It was a big weekend at the 13^th round of the World Championship Motocross Series held in Northern Ireland at the brand-new Moneyglass Demesne track. There was a champion crowned, a race for another title tightened, rain that left the track extremely wet, and much more.

            For us, the trip to The GP of Northern Ireland was our first time to a World Championship Motocross race, and to say it was one of our best experiences at a race would be an understatement. Despite the rainy weather and muddy conditions, we had a blast learning about how racing is done on the other side of the Atlantic. So, to find out what really happened read on. If you want to know about the race, check it out by visiting the race report section on the site.

            Like we mentioned above, it was our first trip to a GP, and for the World Motocross series, it was its first time to the Moneyglass Demesne circuit as well. The track is cut into the rolling grass hills of Northern Ireland just a few miles outside of the booming city of Belfast. It features numerous elevation changes, huge jumps, and is wide enough to allow for various line choices despite what the track condition might be. As for what the riders thought of the track, there were some mixed emotions. While they all agreed that it probably had the potential to be one of the best on the GP tour, it was a little disappointing considering the muddy condition it was in. The conditions made it difficult to do the jumps, and created huge ruts in nearly every turn and jump face. Another interesting note about the track is that it is the 2008 location for the Motocross of Nations. The GP no doubt helped organizers to iron out the plans for the huge international race next year.

            Like we said, the track was pretty muddy for Saturday’s qualifying sessions. So muddy in fact, that the program was delayed until 12:00 and then again until 3:00. After that, the FIM Jury met again and made the decision to hold one session for each class. By Saturday, the weather had changed considerably, and after a massive amount of work to scrape mud off the track the night before, racers were treated to a far dryer track come Sunday.

            One rider that didn’t make it to the actual racing was GPRX Kawasaki’s young French rider Christophe Pourcel. During the morning warm-up/practice session on Sunday, Pourcel came together with another French rider, Nicholas Aubin on the landing of the jump. The subsequent collision caused both riders to fall, and Pourcel was left injured. We reported on the site earlier that the initial unofficial prognosis was that Pourcel broke his collarbone and had some severe pain in his back. After getting checked out by the hospital, it was discovered that he had dislocated his shoulder and nothing was broken in his back. They were, however, still going to run some more tests and scans to find out exactly what the pain was that Pourcel feeling in his back. As for Aubin, he obviously didn’t get injured, as he went on to holeshot and briefly lead the first MX2 moto. It isn’t confirmed yet, and Pourcel hasn’t decided for sure, however, early word is that he probably won’t be competing in the Motocross of Nations next month.

            In other Pourcel brother news, Christophe’s older brother Sebastien put together two consistent motos to secure second overall on the day in the MX1 class. Sebastien led the opening laps of the first moto, but a crash relegated him to fourth. By the end, he worked his way up to second behind Team Suzuki WMX GP’s Kevin Strijbos. After the race, Sebastien talked about his brother getting hurt. “It was difficult going out in the first moto, knowing that my brother was in the hospital,” he said. “Once I found out that his condition had improved, it made riding the second moto much easier.”

            Going into the race the big news was the fact that Team Yamaha’s Josh Coppins was out due to injury. Coppins broke his shoulder blade a few rounds ago. Before the injury, Coppins was the dominant force in the MX1 class, leading the championship by nearly 100 points. Now, his points lead has tightened up to under 30. This weekend, though, could have been Team Suzuki WMX GP’s Steve Ramon’s chance to take over the points lead. Unfortunately for Ramon, however, his day didn’t go exactly as planned. Even though he still finished a very respectable fifth overall, his day was hampered by a poor start in the first moto, which made him have to work for a decent finish. Coppins returns next weekend, and now that the title chase has come down to the wire, the remainder of the series should be pretty interesting.

            One championship that didn’t come down to the wire was the MX2 title. It was clinched this weekend pretty much before the racing started. All that team De Carli Yamaha’s Antonio Cairoli had to do was finish one position ahead of Christophe Pourcel, and after Pourcel crashed in practice the championship was all but Cairoli’s. Despite the unnecessary need to win the race, Cairoli still put on a riding clinic for the rest of the field. He took a decisive win in the first moto, and in the second came from well outside the top-10 to pass leader Team KTM Red Bull Racing’s Tommy Searle on the final lap and take to win.

            One interesting side note to Cairoli’s impressive second moto win was the fact that he rode most of the moto with broken spokes in his front wheel. The broken wheel made it so he couldn’t do most of the jumps on the track, and he still managed to catch Searle.

            One thing that the FIM and World Championship Series has right is the accommodations. The press center was arguable one of the nicest we have used at a motocross race, allowing us wireless internet that worked, refreshments, and constant updates on breaking news about riders and the event. As for the pits, they are also far different than that of an AMA National. Most of the team rigs are about half the size of the ones in the States and set up quite differently as well. All have enclosed pit areas with clean mats all throughout to help keep things a little nicer. We also noticed that the teams don’t use the traditional AMA National standard of Kawasaki Mules to get to and from the start of each race. We saw one particularly cool set up that made a cart out of spare wheels, a bike stand, and a handle. One last thing that we thought was interesting was that in comparison to the U.S. where Toyota sponsors the racing and displays cars in the infield, Hyundai Heavy Industries sponsored the Grand Prix of Northern Ireland, and in doing so, displayed a pair of tractors in the infield.

            Since there isn’t a production rule on the Grand Prix circuit like there in on the AMA Nationals, seeing all the trick equipment in the pits was pretty interesting. Aprilia and TM probably had some of the trickest or strangest bikes, depending on how you look at it. In the second MX1 moto, former World Champion Alesio Chiodi rode the developmental Aprilia to a top-10 finish. We also saw a cool carbon fiber one-piece subframe and airbox on the factory Yamaha YZ450F of Mark De Ruever.

            This season, there are only two American riders competing on the GP circuit: CAS Honda rider Mike Brown, and Swift Suzuki rider Sean Hamblin. So far this year, each has had varying levels of success, with Hamblin going through an up and down season and Brown winning a moto at the Grand Prix of Japan. At Moneyglass Brown took the first moto holeshot, and in the second moto, he was running in the top three for most of the race, however, he ran into problems and dropped out. As for Hamblin, he didn’t finish as well as he probably would have liked in the first MX2 moto, but in the second, he climbed his way up to an eventual eighth place finish. Check back later this week for an interview with Hamblin, where he talks about how his season has gone and adjusting to life in Europe.