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2005 WORLD MX

2005 WORLD MX: R9 of 17, June 26, 2005 - St Jean d’Angely, FRANCE

• Grand Prix of France
• Crowd: 28000; Temp: 36ºC

SCHEDULE:

• Practices: Saturday 9.30 am
• Qualifying: Saturday 2 - 5pm
• Race: Sunday
• MX2 races 12.05 and 3.02 pm
• MX1 races 1.05 pm and 4.05 pm

2005 RACE RESULT - MX1 FRANCE

MX1 MOTO1

• 1 Townley Ben NZL MNZ KTM 40:00.796
• 2 Everts Stefan BEL FMB Yamaha 40:07.890
• 3 Coppins Joshua NZL MNZ Honda 40:18.240
• 4 Pichon Mickael FRA FFM Honda 40:34.070
• 5 Ramon Steve BEL FMB KTM 40:43.957
• 6 Smets Joel BEL FMB Suzuki 41:13.945
• 7 Meo Antoine FRA FFM Husqvarna 41:21.890
• 8 Leuret Pascal FRA FFM Honda 41:31.942
• 9 Nemeth Kornel HUN MAMS Suzuki 41:41.692
• 10 Barragan Jonathan SPA RFME KTM 41:56.028

MX1 MOTO 2

• 1 Townley Ben NZL MNZ KTM 39:58.274
• 2 Coppins Joshua NZL MNZ Honda 40:05.672
• 3 Pichon Mickael FRA FFM Honda 40:20.065
• 4 Barragan Jonathan SPA RFME KTM 40:51.310
• 5 Leuret Pascal FRA FFM Honda 40:59.920
• 6 Atsuta Yoshitaka JPN ACU Suzuki 41:22.491
• 7 Everts Stefan BEL FMB Yamaha 41:29.619
• 8 Ramon Steve BEL FMB KTM 41:32.032
• 9 van Daele Marvin BEL FMB Honda 41:38.037
• 10 Theybers Danny BEL FMB Suzuki 41:44.291

MX2 MOTO 1

• 1 D. Philippaerts KTM ITA 40' 48.844
  2 A. Chiodi Yamaha ITA +25.168
  3 A. McFarlane Yamaha AUS +32.463
  4 A. Boissiere Yamaha FRA +40.475
  5 C. Nunn KTM GBR +45.713
  6 M. Nagl KTM GER +50.675
  7 B. MacKenzie Yamaha GBR +53.841
  8 R. Goncalves Yamaha POR +55.532
  9 N. Aubin Yamaha FRA +58.118
  10 C. Pourcel Kawasaki FRA +1' 8.400

MX2 MOTO 2

• 1 A. Boissiere Yamaha FRA 40' 50.077
  2 C. Nunn KTM GBR +2.336
  3 D. Philippaerts KTM ITA +26.427
  4 A. McFarlane Yamaha AUS +37.952
  5 C. Melotte Yamaha BEL +56.706
  6 R. Goncalves Yamaha POR +1' 8.490
  7 A. Chiodi Yamaha ITA +1' 14.682
  8 W. Avis Honda RSA +1' 23.661
  9 B. MacKenzie Yamaha GBR +1' 28.320
  10 M. Bonini Honda ITA +1' 34.450

KTM / TOWNLEY REPORT: MX1

Townley unbeatable in St Jean d’Angely.

• Scorching temperatures could not stop New Zealand’s MX star Ben Townley from scoring another double GP victory in France today. Townley looked amazing all weekend and couldn’t put a foot wrong has helped to make KTM history.
• As the MX1 riders lined up for the first race of the day, temperatures had already exceeded the 30°c mark and the stifling heat would play a major role in the outcome.
• Townley didn’t get the start he wanted and had to make his way through the field without spending too much energy. He moved from sixth to third position in the space of three laps and had Mikael Pichon and Stefan Everts within his sights. Townley meticulously started to eat away at the eight second gap and at the same time fended off a challenge from fellow countryman, Josh Coppins. BT soon reeled in Pichon and was now hot on the heels of his biggest rival, Everts. With three laps to go, Townley’s calculated pass rattled the Belgian as he was demoted to second position. Everts tried to comeback at the factory KTM but the younger Townley had got the better of him and left Everts gaping for air. Townley gave a triumphant salute to his pit crew before crossing the finish line for victory.
• A great start in the second moto put Townley into the lead from the second corner as he flew pass fellow Kiwi, Josh Coppins. Stefan Everts gave chase but fumbled on the third lap as BT continued to post consistently fast laps and controlled the race by pulling a sizeable lead. Townley took time on the final lap to thank an enthusiastic French crowd and gain his second double victory of the season. Fellow countryman, Josh Coppins followed home in second to make it a Kiwi 1-2 podium and enter into the MX1 history books.
• “This has been a great weekend for KTM as they also won in the road racing and we won both the MX1 and MX2 classes here in St Jean. I’m happy at the moment that my level has improved enough to win. I now need to fight to try and get second off of Josh in the championship. At the moment I’m taking it race by race and it’s going really well at the moment. In the last few weeks we have made a lot of improvement on the bike after Japan. If we can keep going like this there is no reason why I can’t fight for second in the championship and even Stefan might make some mistakes. I want to thank team who has been working so hard week in and week out and when we have a result like this it makes it even better to work harder for the coming weeks and keep up the results. The track lay out of was great and the changes that they made were also really good. Even though we had some rain the track guys did a sufficient amount of work to make sure there were some passing lines – I think they did a great job,” stated Townley.

