Historic track of Hyvinkää hosting the 12th MXGP

Finnish hero Pekka Vehkonen was the last one to win a Grand Prix in the 250cc class at Hyvinkää back in 1991, but Dave Strijbos, Harry Everts, Sylvain Geboers, Joël Robert or Finnish Heikki Mikkola are some of the big names in the history of the sport that have won on the track that will host the twelfth Grand Prix of the 2013 FIM Motocross World Championship season.

Apart from the FIM MX1 and MX2 World Championships, the Finnish track of Hyvinkää, which is located around 60 Km away from Helsinki, will also host the fifth round of the EMX250 European Championship. Valentin Guillod keeps on being the red plate holder of the series, but his compatriot Jeremy Seewer won the Latvian round last weekend, so it will be interesting to see what happens this weekend on the Finnish track.  There are 83 entries in the Class.

MX1
Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Antonio Cairoli is still not fully fit from the knee injury he suffered during his home Grand Prix in Maggiora, but he has been able to win the last two Grand Prix without any major complication. The Italian keeps on leading the MX1 standings with 82 points difference to the second classified Gautier Paulin.

Kawasaki Racing Team’s Gautier Paulin had two superb performances in France and Italy, but since then the French rider has not been able to finish on the podium. In Sweden Paulin struggled with the track during the whole Grand Prix, but last weekend in Latvia he showed once again his outstanding talent by moving from the last position to a final fifth place. The Kawasaki rider is currently second in the MX1 classification and he is fully motivated to finish on the podium in Hyvinkää and fight again for the overall victory.

Third in the championship is Rockstar Energy Suzuki World’s Clement Desalle who managed to obtain very valuable points in the last two Grand Prix and he is now eighteen points away from Paulin. However, his compatriot Ken De Dycker is doing really well lately and he is just eight points behind him in the MX1 standings. Desalle was very happy with his riding last Sunday in Kegums, but he admitted that he is now looking forward to conquering the first step of the podium.

Since the Grand Prix of Italy the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Ken De Dycker has been on the podium every single race and last weekend he was able to win the first heat of the Latvian Grand Prix. The Belgian rider is still fourth in the championship, but he is just eighth points away from Desalle, so his goal is keeping on being consistent and entering the top three by the end of the season.

Rockstar Energy Suzuki World’s Kevin Strijbos has been really consistent during the whole season and he has always been able to finish around the top five, top six almost every weekend. The Belgian rider has been on the podium only once this year, so he hopes to have better starts from now onwards and try to finish among the top three in the Grand Prix to come.
In the last few Grand Prix Tommy Searle has been really close to finish on the podium and he has been racing at the same rhythm as Gautier Paulin and Clement Desalle. The British rider is sixth in the championship just nine points away from Strijbos, so this weekend he might finish on the podium and move up one position in the standings.

Max Nagl is seventh in the championship, but Jeremy Van Horebeek is just one point behind him. Rui Gonçalves is ninth and Davide Guarneri is tenth.


MX2
Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Jeffrey Herlings has dominated every single Grand Prix since the beginning of the season and if he obtains another overall victory this weekend it will be the twelfth one in a row and he will be on par with Stefan Evert’s record. Herlings is especially confident this weekend because he knows that he will find a sandy track in Hyvinkää, so he knows that nobody can stop him when it comes to a sand race.

His teammate Jordi Tixier was back on the podium last weekend but he was a little bit disappointed because he was only able to finish third overall. The Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider admitted that he made several mistakes when he was trying to push maybe too hard to catch his teammate, so this weekend he will be focused not to make major mistakes and try to finish as close as possible to Herlings.

Silver Action KTM’s José Butrón is still third in the MX2 standings and his second place last weekend in Kegums made him open the gap with Christophe Charlier. At the moment the Spanish rider has 31 points advantage over Charlier, so he needs to keep on obtaining solid results if he wants to finish among the best three MX2 riders in the world.

Monster Energy Yamaha’s Christophe Charlier had a difficult weekend in Kegums, especially in the second heat when he had a big crash in the beginning of the race. The French rider managed to finish the race but down in the 20th position, so he knows that this weekend he needs to do well if he wants to catch Butrón in the point standings.

Standing Construct KTM’s Glenn Coldenhoff was shinning again in Kegums last weekend, but he missed the podium due to a crash in the beginning of the second race. The Dutch rider did a very good qualifying race and he finished third in the first moto on Sunday, so Coldenhoff recuperated a little bit his confidence and this weekend he is ready to fight for what it would be his first podium of the season.

Dean Ferris had some problems to ride among the top three riders in Latvia, but he managed to keep the sixth position in the point standings. However, British rider Jake Nicholls is just one point behind the Australian. Alessandro Lupino is currently eighth and Max Anstie and Petar Petrov, who did a fantastic race in Kegums, complete the top ten of the MX2 classification.

Harri Kullas, who has recently confirmed that he will finish the 2013 season with Team Sahkar Racing, is looking forward to racing on home soil this weekend. The Finnish rider has undergone a lot of ups and downs this season, but he hopes to have a consistent end of the season with the new team.

TIMETABLE
Saturday: MX2 Free Practice 9:30; MX1 Free Practice 10:15; EMX250 Group 1 Free + Qualifying Time Practice 11:00; EMX250 Group 2 Free + Qualifying Time Practice 11:40; MX2 Pre-Qualifying Practice 13:15; MX1 Pre-Qualifying Practice 14:00; EMX250 Semi Final Group 1 14:50; EMX250 Semi Final Group 2 15:30; MX2 Qualifying Race 16:10; MX1 Qualifying Race 17:00, EMX250 Last Chance Qualifying Practice 17:40.

Sunday: EMX250 Warm up 8:30; MX2 Warm up 9:00; MX1 Warm up 9:30; EMX250 FINAL 11:10; MX2 Grand Prix Race 1 12:10; MX1 Grand Prix Race 1 13:10; MX2 Grand Prix Race 2 15:01; MX1 Grand Prix race 2 16:07.