Race report: Arco di Trento MXGP – Gajser dominates!

What a day of MXGP world championship action. This is why it’s the premier motorcycling championship in the world and the series all motocross riders from around the world should aspire to win. A brilliant picturesque, undulating Arco di Trento track that needs brains as well as throttle combined with some sensational fans who didn’t stop making noise all day long, made it a weekend to remember – especially for Tim Gajser!

Gajser, at what is the closest thing he has to a home GP, won both motos in style infront of a vociferious swarm of Slovenian fans who had air horns and smoke bombs at their disposal to cheer on their hero, who got to see a riding clinic from Gajser on the day that left many wishing Jeffrey Herlings was fully fit to give Tim some competition.

Tim took spent about half the race following early leader, Glenn Coldenhoff, in race one before finally making the move and controlling the race – and the second moto came even easier. Prado holeshot but then stalled a couple of turns in that affected second place Seewer, who got held up, and Gajser went around both for the lead! Seewer, now second, then crashed himself and Brian Bogers who got elevated to second then crashed himself a corner later to give Gajser some big breathing room out front!

Gajser cruised from there with a ten second gap as Renaux, Seewer, Prado and a flying Forato fought it out for second. Indeed, for one glorious lap Forato was the fastest man on the planet after going even quicker than Tim Gajser – only to go down hard while searching for a way by Prado and DNFing the moto that promised so much.

Brian Bogers then joined the battle for the last couple of laps, but left his charge too late after Renaux made the move on Seewer to take second in the race and second overall.

A delighted Gajser, who has a 33 point lead, said: “I’m super happy its the first perfect day of the year, I was enjoying it, no better way to do it in front of the slovenian fans. I was enjoying riding a lot today.

In MX2 it was a great day for Tom Vialle who took over the points lead after a costly DNF by Jago Geerts in race two after crashing twice.

Geerts was trying to get by his teammate Benistant for third when he made the first mistake and that compounded when, running fifth, he went down big time off a downhill jump forcing him eventually to call it quits despite trying to ride his battered bike for a couple of laps outside the top 20.

Vialle meanwhile won both motos but had pressure all the way in both motos! He had a rapid Haarup hounding him all the way in race one then de Wolf on his back wheel until the last couple of laps in race and Vialle stayed strong to take a hugely pivotal GP win to take back the red plate.

Vialle said: “I felt good today, especially in the second moto, Kay was riding really good but I stayed focused and pushed in the last five laps.”

Haarup meanwhile put his Dixon Kawasaki on the podium with a brilliant come from behind ride in race two, posting the fastest lap of the race while he closed in ten seconds in the last three laps to pass Rick Elzinga, who had a great GP debut, on the last lap for sixth and third on the podium behind Vialle and De Wolf, the latter showing his true form again in the second moto hounding of Vialle.

Thibault Benistant just missed out on the podium in the end with fourth overall but a heat race win and a third in race two in only his second race back is impressive – although Jago Geerts might not appreciate the speed!

Report: Jonathan McCready