rutty and bumpy as a result, forging a slippery and technical challenge for the riders of the MX1 and MX2 classes.

Simpson took a lonely third place in the second qualification heat on Saturday meaning that he went to the gate in sixth position. The Scot seemed to be full of confidence and enjoying the rough and churned Mantova course. He set the third quickest lap-time in warm-up.

After his maiden podium seven days earlier in Bulgaria he remained an outside tip for the podium but any hopes of another trophy were washed out when he hit the dirt on the second turn of the first moto due to a bizarre incident that saw his front brake level jammed by the hand guard. Almost last upon restarting, Simpson unveiled one of his best rides of the season so far to use the following 35 minutes and 1 lap to rise through the pack to seventh position. World Champion and eventual GP winner Antonio Cairoli had also crashed in the same location at the same time as Simpson and fought his way to fourth, giving an impressive measure of Simpson’s progress and achievement.

The second race saw a better – and safer – start although he was knocked out of fourth place somewhat unfairly by fellow Brit Tommy Searle. Having to regain ground Simpson overtook Frenchman Steve Frossard to capture fourth by the chequered flag; his second best race result of the year and his career.

“A good constructive weekend is probably the best way to sum it up,” he said. “I came into the GP not expecting podiums or victories but instead focussed on two good, solid point-scoring rides. In the first race I could not have made it much harder for myself. I went into the second corner in fourth or fifth and someone came alongside me and my hand guard got caught on my front brake lever and jammed it making me crash. I got going and came through the pack really hard. I was pushing the whole way and got up to seventh, so I was pleased with that. As I had to try so hard in that first race, I was feeling slightly wrecked for the second moto. I concentrated on a good start and then rode a nice easy race. It was going well until Tommy Searle took me down. It wasn’t even a racing incident. He didn’t have to move that far across and I’m sure he was going for my front wheel. The pressure was then on the whole race to defend fourth because I lost the gap I had built up. Frossard passed me but then I got him back near the end. I’m happy with the overall result and also being sixth in the championship.”

James Noble was the fastest British rider on Saturday with a decent thirteenth position in MX1 Timed Practice, his highest ranking of the year to-date. The Englishman is still playing catch-up to his rivals in terms of race fitness and this showed on the rough track for Sunday’s races. Noble was not able to get into a good enough rhythm to attack the terrain and suffered a crash in the second moto that put him out of the points. A Moto1 result of fifteenth was all he could take away.

“Things went OK yesterday but in reverse today,” he said. “I had a good jump in the first moto but then spun on the concrete in between the gates. Some people came-off in the second corner and then again on the fourth turn. I was about twelfth position and doing OK but the things were not coming as easily as they normally do; I was sitting up in corners, hitting the bumps wrong and missing ruts. I just struggled and ended up fifteenth, which I was disappointed with. In the second race I felt a lot better and passed Marcus Schiffer but then got cross-rutted on one of the jumps and went down. I restarted and was outside the points and then fell again to cap a miserable day.”

Simpson is now sixth in the MX2 standings and just eight points from the top five.

The team will enjoy a ‘semi-home’ Grand Prix in two weeks time when the sixth round of the series takes place at the new construction inside the Mallory Park motorsports complex.

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