Italy’s Antonio Cairoli has perhaps just one week to wait until he’s world champion once again.

He is now 96 points in front with just two rounds to go in this year’s Motocross World Championships after the weekend’s 17th round of the series at Jacksonville, in Florida.

Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Cairoli, an eight-time world champion, is closing in on title No.9, with his main rival and KTM team-mate, Dutchman Jeffrey Herlings, able to close the gap in Florida but still he remains a long way behind the Italian superstar.

Herlings won the weekend in Florida with 2-1 results.

Newly-crowned American 450cc Motocross Champion, Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team’s Eli Tomac, won the first MXGP race of the weekend, but the man from Colorado finished third in race two and had to settle for the No.2 spot on the GP podium.

Cairoli’s 3-2 score-card in Florida was easily enough for him to protect his position at the top of the championship standings.

In the MX2 class, Geico Honda’s RJ Hampshire won the event, while Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Pauls Jonass kept his championship leader’s red plate to take back to Europe next week.

MXGP CLASS

Race one started with holeshot from Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Max Nagl, followed by American hero Tomac. Tomac came into the day with a strong time in the MXGP Warm Up after a disappointing qualifying race on Saturday but managed to lead every lap of race one ahead of everyone, including the former world champion Team HRC’s Tim Gajser for the first five laps.

Behind Gajser originally was Nagl, Team Suzuki World MXGP’s Arminas Jasikonis, Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team’s Clement Desalle, and Autotrader/JGR/Suzuki Team’s Justin Barcia. Jasikonis, while running third, went over the bars on a large tabletop which would end his day painfully. Meanwhile Barcia fell out of fifth early in lap two into 10th, which happened to be where Herlings was coming back from off of the start.

By the end of lap two Herlings was up to fifth behind Cairoli. Herlings made it by Cairoli one lap later and moved into third past Nagl two laps after that. Cairoli followed and the battle was on between the points leader and Nagl.

While Cairoli found his way by Nagl, Herlings had passed Gajser and set his sight on the long gone Tomac. Cairoli was keen to pass Gajser as well and did so relatively quickly. With Tomac out front Herlings had too much time to make up and decided to maintain both his gap over Cairoli and his energy. At the chequered flag, Tomac won the race by 28 seconds over Herlings, Cairoli, Gajser, and Nagl.

The race two holeshot went to Cairoli, ahead of Herlings, Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Gautier Paulin and Tomac. From there it was an all out sprint from the KTM duo. It was clear Cairoli wanted to take home the title as he put in the fastest lap of the race on lap three of 16. Herlings nearly matched the pace of Cairoli as he pushed to keep the championship from being decided this weekend.

Tomac meanwhile had found his way past Paulin, who had a miraculous race one crash. Paulin wasn’t the only rider who was making a comeback from a disappointing race 1 as Suzuki World MXGP’s Kevin Strijbos tried to rebound from a bike issue. Strijbos indeed did rebound and came out with a season-best race finish of fifth.

Monster Energy Yamaha Factory Racing’s Romain Febvre took a nasty spill in race one and in turn wisely decided to sit out race two.

On lap eight, Cairoli made a mistake in a corner while leading which allowed Herlings to take over the top spot. Herlings never looked back and won the race by 15 seconds over Cairoli to take the overall.

Herlings in the press conference said: “Today I felt really good, I had a great battle in the first race, obviously me and Tony both had a bad start and Eli … was gone. By the time we were second and third he had a big gap. I was second for the first race, which was pretty good, I kept everything open for the overall.

“Second race I had a good start, followed Tony and just waited for the last couple of laps, I knew it was going to be brutal and both of would be tired in the end. I didn’t want to pass him too quick because I know Tony will fight back and I was actually waiting either for a mistake or to attack him the last 3 or 4 laps. I stayed close to him and he made a small crash and he handed it over to me.

“So I’m very satisfied with a 2-1 and winning the overall, I had some great battles with my team-mate so hopefully many more will come and I’m looking forward to my home GP next weekend.”

While Cairoli took second in race 2 he took third overall and lost eight points in the championship to Herlings.

“We are always happy to finish on the podium, in a season like this it is really important to be consistent and that is what we have done,” said Cairoli afterwards.

“It is one of my best seasons ever and I want to get the title as soon as possible to have some time on the last races because I’m riding a little bit carefully, I don’t want to crash or break something. I did my best to close it today, I could let him go easily but I tried to fight back and yes I made a mistake, but this is part of racing.”

Eli Tomac took third in race two, 29 seconds back from Herlings and, when combined with his impressive race one win, he scored second overall for the day.

Tomac said: “Yesterday I thought I wouldn’t even be here up on the podium, luckily we were able to get things turned around and I came a little bit alive this morning in the warm-up and then race 1 got a good start, put in some good laps, had good energy, and was feeling pretty good. Race 2 though, that one caught up to me, for one these two (Herlings and Cairoli) were laying down a heater pace especially at the beginning and you know I lost touch … third is all I really had in me there. I’m pretty satisfied on the weekend for how we were going yesterday.”

