There was a good mood at Matterley Basin for the seventh round of the FIM Motocross World Championship and the fifth consecutive British Grand Prix at the vast circuit a short distance from Winchester (England’s first ‘capital city’ allegedly in early medieval times). The sunshine was out, the track was immaculately presented and the organisation level of an event that has struggled for efficiency in past editions seemed to be slick and without a hint of drama.

Tickets sales had been good as well, apparently almost double in pre-event numbers compared to 2014…although you could speculate how many were purchased on the strength of Ryan Villopoto’s expected presence. Losing former MX2 Grand Prix winner here in 2012, Tommy Searle, was a blow for the Brits and 2013 podiumee Jake Nicholls was still on the injury list meaning native representation fell into the hands of British Champion Shaun Simpson and Monster Energy DRT Kawasaki’s Max Anstie on the KX250F…not to mention European Championship hopes in EMX125 and EMX250.

While Matterley looked sumptuous it was dry and fast and didn’t carve into the ruts and bumps normally associated with the chalky British mud. “I think it is less prepared that other years with less lines and it means the start is important again. I thought it was slippery and hard,” offered MXGP Pole-sitter Tony Cairoli. “It is still very nice and large but I think it was more fun in the past.”

“It is just different this year, the lap-times are closer and there are less options,” commented Simpson, entering the gate seventh. The Scot is unbeaten in the UK in the British Championship and was the focus of some rousing support today. “Unlike Tony we only get one home GP a year,” he semi-joked in reference to Cairoli speaking about the recent announcement of round fifteen of the series taking place at Mantova and taking MXGP to Italy three times this year. “So I’m going to enjoy it as much as I can. I had a good run in the UK and I’m feeling good at home. It will definitely be a surprise to win a moto tomorrow but I’m not going to the line thinking of anything less.”

Lap-times were close and the potential for a ‘follow-my-leader’ running order was high yet oddly the Qualification Heats produced some gripping and close racing. In MX2 Spanish GP winner Valentin Guillod backed up his speedy form and confidence on the Standing Construct Yamaha by earning a fantastic first Pole Position of 2015. The Swiss pulled through from fifth position to pass Jeffrey Herlings and cut a four second gap to the back of Jordi Tixier, passing the World Champion on the last lap as if he was pushing for GP points as opposed to fractions of a metre in the start gate. Herlings appeared to be struggling and while he cannot be accused of lacking effort in a mere qualifier there was word around the paddock that the Dutchman was nursing a sore shoulder as a repercussion of his smash at Talavera de la Reina. Elsewhere in the class Petar Petrov was riding Dylan Ferrandis’ factory KX250F for the first time and with less than a week of testing with the Kawasaki but the outcome was similar to his progress on the Hitachi Construction Machinery Revo KTM with tenth place.

Over in MXGP and Cairoli’s superiority on the 450SX-F could be cause for increasing concern for his rivals. Clement Desalle was second but admitted that he made mistakes on the works Rockstar Suzuki and will try some set-up tweaks (believed to be with engine management) in warm-up tomorrow. Desalle has won two of the last four motos at Matterley. Yamaha’s Romain Febvre set the fastest lap-time of the Heat race on at least two occasions and charted an impressive course back to take fifth place after a horrendous misjudgement of the start left him almost last. Max Nagl, Gautier Paulin, Dean Ferris and Shaun Simpson were part of the second group behind Cairoli and Desalle and separated by only a few seconds as the pack both closed-up and dispersed with every passing lap. With more ‘on the line’ tomorrow there could be a few more fireworks.

Rui Goncalves had crashed on the strange roller section before the pit-lane in Timed Practice and apparently was knocked unconscious for several minutes. Young Belgian Brent Van Doninck could be looking at an injury lay-off after hurting his right knee on the first lap of the MX2 Heat. The Kemea Yamaha rider is on his way home for an MRI on the joint once the swelling has subsided.

American Mike Alessi – his Motoconcepts team embarking on an ambitious trans-series project in AMA, MXGP and the Canadian Nationals – crashed twice and finished twenty-fourth.

Photo by Ray Archer