World Motocross Championships - Round 10 -
Sun City - South Africa

Crockard 13th overall in South African baptism

Team Wulfsport Honda’s Gordon Crockard had a tricky first visit to Sun City and the third South African Grand Prix of the millennium. The tenth round of fifteen in the MX1 Motocross World Championship saw the Irishman take 13th position overall with moto finishes of 15th and 11th under warm winter sunshine and in front of 25,300 spectators.

The multi British Champion has been rising up to a decent level of form and speed in the last few Grand Prix and took a season-best result of 5th at Sweden. Due to injury the team’s lead rider had missed the previous two visits to the southern hemisphere.

A depleted entry list saw only 17 Grand Prix regulars line up in the MX1 class with local riders filling the rest of the 30-strong gate. This created problems with numerous backmarkers.

The Sun City circuit was typically impressive in its layout and presentation. The quality of the dirt had significantly improved compared to the past two years and the softer and tackier terrain offered more grip and a slightly wider variety of racing lines. The many jumps and elevation changes added a more technical edge to proceedings.

Crockard gained a season-best 8th position in Saturday’s Timed Practice but was just over three seconds away from the pole time set by winner Stefan Everts. Two ‘iffy’ starts hardly helped his cause towards a bumper points haul. In the first moto of 35 minutes and 2 laps duration he failed to get to grips with the course and even suffered a brief off-track excursion, eventually being lapped and crossing the line in 15th. For the second outing, and feeling more familiar with the layout, Crockard produced his most impressive laps of the weekend to rise to 11th place and narrowly lose out on a top nine finish.

The former 250cc Grand Prix winner is now 17th in the World Championship standings and 66 points from a top ten position.

MX2 representative Shaun Simpson has not undergone surgery on his dislocated right shoulder and will now let the injury heal. He should be back in action in a matter of weeks if the rehab process goes to plan.

The sixth round of the Maxxis British Championship is the next event for the team and will take place at the Skelder Bank circuit near Whitby. A trip to Loket the weekend afterwards will constitute the eleventh round of the World Championship.

Gordon Crockard:
“This was my first time here and in qualifying I wasn’t very happy because I was just over three seconds away from pole; eighth was OK but I was surprised that there were guys riding three seconds quicker than me! My first start was reasonably OK but I got pushed very wide in the second turn and was too far out to be able to make the double jump right after the corner, so my start was awful and I was pretty far back. I then tensed up and rode poorly. I was nervous, panicking and not really thinking about what I was doing. I eventually over-jumped one of the table-tops and landed in a big hole. I had a bit of whiskey-throttle and launched myself through the fence; I’m sure the South African fans were really impressed with that one. I calmed down and thought ‘You are not going to win today’ and I learned the track for the second race. Stefan and Josh came past and I followed them, feeling quite comfortable keeping up with their pace. I actually enjoyed the track then.
I was a lot more relaxed in the second moto. The bike bogged out of the gate and that was a bit of a mistake. The engines are a little weaker here because of the altitude and I think I needed to give it some more revs. I cut through the inside of the first bend but that put me on the outside for the second corner again and I lost positions getting pushed out. I came around in about 15th and just tried to go forward. I did not tire like the other guys. Julien Bill and Antti Pyrhonen were 11 seconds ahead of me with two laps to go and I was fighting to pass Bill on the last lap. I need to go faster at the start of the races. It has been a busy time recently with a lot of meetings in the UK but roll on the next GP in Czecho.”