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The Motocross MX1 and MX2 World Championships are in their final stage with three rounds left.

Dublin, Lierop and Faenza are last dates, and the battle for the titles willbe between Tommy Searle, Rattray, Coppins, Ramon and the italian David Philippaerts.

But… we are more interested in other classification.

With 2005 points MCracing is the first team in the classification list. The only one team from Macau made solid and consistent races to reach to the top. Not so spectacular positions on its road map, but always regular.

It gives him the provisional first position with three races to go, nineteen points above british Dresport-MX which is second, and fifty-eigh to WOODMAN RACING (Valkenswaard, Netherlands) which is the fifth team in the classification.

Only around 60 points between the six teams in the top, so, as the battle for the titles in the real life, the contention is open at Motocrossvirtual.

Good luck to all 1427 teams for the final races of the season!

A Dutch team from Oschatz is the new leader of the Motocrossvirtual series after the second and third round: Bellpuig in Catalunya, Spain and Agueda in Portugal.

Little things to say about the first, where the rain falled from Friday night and the extremely muddy track became in very special results and a cancelled second moto in the MX1 category.

So, low points at this GP, with 155 for the winner of the event, WORLD RACING from Italy.

Next was Agueda in Portugal. Great motos and spectacular victories for Cairoli and Philipaerts, whick make them world championship leaders.
Good race for Team pul’s motors with 251 points, followed by mlv racing and Triple 3 racing.

So, in the main classification, Kawa East is leader above Freedom MX from Andorra, who is getting closer step by step, point by point.

Grand Prix Kawasaki Racing’s Kevin Strijbos is almost certain to miss the next three rounds of the MX1 World Motocross Championship after undergoing minor surgery to repair an injured thumb.

It was in a free practice session at the Spanish GP in Bellpuig. Although in a lot of pain, Strijbos pushed on through the power-sapping slop on his factory KX450F-SR to an impressive sixth placed finish in Sunday’s one and only points paying moto.

Joaquim Rodrigues  rode hard at Valkenswaard, and he had the speed at Bellpuig, but a crash on the start of the first moto and he broke a rib. He will be out for around six weeks.

Guys, review your teams for Agueda before Friday!

883 teams from 38 different countries competed on the first MotocrossVirtual Grand Prix of our short but intense life.

There was only a winner with an amount of 258 points. It was Dasmonger, from Los Angeles (United States) with his team ‘Dasmonger’.
Good selections with De Dycker and Rattray, the most valuable riders of the weekend, with 50 points each one. Then, Dasmonger choose Ramon and Nagl in MX1 and Cairoli and Eggens in MX2, it couldn’t be better. Six podium riders of six possible. Congratulations Dasmonger!

Freedom MX from Andorra and Kawa East from Germany were in second position with 2 points less, 256, and Winners Take It All was third.

That result from Freedom MX, the only Andorra team of the championship so far, makes his country to be the best of all with an average of 256 points.
In the countries with a significative number of teams, Germany, Austria and Norway are the best in points.
MotocrossVirtual directive is studying the possibility of making the countries classification only for the countries with at least 5 teams to make it more realistic.

Please leave your comments about the first GP!

Molson Kawasaki’s South African superstar Gareth Swanepoel is due to undergo a wrist operation on Wednesday and is confirmed to miss the start of the MX2 season.

After struggling through the pre-season races in a lot of pain and discomfort 23-year-old Gareth Swanepoel has made the brave but smart decision to sit out the start of the MX2 world motocross championship in order to get his wrist fixed hopefully once and for all.

The scaphoid injury has been a problem for Gareth since early in the 2006 season when he originally broke the troublesome bone in his right wrist but after late season bone graft surgery in ’07 it was hoped that the small bone would heal properly with the aid of a small screw. Unfortunately for Gareth this wasn’t the case and a recent exploratory examination proved that the surgery had not been completely successful and the bone had still not healed.

