Newsletter

The official race report service of Kawasaki Racing Team.

Maggiora, ITALY, 25 September 2016

Arnaud Tonus second in class at the Nations

Arnaud Tonus took his Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki to second overall in the Open class of the FIM Motocross of Nations at Maggiora in Italy and led the Swiss national team to sixth place.

The Swiss rider had already impressed with fourth place in the qualifying race on Saturday to earn a good choice of start gate for the main programme of the event for teams of three riders nominated by their national federations on Sunday. An excellent start in his first ride saw him hold down second place for two laps and eventually come home a close fourth, just two seconds away from second. Finding it more difficult to settle into a rhythm in his second ride after starting in the pack he eventually crossed the line eighth overall but third in class to secure second place overall in his class.
 
Tommy Searle of Monster Energy DRT Kawasaki had also qualified fourth in the MXGP class, but had selflessly surrendered his team's best start gate to his younger teammate in search of a twin spearhead result. Sadly the plan backfired as another rider stopped in his path on the opening lap and his bike was damaged in the resultant collision. Rebounding in his second ride Tommy held a secure fourth place until the final corner of the race when a French rider made a desperate attack and the Englishman, not wishing to interfere with the destiny of the team trophy, showed typical British fair play.
 
DRT Kawasaki teammate Vsevolod Brylyakov was racing for the first time since June and, despite showing great speed on his KX250F, he was inevitably a little rusty at the starts and his results suffered accordingly. He made a string of impressive passes on both his MX2 colleagues and a number of 450cc-mounted rivals to finish twenty-first and nineteenth for ninth overall in the MX2 class.
 
Arnaud Tonus: “It was a good weekend for me, my second race on a 450. In the first race I got a good start and even though I had some arm pump I still managed to finish in fourth position; our bike was probably too aggressive for this kind of track, but the schedule for this special race is too tight to do much testing. In my second race my start was not as good; I found a good rhythm for fifteen minutes but then it was more difficult as I’m not used to the 450 and haven’t raced in Europe for two years. I really enjoyed racing on the 450; it suits my riding style pretty well and I’m happy with my second position overall in the Open class this weekend.”
 
Tommy Searle: "Luck just wasn't on my side in the first race. I surrendered our team's best gate to my teammate so I was in the pack, but on the first lap some guy just stopped dead at the bottom of a hill and I hit him flat out. The bars were bent and I banged my right forearm so I couldn't attack. I timed my start perfectly in the second race and could race top four easily all moto. Febvre dived inside me at the last corner and I could have stopped him, but our team had a pretty unhappy weekend and he was going for the Nations so it would have been unfair to block him."
 
Vsevolod Brylyakov: “I was quite good on the track, but never got a good start this weekend. I know the bike is good, but I didn’t race for a few months due to my injury and my feeling was not so good for the start; that’s a point we need to work this winter. I made a lot of passes in both races, but it was not really easy against the 450s so you had to change lines, to do something different to make the passes stick. I’m pretty happy to finish in the top ten of the MX2 class for my comeback race; I showed that I’m back in good shape. I never stopped working physically during my recovery period and the team was pretty happy with my results today even if I was expecting better.”