Date: 19 October 2008

Gareth Swanepoel has raced the penultimate round of the JUMBO open Dutch aboard a factory KX450F-SR. The South African who has been testing the more powerful 450cc machine over the past few weeks was pleased with his first outing on the bike.

“I’m still getting used to the awesome power that the Kawasaki delivers and today was a good opportunity to race with guys like Tanel Leok and Marc de Reuver. It gives me an indication on how fast the pace is and what I need to do over the Winter.” explained Swanepoel.

The challenging Mill circuit had a new part added by sand specialists George Strik which featured a spectacular whoop section, putting riders to the test. Swanepoel went down in race 1 on the third lap and had to recover to 6th spot as he chased veteran Danny Theybers to the flag. Race 2 went without incident as ‘Swanie’ finished 5th to claim 5th overall.

“I really like riding the 450. I seem to have so much more fun on the bike even in these tough conditions. I’m looking forward to racing the MX1 class next year and can’t wait to get cracking with the new team.”
Swanepoel will take part in the Swann Insurance International Motocross at the sandy Digger McEwen Motocross Track in Taupo, New Zealand in two weeks time. The South African will go head to head with fellow GP stars, Josh Coppins, Billy MacKenzie, Mike Brown and many more on the 1-2 November.

I MX1
Race 1:
1 Marc de Reuver NL Honda
2 Aigar Leok Est Yamaha
3 Patrick Roos NL KTM
4 Kim Lindstrom S KTM
5 Danny Theybers B Suzuki
6 Gareth Swanepoel Z-A Kawasaki
7 Marko Kovalainen SF KTM
8 Heikki van den Berg NL KTM
9 Richard Nugteren NL Honda
10 Jurgen Vannooten B KTM

Race 2:
1 Tanel Leok Est Kawasaki
2 Aigar Leok Est Yamaha
3 Marc de Reuver NL Honda
4 Patrick Roos NL KTM
5 Gareth Swanepoel Z-A Kawasaki
6 Danny Theybers B Suzuki
7 Kim Lindstrom S KTM
8 Kristof Salaets B Honda
9 Oscar Vromans NL Yamaha
10 Willie van Wessel NL Honda