Date: 2 August 2009

This past weekend Gareth Swanepoel made the short trip to Lommel, Belgium, in order to contest Round 12 of the MX1 World Championship. Having lived in Belgium for the last 7 years, Swanepoel has become accustomed to the tough sand conditions that the GP of Limburg had to offer.

In Saturday’s qualify race ‘Swanie’ rode very well to recover from 24th position on the opening lap to pull all the way through to 10th place by the end of the short race.

Despite sitting on the start line on Sunday morning in the steady rain, lining up for moto 1, ‘Swanie’ was optimistic and looking forward to a good GP result. As the gate dropped the number 17 Kawasaki launched out the blocks and was inside the top 10 as the field negotiated the tricky conditions on the opening laps. Racing hard the South African was mixing it with the best when disaster struck on lap 6, an electrical fault brought the bike to a stand-still in the deep sand, extinguishing any hopes of a top 10 result in moto 1.

For moto 2 Swanepoel was re-focused and prepared to do battle. Another great start by the Kawasaki rider put him in 5th place rounding up the opening lap. By this stage the conditions of the circuit meant that the top GP riders were fighting the circuit as well as the opposition around them. The strength and fitness of ‘Swanie’ enabled him to push hard for the entire duration of the race, ultimately crossing the finish line in 8th position, some 44 minutes and 3 seconds after the gate had dropped. Scoring good points in moto 2 enabled Swanepoel to claim 11th overall for the day.

‘ Swanie’ gave us his comments on the racing:”Moto 1 was obviously frustrating for me, I was having a good race at the time, but that is racing. We switched to my spare bike for race 2. The 2nd race was very tough, I had a little battle with Cairoli, but I just ran out of steam and had to just let him go.”

Next weekend Gareth Swanepoel and the Factory Kawasaki Team are due to contest Round 13 of the MX1 World Championship, taking place at Loket in the Czech Republic.

Results

Moto 1

1 de Dycker, Ken BEL Suzuki
2 Desalle, Clement BEL Honda
3 Ramon, Steve BEL Suzuki
4 Coppins, Joshua NZL Yamaha
5 Cairoli, Antonio ITA Yamaha
6 Nagl, Maximilian GER KTM
7 Philippaerts, David ITA Yamaha
8 Leok, Tanel EST Yamaha
9 Strijbos, Kevin BEL Honda
10 Priem, Manuel BEL Aprilia

Moto 2
1 Nagl, Maximilian GER KTM
2 Cairoli, Antonio ITA Yamaha
3 de Dycker, Ken BEL Suzuki
4 Ramon, Steve BEL Suzuki
5 Priem, Manuel BEL Aprilia
6 Leok, Tanel EST Yamaha
7 Coppins, Joshua NZL Yamaha
8 Swanepoel, Gareth RSA Kawasaki
9 Desalle, Clement BEL Honda
10 Philippaerts, David ITA Yamaha

Overall
1 de Dycker, Ken BEL Suzuki 25 20 45
2 Nagl, Maximilian GER KTM 15 25 40
3 Cairoli, Antonio ITA Yamaha 16 22 38
4 Ramon, Steve BEL Suzuki 20 18 38
5 Desalle, Clement BEL Honda 22 12 34
6 Coppins, Joshua NZL Yamaha 18 14 32
7 Leok, Tanel EST Yamaha 13 15 28
8 Priem, Manuel BEL Aprilia 11 16 27
9 Philippaerts, David ITA Yamaha 14 11 25
10 Terreblanche, Shannon RSA Kawasaki 6 8 14
11 Gareth Swanepoel RSA Kawasaki 0 13 13

World Championship Standings

1 Cairoli, A. ITA 466
2 Nagl, M. GER 415
3 Philippaerts, D. ITA 388
4 de Dycker, Ken BEL 383
5 Desalle, C. BEL 379
6 Coppins, J. NZL 375
7 Leok, Tanel EST 327
8 Barragan, J. ESP 215
9 Swanepoel, G. RSA 188
10 Leok, Aigar EST 167