Date: 11 Feb '0T

The Mantova STARCROSS, famous for its unique Super pole and one and one race format saw a sellout crowd turn up in perfect weather conditions today. Molson Kawasaki’s, Gareth Swanepoel used the 3 x 20 minute moto’s as perfect practice to get back into race form after having recovered from shoulder surgery in his home country South Africa over the Winter.

Swanepoel was matched up against former team-mate Tommy Searle in the ‘One on One’ challenge and quickly made his move in the first turn of the challenge to place the British youngster out of the running. A thrilling battle with Italian Manuel Monni, who had knocked out crowd favourite Antonio Cairoli in the first round, had the crowd on its feet. Swanie pressured the Italian every second in the one lap sprint but could not find away past before the checkered flag.

Swanie’s riding improved throughout the day with a third place in the final moto in the MX2 rankings, making the trip down south worthwhile.

“It’s always good to do these pre season races to measure your speed to the other riders. I’ve been back in Europe for less than a week so I’m quite happy with my performance considering that we have not been able to do any suspension and engine testing yet. My next race is Valence in two weeks time so I look forward to working with team and improving on our settings which we can then put to the test in Valence,” commented the South African.

Race results Mantova Starcross:

MX2 overall

1 RATTRAY Tyla RSA Ktm 22 22 25 = 69pts
2 SEARLE Tommy GBR Ktm 20 18 22 = 60pts
3 CAIROLI Antonio ITA Yamaha 25 25 4 = 54pts
4 MONNI Manuel ITA Yamaha 15 20 16 = 51pts
5 TARROUX Jeremy FRA Kawasaki 14 16 15 = 45pts
6 SWANEPOEL Gareth RSA Kawasaki 6 15 20 = 41pts
7 MARTINI Gianluca ITA Ktm 13 14 12 = 39pts
8 PELLEGRINI Angelo ITA Ktm 11 13 11 = 35pts
9 DE BORTOLI Michele ITA Ktm 8 8 18 = 34pts
10 SIMPSOM Shaun IRL Kawasaki 16 7 9 = 32pts