Date: 30 August 2009

Gareth Swanepoel once again represented Factory Kawasaki in good form this past weekend at the penultimate round of the 2009 Motocross World Championship. The tough Lierop circuit has always been a favorite of the strong South African, who looked forward to attacking the circuit on-board his KX450F-SR.

In the Saturday qualifying race ‘Swanie’ rode a solid race from beginning to end, crossing the line in 8th position.

As the gate dropped for the opening 35min and 2 lap race on Sunday Swanepoel pounced quickly, blasting his Kawasaki through the deep sand, rounding up lap one in 5th position and looking comfortable. Lap after lap ‘Swanie’ continued to push hard as the TV cameras followed his every move. On lap four Swanepoel progressed into 4th position as he then set charge on 2008 World Champ, Philippaerts. A fall from Desalle on lap 7 then gifted ‘Swanie’ with a move into 3rd, as the Kawasaki rider now circulated in a podium position. A later attack from both Nagle and the re-mounted Desalle relegated ‘Swanie’ back to fifth. Racing as hard as he could the relentless sand caught Swanepoel out, throwing him to the ground. Re-mounting ‘Swanie’ quickly got back on pace, however his mistake left him with a 10 place at the chequered flag.

Race 2 got underway and once again ‘Swanie’ managed to get through the opening turns well and was up inside the top 10. Within a couple of laps the Kawasaki rider was into 8th and progressing well, however the energy sapping circuit was beginning to slow the South African down. Riding his best to ‘survive’ the long race ‘Swanie’ eventually crossed the line in 12th place, awarding him 10th overall for the day and maintaining his 8th position in the World Championship standings with just one round to go.

‘Swanie’ gave his comments on the day: “It’s unbelievable how tough this race is! I woke up today feeling really good and in the first moto I gave everything that I had; I was in third position at one point, fighting with all the top guys. I made a move on Coppins and then chased Philippaerts when I crashed. After that I lost some energy and had some muscle cramps. In the second race I had stomach cramps while I was in the gate. My start was not so bad, in ninth or tenth, and then it was just a survival race as I had no more energy. Now I need to rest after a tough month with races in Czech Republic, USA, England and Netherlands; I want to go fresh and motivated to the last race to defend my eighth position in the standings.”

MX1 Race 1
1 de Dycker, Ken BEL Suzuki
2 Philippaerts, David ITA Yamaha
3 Leok, Tanel EST Yamaha
4 Coppins, Joshua NZL Yamaha
5 Cairoli, Antonio ITA Yamaha
6 Desalle, Clement BEL Honda
7 Ramon, Steve BEL Suzuki
8 Nagl, Maximilian GER KTM
9 Priem, Manuel BEL Aprilia
10 Swanepoel, Gareth RSA Kawasaki
11 Söderström, Tom SWE Kawasaki
12 Leok, Aigar EST TM
13 van Vijfeijken, Rob NED Yamaha
14 Krestinov, Gert EST KTM
15 Church, Tom GBR

MX1 Race 2
1 de Dycker, Ken BEL Suzuki
2 Coppins, Joshua NZL Yamaha
3 Desalle, Clement BEL Honda
4 Cairoli, Antonio ITA Yamaha
5 Nagl, Maximilian GER KTM
6 Leok, Tanel EST Yamaha
7 Barragan, Jonathan ESP KTM
8 Philippaerts, David ITA Yamaha
9 Leok, Aigar EST TM
10 Ramon, Steve BEL Suzuki
11 de Reuver, Marc NED Honda
12 Swanepoel, Gareth RSA Kawasaki
13 van Vijfeijken, Rob NED Yamaha
14 Potisek, Timotei FRA Honda
15 Church, Tom GBR CCM

GP Overall:
1 de Dycker, Ken BEL Suzuki 50
2 Coppins, Joshua NZL Yamaha 40
3 Desalle, Clement BEL Honda 35
4 Leok, Tanel EST Yamaha 35
5 Philippaerts, David ITA Yamaha 35
6 Cairoli, Antonio ITA Yamaha 34
7 Nagl, Maximilian GER KTM 29
8 Ramon, Steve BEL Suzuki 25
9 Leok, Aigar EST TM 21
10 Swanepoel, Gareth RSA Kawasaki 20
11 Priem, Manuel BEL Aprilia 17
12 van Vijfeijken, Rob NED Yamaha 16
13 Barragan, Jonathan ESP KTM 14
14 Potisek, Timotei FRA Honda 12
15 Church, Tom GBR CCM 12

MX1 Championship standings:
1 Cairoli, A. ITA 537
2 Nagl, M. GER 487
3 Philippaerts, D. ITA 463
4 Desalle, C. BEL 461
5 de Dycker, Ken BEL 459
6 Coppins, J. NZL 449
7 Leok, Tanel EST 382
8 Swanepoel, G. RSA 238
9 Barragan, J. ESP 229
10 Priem, Manuel BEL 195
11 Leok, Aigar EST 188
12 Ramon, Steve BEL 178
13 Vuillemin, D. FRA 150
14 Aranda, G. FRA 143
15 Church, Tom GBR 117