MX1 and MX2 – until now

With Antonio Cairoli and Christophe Pourcel starting to look like they are going to get back into their battle of 2006 when the fought for the FIM World MX2 Championship.

That 2006 FIM World MX2 Championship started in a similar fashion as the 2012 season for Christophe Pourcel, as he struggled with consistency and finished the opening Grand Prix of the season with just 7-4 results and didn’t win his first Grand Prix until round four in Germany when he went 1-1. From that moment on, it was catch up for Cairoli as the Frenchman did just enough to clinch the title in his home Grand Prix in Ernee.

Of course in 2012 it’s Cairoli who has taken the series points lead early and the little Italian is showing good form until now, maybe not as strong as expected, but he still has a handy point’s lead going into the French Grand Prix in a little over a weeks’ time.

In the MX2 class Jeffrey Herlings has been the rider with the red-plate, although he is getting serious pressure from British rider Tommy Searle. For Herlings to become the first Dutch rider to win a World Motocross Championship since Pedro Tragter in 1993 (a year before Herlings was born) he will need to control his nerves and pushed Searle to the limit on more than the odd occasion.

In Herlings favor is the fact he looks the most consistent rider to date, but Searle has a way of putting pressure on riders, as he had done to Tyla Rattray in the 2008 World MX Championship.

Herlings has ten Grand Prix victories and that places him above Tragter in the all-time GP winners list, who had just seven GP wins, also great Dutch World Motocross Champion John Van Den Berk, who has 9 wins, and the only Dutch riders ahead of Herlings in the all-time GP winners list are Dave Strijbos (27 wins), Van Der Ven (18) and Wolsink (13).

Searle took his 10^th Grand Prix victory in Brazil last weekend and that moves him past former World Motocross Champions John Van Den Berk, Hakan Andersson, Brad Lackey, who all sit on nine GP wins each and Searle is now just two GP wins away from three other former World Motocross Champions Greg Albertyn, Bengt Aberg and Bobby Moore.

Amazing when you consider just about every rider ahead of Searle in the all-time GP winners list have won a World title, in fact the only riders in that all-time list who have not won World Motocross Championships are Marnicq Bervoets, who has 19 GP wins, Kees Van Der Ven, who has 18 GP wins, Sylvain Geboers, who has 14 GP wins, Kurt Nicoll, who has 13 GP wins, and Gerritt Wolsink, who has 13 GP wins.

Searle is already in good company and the way he is riding it’s very possible he can move right up to the tally of Great Britain’s best ever Motocross rider Dave Thorpe, who has 22 GP wins, but also three World 500cc Championships.