Sunday, April 10 2011
FIM MX1 Motocross World Championship – Round 1
Sevlievo – Bulgaria – 10/04/11
Shaun Simpson LS Racing Honda endured a tough MX1 GP debut after he placed 13 – 16 in Sunday’s main two motos, which fell short of his target of a pair of top ten positions. Despite not enjoying the best of day’s there were plenty of positives for the twenty-three year old who showed his speed during Saturday’s qualifying sessions and during Sunday’s warm up period. Simpson gave himself an uphill task in race one when he failed to get a good initial jump and found himself mid-pack come the first turn. The young Scot made amends in the second moto with a strong start, but was soon halted as a rider crashed immediately in front of him as the pack swung right, forcing Shaun to a halt and back to almost last place. Simpson’s debut in the premier MXGP class begun well with the LS Racing Honda rider setting the fourth fastest time in free practice on the fast and hilly circuit. Strong winds played havoc with track conditions as the organisers fought to keep the circuit damp as the surface dried as quick as they could get the water down. Although the circumstances did not particularly suit Shaun he continued to show his pace on the bigger capacity machine as he put in a series of flying laps to grab second spot come the end of the pre-qualifying session.
Shaun used his good gate pick for Saturday afternoon’s qualifying race to put himself right amongst the front runners as the pack filtered through the first series of jumps and momentarily moved up into second place during the initial stages of the twenty minute plus two lap battle. Simpson pushed hard to stay in touch with the first few riders as the race begun to settle down, and ultimately paid the price for his early exertion as the moto wore on. Come the flag Britain’s leading MX1 MXGP contender had slipped to eleventh to give him a reasonable gate pick for Sunday’s main two races. Some light rain over night and further watering of the track, meant conditions were more to Shaun’s liking for Sunday morning’s warm up, this was confirmed as Simpson put in several fast laps and placed second come the close of the twenty minute period. This put Shaun in a confident, but realistic mood ahead of the two main showdowns later in the day. However despite his optimism Simpson was soon to learn about the cruel nature of the MX1 class as a poor start left him battling for a top fifteen place throughout the race and had to be content with thirteenth position for his efforts.
Using the power of the LS Racing Honda CRF450 Shaun dashed into the first turn of the second moto with a real chance of being at the sharp end of the action only to have Philippaerts hit the deck right in front of him. With nowhere to go Simpson was brought to an absolute halt with the stricken bike slap bang in his path. By the time Shaun had found a way around the crashed machine the pack was long gone and he faced an impossible task of playing catch up on a track where no one was making any real progress due to the sheer speed shown by so many riders. Sixteenth placed seemed a poor reward once again for the young Scot’s endeavour. Shaun explained. "Although I was looking forward to getting the GP season underway, I am not particularly a fan of this track even though it was where I got my first ever MX2 GP podium. It’s always fast, bumpy and hard here which is not my favourite type of track as it doesn’t really suit my style. That said yesterday went well and I showed that I have got good speed on the MX1 bike despite being new to this class. So overall I was pleased how things went yesterday." "I knew that good starts were going to be important today, and for two different reasons that didn’t end up happening. I have to take responsibility for making a mess of the start in the first moto, but in the second race it was just a case of bad luck. Even the fast guys have struggled to make progress through the pack today and that was the same for me. I am disappointed that I didn’t manage to get a couple of top ten results, but I am now looking forward to the next GP in the sand as there have been plenty of positives this weekend." Ended Simpson. FIM MX1 Motocross World Championship – Round 1 – Sevlievo MX1 Moto One: 1:Frossard 2: Desalle 3: Nagl 4:Philippaerts 5: Guarneri…13: Simpson MX 1 Moto Two: 1: Desalle 2: Frossard 3: Barragan 4:Bobryshev 5:Goncalves…16: Simpson MX1 Overall: 1: Desalle 47 2: Frossard 47 3:Barragan 35 4: Nagl 35 5: Goncalves 29…14: Simpson 13
