Date: 10 June '07

Sweltering weather conditions and a 28.000 strong partisan crowd have seen Molson Kawasaki rider, Gareth Swanepoel, battle the fast and hard St Jean d’Angely circuit at the French motocross GP.

‘Swanie’ grabbed a great start in moto 1 and emerged second behind championship leader Antonio Cairoli. He could not find his race rhythm and was relegated to fourth by Pascal Leuret and Italian Bonini. A challenge with crowd favourite Christophe Pourcel saw Swanepoel go down in the infamous sand section. Swanepoel rejoined the pack in 14th and set about clawing his way back up the points table. With a lap to go he snuck past fellow Molson Kawasaki team-mate Tom Church to salvage 9th place at the end of a grueling 35 minutes + 2 laps.

With the track having been watered during intermission, riders were cautious on the opening laps of the second MX2 moto. Swanepoel tried to slot in behind fellow South African Tyla Rattray, as they both moved up the ladder from mediocre starts to occupy 4th and 5th respectively. A mid moto challenge from Frenchman, Pascal Leuret ousted Swanepoel back a place and with two laps to go the South African was to lose a further two spots to young guns Nicholas Aubin and Tommy Searle to finish 7th.

“I ripped the start in the first moto but then threw it away when I went down in the sand section. I put together some fast laps and got back to 9th. The second moto I got through the pack really fast after a bad jump and was running a good speed until we hit the 25 minute mark. I couldn’t keep the pace going which I’m not happy about. St Jean is not my favourite track although I should have come away with a few more points. I was really pleased with how the KX250F worked today. The suspension was also awesome which makes me feel confident for the Bulgarian GP, next weekend.” said Swanepoel

The FIM motocross world championship series has now reached the halfway mark and teams and riders will make the trek East to Sevlievo, Bulgaria for round 8 of 15, next weekend.

Race results:

MX2 Race 1

1 Cairoli, Antonio ITA Yamaha
2 Pourcel, Christophe FRA Kawasaki
3 Rattray, Tyla RSA KTM
4 Leuret, Pascal FRA Honda
5 Searle, Tommy GBR KTM
6 Aubin, Nicolas FRA Yamaha
7 Dougan, Jason GBR Suzuki
8 Guarneri, Davide ITA Yamaha
9 Swanepoel, Gareth RSA Kawasaki
10 Church, Tom GBR Kawasaki
11 Bonini, Matteo ITA Yamaha
12 Goncalves, Rui POR KTM
13 Nunn, Carl GBR Yamaha
14 Boog, Xavier FRA Yamaha
15 Seistola, Matti FIN Honda

MX2 Race 2
1 Cairoli, Antonio ITA Yamaha
2 Pourcel, Christophe FRA Kawasaki
3 Rattray, Tyla RSA KTM
4 Leuret, Pascal FRA Honda
5 Aubin, Nicolas FRA Yamaha
6 Searle, Tommy GBR KTM
7 Swanepoel, Gareth RSA Kawasaki
8 Boissiere, Anthony FRA Kawasaki
9 Nunn, Carl GBR Yamaha
10 Church, Tom GBR Kawasaki
11 Boog, Xavier FRA Yamaha
12 Goncalves, Rui POR KTM
13 Bonini, Matteo ITA Yamaha
14 Guarneri, Davide ITA Yamaha
15 Tarroux, Jeremy FRA Yamaha

MX2 Championship standings:
1 Cairoli, A. ITA 342
2 Pourcel, C. FRA 272
3 Rattray, Tyla RSA 258
4 Leuret, Pascal FRA 209
5 Searle, Tommy GBR 206
6 Swanepoel, G. RSA 173
7 Aubin, Nicolas FRA 165
8 Gundersen, K. NOR 149
9 Seistola, M. FIN 125
10 Boissiere, A. FRA 111
11 Schiffer, M. GER 90
12 Nunn, Carl GBR 89
13 Church, Tom GBR 87
14 Guarneri, D. ITA 70
15 Boog, Xavier FRA 63