The Suzuki RM-Z450 captured two places of honour on the podium of the 63rd Motocross of Nations as Ryan Dungey helped Team USA to their 20th victory and fifth triumph in succession in the historic and popular competition, while Steve Ramon assisted Team Belgium to third place overall on his Teka Suzuki World MX1 factory machine.
The Motocross of Nations is officially the biggest off-road motorcycle race in the world, with hot and sunny conditions cooking a mammoth and eager crowd of 90,000 over two days at Franciacorta in Italy. The newly-constructed circuit inside the road racing complex housed a rough and technical track of two minute lap-times with five large ‘showcase’ jumps split by successions of waves, rollers and technical sections.
The event involves the three best riders from each of the 36 entered countries competing in MX1, MX2 and Open categories. After qualification heats on Saturday whittled the field down to 20 nations, three motos on Sunday (40 riders in the gate for MX1+MX2, MX2+Open and Open+MX1) determined the final classification. From the six results recorded the five best counted towards the overall score with the points system reversed - the winner gaining 1 mark and last place 40 - and the crew with the lowest total earning the grand prize of the Chamberlain trophy.
Three very different races took place at the venue some 20km east of Brescia:
Australia’s Chad Reed the 2009 AMA Motocross Champion enacted a thrilling race-long duel with MX1 World Champion Tony Cairoli in Moto1. The former Supercross champion showed the front wheel of his U. S. conquering RM-Z450 several times to the Sicilian but could not force a way past. Dungey was a distant third in his first competitive foray on an MX1 motorcycle.
In the second race, Germany’s Ken Roczen found a better rhythm compared to the first sprint in which he started excellently before experiencing some arm-pump. The teenager was 10th (the fourth best MX2 rider on his Teka Suzuki Europe World MX2 RM-Z250) but later improved to eighth (second highest MX2 competitor). His efforts gave him second place overall in the MX2 class and pushed Germany to 4th in the final list of Nations. Steve Ramon began his programme as part of the MX Open category for Belgium with seventh spot partly due to a small crash in the formative stages.
Drama at the start of Moto3 witnessed Cairoli crash out and Reed also slip off on the first corner. The champion fought back to ninth from last. Dungey was able to escape to his first chequered flag - in his first race appearance outside of the U. S. - while Ramon was a lonely second place for a Suzuki 1-2. Dungey won the MX1 class while Ramon was second in MX Open
Team USA defended their title and walked the podium ahead of France and the Flemish.
Teka Suzuki World MX1 now ceases activity for 2009 with some weeks of winter testing filling the off-season period.
Ryan Dungey:
“This definitely ranks near the top for me. It has been a dream to come over here and a real experience to be a part of this, never mind actually winning it. A lot of people told me what it would be like, but when you arrive here you can’t help but be amazed. We had a good time and full credit to Jake and Ivan; I had a break between the motos but they went back-to-back and that takes a lot of heart and dedication. I am glad we could work together and pull this one off.”
Steve Ramon:
“I think we had a good team and a chance to win but we made some mistakes. I wanted two good motos today but in the first one I crashed and had to come through. I was struggling a little bit with the track. In the second moto my start was good and I was following Ryan but he was slightly faster; I was happy with second place and that it helped us to the podium. The goal was to win, but as we have seen, many things can happen at the Motocross of Nations.”
| 
|