Photo courtesy Juan Pablo Acevedo, Red Bull

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RESULTS & STANDINGS:

MXGP Race 1 Top Ten:

1. Eli Tomac (USA, Kawasaki), 35:45.724; 2. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), +0:28.267; 3. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), +0:36.781; 4. Tim Gajser (SLO, Honda), +0:44.426; 5. Maximilian Nagl (GER, Husqvarna), +0:50.234; 6. Max Anstie (GBR, Husqvarna), +0:55.850; 7. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, KTM), +0:58.113; 8. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, Honda), +1:03.577; 9. Clement Desalle (BEL, Kawasaki), +1:05.334; 10. Jeremy Van Horebeek (BEL, Yamaha), +1:14.770.

MXGP Race 2 Top Ten:

1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 35:50.247; 2. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), +0:15.990; 3. Eli Tomac (USA, Kawasaki), +0:29.282; 4. Gautier Paulin (FRA, Husqvarna), +0:37.540; 5. Kevin Strijbos (BEL, Suzuki), +0:41.951; 6. Max Anstie (GBR, Husqvarna), +0:47.523; 7. Tim Gajser (SLO, Honda), +0:52.404; 8. Clement Desalle (BEL, Kawasaki), +1:00.454; 9. Jeremy Van Horebeek (BEL, Yamaha), +1:06.688; 10. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, KTM), +1:13.118.

MXGP Overall Top Ten:

1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 47 points; 2. Eli Tomac (USA, KAW), 45 p.; 3. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), 42 p.; 4. Tim Gajser (SLO, HON), 32 p.; 5. Max Anstie (GBR, HUS), 30 p.; 6. Maximilian Nagl (GER, HUS), 26 p.; 7. Clement Desalle (BEL, KAW), 25 p.; 8. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, KTM), 25 p.; 9. Jeremy Van Horebeek (BEL, YAM), 23 p.; 10. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, HON), 22 p.

MXGP Championship Top Ten:

1. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), 673 points; 2. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 577 p.; 3. Gautier Paulin (FRA, HUS), 545 p.; 4. Clement Desalle (BEL, KAW), 544 p.; 5. Tim Gajser (SLO, HON), 485 p.; 6. Romain Febvre (FRA, YAM), 441 p.; 7. Jeremy Van Horebeek (BEL, YAM), 400 p.; 8. Maximilian Nagl (GER, HUS), 390 p.; 9. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, KTM), 377 p.; 10. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, HON), 366 p.

MX2 Race 1 Top Ten:

1. RJ Hampshire (USA, Honda), 36:18.487; 2. Thomas Covington (USA, Husqvarna), +0:03.630; 3. Hunter Lawrence (AUS, Suzuki), +0:04.689; 4. Mitchell Harrison (USA, Yamaha), +0:06.477; 5. Thomas Kjer Olsen (DEN, Husqvarna), +0:16.340; 6. Chase Sexton (USA, Honda), +0:21.813; 7. Brian Bogers (NED, KTM), +0:25.789; 8. Justin Cooper (USA, Yamaha), +0:28.740; 9. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, Suzuki), +0:40.481; 10. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KTM), +0:49.613.

MX2 Race 2 Top Ten:

1. RJ Hampshire (USA, Honda), 34:28.589; 2. Hunter Lawrence (AUS, Suzuki), +0:01.190; 3. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, Suzuki), +0:02.826; 4. Thomas Covington (USA, Husqvarna), +0:15.486; 5. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KTM), +0:23.499; 6. Brent Van doninck (BEL, Yamaha), +0:25.316; 7. Julien Lieber (BEL, KTM), +0:29.345; 8. Chase Sexton (USA, Honda), +0:32.742; 9. Mitchell Harrison (USA, Yamaha), +0:34.681; 10. Brian Bogers (NED, KTM), +0:39.847.

MX2 Overall Top Ten:

1. RJ Hampshire (USA, HON), 50 points; 2. Hunter Lawrence (AUS, SUZ), 42 p.; 3. Thomas Covington (USA, HUS), 40 p.; 4. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, SUZ), 32 p.; 5. Mitchell Harrison (USA, YAM), 30 p.; 6. Chase Sexton (USA, HON), 28 p.; 7. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KTM), 27 p.; 8. Thomas Kjer Olsen (DEN, HUS), 26 p.; 9. Brent Van doninck (BEL, YAM), 25 p.; 10. Brian Bogers (NED, KTM), 25 p.

MX2 Championship Top Ten:

1. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KTM), 696 points; 2. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, SUZ), 656 p.; 3. Thomas Kjer Olsen (DEN, HUS), 523 p.; 4. Benoit Paturel (FRA, YAM), 504 p.; 5. Thomas Covington (USA, HUS), 457 p.; 6. Julien Lieber (BEL, KTM), 450 p.; 7. Jorge Prado Garcia (ESP, KTM), 392 p.; 8. Brian Bogers (NED, KTM), 356 p.; 9. Hunter Lawrence (AUS, SUZ), 326 p.; 10. Brent Van doninck (BEL, YAM), 298 p.