World Honda
CAS Honda s Ken de Dycker raced to sixth position overall at a surprisingly sunny and warm Bellpuig venue for the Grand Prix of Spain, the second round of the 2007 MX1 World Championship.
After the near perfect conditions at the series opener in Holland two weeks ago the April rains fell hard over Catalunya as the event opened. Saturday s practice and qualification schedule were scraped after heavy downpours on Friday evening washed out the venue and flooded the track. On Sunday morning the sky was again ominous but the clouds dispersed and warm spring sunshine rapidly dried the course creating a rough, rutty and predominantly one-line track.
For the second meeting in succession Josh Coppins owned the MX1 class, on this occasion from Kevin Strijbos and Max Nagl; the latter becoming the first German rider to take a podium since 2002 and the maiden silverware for his country in the MX1 class.
De Dycker suffered with starts that placed him in the mid top ten on the first lap of each moto. The Belgian held fourth at one stage in race one but dropped back to sixth after a spill, he then pushed up to third in Moto2 but again struggled with arm-pump and his lap-times dropped away to leave him down in ninth place.
His team-mate Mike Brown led the opening sprint after a lively start but, like De Dycker, felt the effects of the bumpy mud and was struck by arm-pump, he completed the 35 minute plus 2 lap race distance back in twelfth. The American was luckless later in the afternoon after he ran off the track on the first lap and had to work his way back into a point-scoring position; he managed 13th by the checkered flag. The veteran walked away with an overall ranking of 12th.
