Valkenswaard, Netherlands – 26th April 2009 – World Championship

Sword takes points in difficult Benelux outing

Red Bull KTM UK left a difficult Grand Prix of Benelux at Valkenswaard – the fourth round of fifteen in the FIM MX2 World Championship – having grabbed valuable points as Stephen Sword managed to finish 20th overall.

The 29 year old had a tough time negotiating the rough and fine sand at the venue close to the city of Eindhoven and his finishes of two 18th positions were hard for the former Dutch champion to accept. His part in a first corner pile-up during the qualification heat meant that he was languishing down in 28th place in the gate for Sunday’s motos and team-mate Jake Nicholls fared little better. The teenager had a technical problem with his suspension on Saturday but the team found a solution and the teenager set the tenth quickest time in Sunday morning warm-up.

Sword, who was coming into the race fresh from becoming a father for the first time two weeks ago and perhaps lacked a little preparation for the sand, was struggling with bike set-up and from a set of lowly starts could not affect the higher-points runners.

Nicholls tried manfully to enter the top twenty in Moto1 but just missed out with 23rd spot and then was forced to retire with a mechanical problem.

“It has been a busy couple of weeks,” said Sword. “We still need to refine the set-up of the bike a little bit, but obviously I wanted to do much better here today than what I could manage. We go back to the British Championship now and I hope I can get some confidence there ahead of Portugal.”

“It was a disappointing weekend really,” said Team Principal Roger Magee. “Stephen has obviously had some exceptional circumstances just recently but we hoped he would be able to do better in the sand. The qualification heat result did not really help. Jake put in a good lap-time on Sunday after we had sorted out the suspension and it was a shame he could not put any points on the board in the second moto. We will be hoping for much better at Agueda.”

Sword now holds 17th in the world championship standings while Nicholls is close behind with 22nd position.

The team now head to Brampton for the third round of the Maxxis British Championship before packing up to head back through Europe and down to Agueda, near Aviero, for the Grand Prix of Portugal and round five of their 2009 FIM adventure.

Results

MX2 Moto1

1. Shaun Simpson (KTM); 2. Rui Goncalves (KTM); 3. Davide Guarneri (Yam); 4. Zach Osborne (Yam); 5. Nico Aubin (Yam); 6. Xavier Boog (Suz); 7. Gautier Paulin (Kaw); 8. Marvin Musquin (Hon); 9. Matiss Karro (Suz); 10. Arnaud Tonus (KTM); 11. Dennis Verbruggen (Hon); 12. Manuel Monni (Yam); 13. Mike Kras (KTM); 14. Herjan Brakke (Hon); 15. Loic Larrieu (Yam); 16. Alessandro Lupino (Yam); 17. Joel Roelants (KTM); 18. Stephen Sword (Red Bull KTM UK); 19. Marcus Schiffer (KTM); 20. Nikolai Larsen (Suz)

MX2 Moto2

1. Rui Goncalves (KTM); 2. Nico Aubin (Yam); 3. Shaun Simpson (KTM); 4. Gautier Paulin (Kaw); 5. Jeremy Van Horebeek (KTM); 6. Joel Roelants (KTM); 7. Zach Osborne (Yam); 8. Davide Guarneri (Yam); 9. Loic Larrieu (Yam); 10. Marcus Schiffer (KTM); 11. Steven Frossard (Kaw); 12. Marvin Musquin (Hon); 13. Dennis Verbruggen (Hon); 14. Manuel Monni (Yam); 15. Xavier Boog (Suz); 16. Arnaud Tonus (KTM); 17. Mike Kras (KTM); 18. Stephen Sword (Red Bull KTM UK); 19. Khounsith Vongsana (Hon); 20. Matiss Karro (Suz);

MX2 Overall Result

1. Rui Goncalves (KTM); 2. Shaun Simpson (KTM); 3. Nico Aubin (Yam); 4. Davide Guarneri (Yam); 5. Gautier Paulin (Kaw); 6. Zach Osborne (Yam); 7. Marvin Musquin (Hon); 8. Xavier Boog (Suz); 9. Joel Roelants (KTM); 10. Loic Larrieu (Yam); 11. Dennis Verbruggen (Hon); 12. Jeremy Van Horebeek (KTM); 13. Manuel Monni (Yam); 14. Arnaud Tonus (KTM); 15. Marcus Schiffer (KTM); 16. Matiss Karro (Suz); 17. Mike Kras (KTM); 18. Steven Frossard (Kaw); 19. Herjan Brakke (Hon); 20. Stephen Sword (Red Bull KTM UK);

MX2 World Championship standings after 4 of 15 rounds

1. Gautier Paulin (140); 2. Marvin Musquin (125); 3. Davide Guarneri (111); 4. Zach Osborne (100); 5. Shaun Simpson (97); 6. Xavier Boog (94); 7. Nico Aubin (85); 8. Rui Goncalves (78); 9. Steven Frossard (63); 10. Marcus Schiffer (55); 11. Manuel Monni (52); 12. Joel Roelants (49); 13. Arnaud Tonus (46); 14. Khounsith Vongsana (44); 15. Loic Larrieu (39); 16. Jeremy Van Horebeek (38); 17. Stephen Sword (38); 18. Valentin Teillet (37); 19. Alessandro Lupino (35); 20. Matiss Karro (29); 22.Jake Nicholls (22)

Event Photo Gallery