Donington Park MX1 and MX2: Tommy Searle sizzles Donington crowd for MX success

Factory KTM rider Tommy Searle sent 28,000 fans wild at the
brand new motocross facility at Donington Park when the 18-
year-old won his first Grand Prix in the MX2 category on Sunday.

The rider from Kent has now risen to second place in the FIM
World championship with just one round remaining and cannot be
displaced.

His results of second and first in the two motos of 35 minutes and
two laps duration under cloudy but bright skies delivered his
maiden triumph and continued an impressive record of results at
his home round.

Tommy Searle is already the UK’s top off-road racer after less
than two full seasons at the highest level.

In 2005 he raced his first Grand Prix at Matchams Park, Ringwood
and surprised many by not only qualifying but also scoring points.
Twelve months ago at Matterley Basin in Winchester he notched
his first GP podium and this weekend continued the trajectory.

“It has been a perfect day and the crowd were incredible,” he
said. “I had some difficult finding my lines in the first race and
could not catch Nicolas Aubin but he rode well. In the second I
could get away and pushed hard to stay ahead of Jeremy Tarroux
and I’m so pleased to finally win a Grand Prix. “This was the
penultimate round and I was worried that I’d run out of chances.”

Spectators including Marco Melandri, Troy Corser and Niall
Mackenzie watched how the infield had been transformed into a
spectacular circuit with many challenging jumps.

The layout ran from the outside of Goddards corner almost up to
Coppice and was constructed in just over a month to entertain the
penultimate round of the world championship.

Britain’s other main hope, Billy Mackenzie, could not repeat
Tommy Searle’s example in MX1. The 23-year-old Scot, winner in
Japan this year and leader of the British series, stalled his works
Kawasaki while leading the first race. He then grabbed a neutral
coming out of the gate in the second and hit the dirt several more
times trying to come through from the rear of the pack. He was
twelfth overall. click on ozzy go to the full story on MCN
photos from londonbikers.com & kawasakiracingteam.com