Motocross: Fantastic Stephen Sword fourth at Loket

Stephen Sword, in only his third Grand Prix in sixteen months, gave Molson Kawasaki a best result of fourth overall with moto results of tenth and fifth on the KX250F at a cloudy and temperate Loket circuit for the Grand Prix of Czech Republic and the eleventh round of fifteen in the MX2 FIM world championship.

The track at Loket – draped across a steep hillside just outside the historic town and 10 kilometres from the wonderfully scenic Karlovy Vary – is natural in practically every sense with few man-made jumps and the aerial tests coming mainly from the undulations of the landscape. The stony mud however was not particularly deep and this meant many Braking bumps and a slippery terrain, particularly with the showers through the weekend. The presence of one and sometimes two racing lines did not allow for free-flowing overtaking on a major scale either.

Sword benefited from two strong starts to score his best overall finish since 2005. The Scot circulated as high as seventh in the first moto but had to slow his pace in the latter half of the 35 minutes and 2 laps. In the second race he almost gained the holeshot and was neck-and-neck into the first corner with eventual winner Nico Aubin. He held third behind Antonio Cairoli and completed his best moto since shattering his lower right leg at the German Grand Prix of May 2006.
“I took a big step this weekend,” he commented. “I’d said that I would be happy with top ten overall but I felt good and comfortable all weekend and that showed in my lap-times. I have been training hard for weeks and weeks and it is paying off now. I’m really happy with the way things are going and I feel safe and strong on the bike. I rode a bit tight in the first moto and had some arm-pump. I wasn’t disappointed with tenth but I could have ridden better. I was looser in the second and had some good lines. I am looking forward to Namur now because I really like that place.”

Gareth Swanepoel was seventh overall but was handicapped by a crash on the first corner in the second sprint. He collected sixth after rising as high as fourth in the first race, and then after the spill later on the 21 year old was last on the first lap of Moto2 and rode determinedly to enter the points with sixteenth place.
“The first race was alright,” he recounted. “I started OK and had a good speed for most of the moto. I closed Leuret down but then he’d pull away and that pattern continued for quite a while. In the second one I went down at the start and had a lot of work to do then. I managed sixteenth by the end which was not very good. I rode as hard as I could, and there is not much more to say.”
Tom Church failed to qualify for the first time this season. The Briton was under-prepared on Saturday when an oversight with his timing classification in pre-qualification practice caused confusion as to which heat the 25 year old was set to enter. Finally he had to take to the gate last for the second race and could not get a rhythm going before a near-crash left him out of the top twelve cut-off mark. In the Last Chance session he missed the top six.
“The organisers somehow put me in the wrong heat and I had to go last to the line,” he said. “I had to come through from there. I reached twelfth and tried to pass the next rider, nearly crashed, got overtaken and ended up fourteenth. In the Last Chance session I tried all I could but was not far off. I had a crash in the morning and was a bit sore from that. I just want to get fit and try and break this bad run I’ve had in the last few weeks.”

Swanepoel is sixth in the standings but faces a 55 point gap to Pascal Leuret in fifth. The South African might be able to close the distance considerably if the Honda rider’s suspected broken hand from a heavy second moto crash keeps the Frenchman on the sidelines. Church is sixteenth and Sword has already risen to thirtieth despite taking points in only three motos so far.

Molson Kawasaki now have a furious spell of activity that encompasses four more Grand Prix events (Belgium, Ireland, UK and Holland) and the last two rounds of the Maxxis British Championship (Brampton and Pontrilas) in the next six weeks. The next step is a brief trip from their Belgian base south to Namur and the demanding Citadelle for the twelve stop on the world championship schedule.