YAMAHA MX1 REPORT: FRENCH GP 2005

MX1 : Everts fourth after tough French GP

• Even more so after the recent overhaul the sun baked St. Jean d'Angely circuit proved to be a real test of rider and machine. As if the combination of a soft top surface laced with rocks underneath and heavy rain showers during the night were not enough of a challenge, the menacing climbs and fearful drop offs pushed all competitors to the limit.
• Repeating his Italian GP victory New-Zealand's Ben Townley (KTM) proved the strongest claiming both heat wins. Fellow countryman Josh Coppins was second, Pichon completed the podium. Stefan Everts had a weekend of mixed feelings, not coming to terms with the track during Saturday's qualifying session and finishing second and seventh on Sunday. Brian Jorgensen had an off-weekend as well, the Dane only scored a fifteenth place finish. Stefan Everts remains leader in the MX 1 class with 375 points, ahead of Coppins with 316 points and Townley with 304 points. Jorgensen is still eighth.
• Race one saw the previous GP's overall winner Ben Townley riding to another win. It was however another kiwi, Josh Coppins who claimed the holeshot, closely followed by Everts, Smets and local favourite Michaël Pichon. With Pichon quickly climbing up to second, a new battle between the French star and Everts seemed possible. For thirteen laps the positions remained deadlocked but Pichon could not close the gap sufficiently on Everts to make a successful pass. Townley on the other hand was putting in the fastest laps of the day and climbed up from sixth after the opening lap to overtake Pichon for second on lap 14. Townley started building the pressure on Everts and finally passed him with three laps to go. Everts crossed the finish line 7.094 seconds behind Townley, followed by Josh Coppins, Mickael Pichon in fourth and Steve Ramon (KTM) in fifth.
• Over 28.000 spectators saw an hungry Townley dicing for the holeshot and the MX2 world champion made no mistake in race two leading from start to finish. Everts climbed up to second on the second lap, but the eight-fold world champion cased a table top jump and bent his handlebars in the crash. Stefan had to come in to get his handlebars fixed, but the legend did not give up and fought hard to recover from 28th to take seventh and the fourteen points who came with it. Coppins came home second, ahead of Pichon, Barragan and France's Pascal Leuret.
• The tenth round of the championship takes place at Uddevalla, in Sweden next weekend.
• Stefan Everts (Yamaha L&M Motocross Team) - fourth overall
  "I was completely empty of the end of the first race. When Townley came by I just had to let him go. I was not in my best shape here, but fair play to Townley he was the fastest and had some good lines. In between races I received intravenous food and I felt a little better for the start of the second race. Normally I would have managed two second places today, but it just happened that I cased this jump. Several times it had been a near crash, but now I could not save it. My position was pretty bad, but I never thought about giving up and I just kept going. Seventh is not brilliant but all points are important and my leading position in the championship is still intact."

COPPINS / HONDA MX1 REPORT

Coppins steps onto podium to make it a Kiwi 1-2.

• The re-designed French circuit of St Jean d’Angely has delivered a 1-2 Kiwi success with Josh Coppins and fellow New Zealander Ben Townley occupying the top two positions of the MX1 podium.
• Sweltering conditions would not make life any easier for the riders as they lined up for the first race of the day. Coppins knew the importance of good start and was in third spot as he exited the second hairpin turn. Everts and Pichon were just ahead as “Lizzard” concentrated on keeping his old rivals within sight. Ben Townley caught the CAS Honda rider off guard as he went through to third, however Coppins was not going to let up just yet. Both Kiwi’s turned up the pace and started to close down the leaders. First victim to the Kiwi express train was Frenchman, Pichon who had no answer for the duo. Coppins once again found a burst of energy and came back at Townley one last time before he had to let his younger counterpart go. A great ride delivered ‘Lizzard’ third position at the fall of the flag.
• The number five CAS Honda shot out of the start gate to grab the hole-shot in race two but Coppins’ lead was short lived as Townley, Atsuta, Everts and Pichon snuck by. Everts disappeared off the radar after a crash nevertheless Coppins regained his form and started to post some extremely fast lap times. With fifteen minutes gone on the clock, Coppins was up into third position and hauling in Pichon. He flew passed the Frenchman and was well on his way to a well deserved second place finish. Coppins crossed the finish line in second behind countryman and friend, Ben Townley to make MX1 history with two Kiwi’s taking the top two spots of the podium.
• “I found the track very difficult to start off with and I had two big crashes yesterday. Other than that I enjoyed it and I think the club did a great job. I’m happy for them as they have put a lot of effort into this track with the new dirt and they deserve it. I’m still going to try and get as many podiums as possible and try to be consistent throughout the season. I’m happy for Ben that he won and for Motorcycling in New Zealand and obviously for the both of us. It is good for N.Z because it’s a small country and they have a lot of young riders so it’s something for them to look up to,” explained Coppins.

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