Date: 17 June '07

Molson Kawasaki rider, Gareth Swanepoel, has raced against the scorching heat to finish strongly at the 8th round of the FIM MX World championship in Sevlievo, Bulgaria. The South African overcame some difficulties in the first moto to post a 8-6 result and still retains 6th in the MX2 world championship standings.

Swanepoel experienced a mid pack start in race 1 and completed the first lap in tenth as he lost important ground to the freight train up front. After passing Carl Nunn, and later Rui Goncalves, Swanepoel lost the use of his front brake due to track bunting that he had caught in the front wheel earlier in the moto. He still managed to post his fastest lap of the race on the penultimate lap and succeeded in closing down Italian, Davide Guarneri and Frenchman Christophe Pourcel but ran out of time to threaten their finishing places.

A better start in race 2 saw Swanepoel emerge in fourth spot on lap one with Christophe Pourcel and fellow South African, Tyla Rattray making their way past the twenty-two-year-old within the first half of the moto. Swanepoel in turn past Tommy Searle to keep up with Rattray and Pourcel but was blocked by the teenager with ten minutes to go. Swanepoel upped his pace and chased Searle to the flag to secure 6th and coincidentally 6th overall for the GP.

“I’m pretty happy with my pace today” explained Swanepoel. “ That was one of my goals coming into this GP. I have been losing touch with the leaders in previous GP’s and today I proved that I could keep close. I finished off both motos with my fastest lap times at the end of the 35 minute moto and felt strong so I feel confident for the next GP in Sweden in two weeks.”

Before heading to Uddevalla, Sweden on the 1st of July for round 9 of the FIM Motocross world championship, Swanepoel will be trekking to Desert Martin in Northern Ireland for round 5 of the British championship.

Race results:

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

MX2 Race 2
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 Swanepoel, Gareth RSA Kawasaki
7 Gundersen, Kenneth NOR Yamaha
8 Nunn, Carl GBR Yamaha
9 Aubin, Nicolas FRA Yamaha
10 Goncalves, Rui POR KTM
11 Boog, Xavier FRA Yamaha
12 Guarneri, Davide ITA Yamaha
13 van Horebeek, Jeremy BEL KTM
14 Hamblin, Sean USA Suzuki
15 Schiffer, Marcus GER KTM

MX2 World championship standings:
1 Cairoli, A. ITA 392
2 Pourcel, C. FRA 309
3 Rattray, Tyla RSA 298
4 Leuret, Pascal FRA 245
5 Searle, Tommy GBR 244
6 Swanepoel, G. RSA 201
7 Aubin, Nicolas FRA 188
8 Gundersen, K. NOR 168
9 Seistola, M. FIN 137
10 Boissiere, A. FRA 129
11 Nunn, Carl GBR 111
12 Schiffer, M. GER 99
13 Guarneri, D. ITA 95
14 Church, Tom GBR 94
15 Boog, Xavier FRA 79