Date: 01 August 2011

Gareth Swanepoel has enjoyed a solid Grand Prix this past weekend as the young South African performed well in the deep sand of Lommel. Now living just 30 minutes from the circuit, ‘Swanie’ only had to take a quick drive to what has become his ‘home’ GP of the season.

In the opening moto on Sunday Swanepoel’s Honda blasted out the gate and was up inside the top 8 as the top GP riders headed through the already deep ruts on lap one. Riding in superb form ‘Swanie’ soon managed to fight past last year’s GP winner, DeDycker, before setting chase on Desalle in 6th place. The South African was looking smooth, but in the closing stages was unable to hold off the charge from both Goncalves and DeDycker who got past, putting ‘Swanie’ in 8th place at the finish of a tough race.

Moto 2 was another decent start for Swanepoel, but a few mistakes on the opening laps dropped him down to 12th place. Once into a good rhythm ‘Swanie’ got the hammer down and soon started working his way back through. By lap 9 Swanepoel had pushed into 7th place, but was coming under immense pressure from the riders close behind. With the race going down to the wire Swanepoel crossed the finish line in a hard fought 10th position.

“ I had pretty good starts this weekend from a pretty bad gate pick, so I was pumped with that. In the first moto I had a good battle with DeDycker that went down to the last lap, that was good fun. During the moto I had pushed really hard and also swallowed so much sand from the roost that when I came back to the pits I was so sick, I just couldn’t keep any food or drink in. Luckily by the start of moto 2 I was feeling better and once again had a good race. In the beginning I tried to pace myself a little because I knew it was going to be physically hard. Mid way I started to push and was able to get past Barragan, Strijbos, Goncalves and DeDycker, but then with about 3 laps remaining I was just totally out of energy, I was done! A few guys got past but all in all it was a good race. I look forward to Loket next weekend, I really enjoy that track.” Commented Swanie.

Results
MX1 Race 1
1 Cairoli, Antonio ITA KTM
2 Nagl, Maximilian GER KTM
3 Desalle, Clement BEL Suzuki
4 Philippaerts, David ITA Yamaha
5 Ramon, Steve BEL Suzuki
6 Goncalves, Rui POR KTM
7 de Dycker, Ken BEL Yamaha
8 Swanepoel, Gareth RSA Honda
9 Coppins, Joshua NZL Aprilia
10 Strijbos, Kevin BEL Suzuki
11 Guarneri, Davide ITA Honda
12 Bobryshev, Evgeny RUS Honda
13 Leok, Tanel EST Honda
14 Barragan, Jonathan ESP Kawasaki
15 Priem, Manuel BEL Aprilia

MX1 Race 2
1 Cairoli, Antonio ITA KTM
2 Leok, Tanel EST Honda
3 Nagl, Maximilian GER KTM
4 Desalle, Clement BEL Suzuki
5 de Dycker, Ken BEL Yamaha
6 Philippaerts, David ITA Yamaha
7 Goncalves, Rui POR KTM
8 Coppins, Joshua NZL Aprilia
9 Bobryshev, Evgeny RUS Honda
10 Swanepoel, Gareth RSA Honda
11 Ramon, Steve BEL Suzuki
12 Strijbos, Kevin BEL Suzuki
13 Barragan, Jonathan ESP Kawasaki
14 Guarneri, Davide ITA Honda
15 Martens, Yentel BEL KTM

MX1 GP Overall:
1 Cairoli, Antonio ITA KTM 50
2 Nagl, Maximilian GER KTM 42
3 Desalle, Clement BEL Suzuki 38
4 Philippaerts, David ITA Yamaha 33
5 Leok, Tanel EST Honda 30
6 de Dycker, Ken BEL Yamaha 30
7 Goncalves, Rui POR KTM 29
8 Ramon, Steve BEL Suzuki 26
9 Coppins, Joshua NZL Aprilia 25
10 Swanepoel, Gareth RSA Honda 24
11 Bobryshev, Evgeny RUS Honda 21
12 Strijbos, Kevin BEL Suzuki 20
13 Guarneri, Davide ITA Honda 17
14 Barragan, Jonathan ESP Kawasaki 15
15 Martens, Yentel BEL KTM 6

MX1 World Championship standings:
1 Cairoli, A. ITA 484
2 Desalle, C. BEL 405
3 Philippaerts, D. ITA 364
4 Nagl, M. GER 348
5 Ramon, Steve BEL 341
6 de Dycker, Ken BEL 299
7 Boog, Xavier FRA 276
8 Leok, Tanel EST 249
9 Bobryshev, E. RUS 244
10 Guarneri, D. ITA 213
11 Strijbos, K. BEL 181
12 Swanepoel, G. RSA 173
13 Coppins, J. NZL 165
14 Goncalves, Rui POR 153
15 Boissiere, A. FRA 145