Gareth will now go under the knife again and a vascularised bone graft will be carried out. The aftercare for this operation includes being plastered to above the elbow and it’s expected that the recovery period should be in the region of four months.

“Obviously we are devastated for Gareth,” explains Molson team manager Lisa Church. ”We know he has worked hard over the winter to get over both his foot and hand surgery and we had high hopes for him for the ‘08 season. He has been struggling with the wrist pain in the early races and it is quite a serious problem and something he needs to get sorted. We have every confidence that he will come back strong and hopefully without any pain.”

The remaining members of the Molson Kawasaki team go into this weekend’s opening round of the world championship with high hopes of success with Stephen Sword and Gautier Paulin flying the Molson colours in MX2 on their factory KX250F-SRs while Tom Church makes an MX1 debut for the Molson squad on the KX450F.

From www.kawasaki-racingteam.eu

Yamaha Monster Motocross Team’s Joshua Coppins is facing a rush to be fully fit for the opening round of the 2008 FIM MX1-GP World Championship in two weeks after an incident while training Saturday morning (22nd March) caused the New Zealander to break two toes on his right foot and undergo immediate surgery.

The 31 year old travelled to the Dunkirk circuit in France to begin his motos in the early stages of Saturday morning to avoid a crowded venue later in the day. However his intentions were curtailed after he crested a hill only to find a local rider picking up his machine. Coppins’ right foot bore the brunt of the subsequent collision as he caught the other bike’s footpeg. With counsel from renowned motocross surgeon Dr Claes, Coppins went under the knife successfully the same afternoon and did not require the insertion of any metalwork into the two smallest toes on his foot.

The natural healing process means that one of the strongest favourites for the MX1-GP title is now staring at the possibility of missing the first meeting of the GP series at Valkenswaard in the Netherlands on April 6th.

“I cannot believe my luck, this is the third injury in a row that I have had that was not my fault,” he said. “Valkenswaard is 50-50 at the moment. My foot has to heal naturally and we might run out of time; I’m not too sure how things will go at the moment. We will have to assess things over the next few days. I am trying to stay positive but clearly this was not what I wanted. It is a long season though and we have to keep looking ahead.”

Coppins had won races in Italy and France over the last six weeks in a promising pre-season period on the works YZ450FM. He claimed five grand prix victories in 2007 and was leading the world championship by 107 points until a freak accident at the Grand Prix of Czech Republic, four rounds before the end of the campaign, caused him to surrender what would have been his first crown.

More info at www.joshcoppins.com

The opening round of the Dutch Motocross championship at Gemert, Holland, wasn’t a good day for the Honda Martin rider, who hurt his ankle and is waiting for a scan result. Neither a funny race for Wyatt Avis and Joel Roelants, who suffered injuries too.

It was better for Tyla Rattray and Ken De Dycker, the event winners on MX2 and MX1.

PODIUMS

MX1: 1 Ken de Dycker 2 Steve Ramon 3 Maxi Nagl

MX2: 1 Tyla Rattray 2 Rui Goncalves 3 Jeremy Vanhorebeek

Managers, please take notes for your team roadmap!

“I feel good with the KX250F-SR – I already have a great set-up with the bike – so I decided to change a little bit for this race and ride the 450 machine instead,” said Paulin. “In timed qualification I tried to cut a new line and I was riding close to the bank and I couldn’t see the tyres in the mud. There was one tyre sticking out slightly more than the others and I hit it and it high-sided me. I came down on my hand and the result is that I have fractured a small bone there. Now I need to wait three or four weeks before I can race again but I’ve worked hard this winter and my general fitness is good and the bike is good so I think I’ll be ready for Valkenswaard.”

www.motocrossmx1.com

Although the original diagnosis of a broken shoulder blade has proved to be correct Tanel and the Kawasaki Racing Team remain focussed on round one of the world championship at Valkenswaard in April.

www.motocrossmx1.com