It was an up and down weekend for New Zealand’s Ben Townley at round two of the Motocross World Championships in Thailand overnight.

The Bay of Plenty man took his Suzuki RM-Z450 to win the MXGP qualifying race on Saturday but then DNFed moto one on Sunday when he crashed. He bounced back to score a solid second in moto two and is now tenth overall in the championship after two of 18 rounds, just ahead of 2015’s MXGP world No.2 Gautier Paulin, of France.

Reigning World MXGP Champion Romain Febvre (Yamaha YZF450F) won the Thai round and now leads the series, with a six point gap back to Slovenia’s 2015 MX2 world champion Tim Gajser (Honda CRF450).

Febvre won the first moto after a titanic struggle with eight times world champion Antonio Cairoli (KTM SX450) and Gajser. Townley was running fourth and in a good position to mount a challenge when he crashed. Fortunately, he was not badly injured.

In the second moto, Townley got away with the leaders once again and this time his Suzuki ran hard for the entire distance. From fifth place early on, Townley passed Swiss rider Valentin Guillod (Yamaha), German Max Nagl (Husqvarna) and Britain’s Shaun Simpson (KTM) to take over second place.

Townley was riding hard and was six seconds behind Febvre after just four laps. From there, Townley rode to his pit board, and let Febvre stretch away to an 11 second lead but as the race wound down, the Frenchman slowed and Townley reeled him in.

Febvre was totally exhausted when he took the chequered flag – with Townley just six seconds behind and closing and Nagl another two seconds back.

Cairoli finished 12th after getting caught in the gate at the start and completing the first lap second from last.

With two rounds run, Febvre leads the championship with 92 points to Gajser’s 86, with Russian Evgeny Bobryshev third with 74.

“I blew it. I made a mistake that caught me out of the blue,” said Townley afterwards.

“It was on the last roller and I was in the wrong gear. I was caught out by how slick it was and got ejected. I was up ready to salvage something but the radiator was damaged and I was lucky to make it back to the pits. In the second moto obviously the result was much better but it was tough.

“Someone jumped the gate beside me so I was late off the line. I started in sixth and worked my way up; I think I had a bit more spark than the other boys. In the end I gave everything I had and I had to talk myself through to the end. It was a mission.

“Overall I’m not concerned about the podium but the 18 points that I threw away. It’s really disappointing. We are still working on the bike quite a lot, and have made progress every session since starting in Qatar, but there is still work to do on the engine and suspension especially. Onto the next one.”

Photo courtesy Ray Archer

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RESULTS & STANDINGS:

MXGP class

MXGP Race 1 Top Ten: 1. Romain Febvre (FRA, Yamaha), 34:04.313; 2. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), +0:02.775; 3. Tim Gajser (SLO, Honda), +0:05.871; 4. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, Honda), +0:18.040; 5. Jeremy Van Horebeek (BEL, Yamaha), +0:21.958; 6. Tommy Searle (GBR, Kawasaki), +0:33.137; 7. Gautier Paulin (FRA, Honda), +0:36.125; 8. Kevin Strijbos (BEL, Suzuki), +0:47.200; 9. Shaun Simpson (GBR, KTM), +0:51.008; 10. Christophe Charlier (FRA, Husqvarna), +0:59.191.

MXGP Race 2 Top Ten: 1. Romain Febvre (FRA, Yamaha), 34:41.154; 2. Ben Townley (NZL, Suzuki), +0:06.038; 3. Maximilian Nagl (GER, Husqvarna), +0:07.876; 4. Jeremy Van Horebeek (BEL, Yamaha), +0:10.723; 5. Tim Gajser (SLO, Honda), +0:20.508; 6. Shaun Simpson (GBR, KTM), +0:23.325; 7. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, Honda), +0:32.355; 8. Jose Butron (ESP, KTM), +0:36.229; 9. Gautier Paulin (FRA, Honda), +0:38.176; 10. Valentin Guillod (SUI, Yamaha), +0:41.132.

MXGP Overall Top Ten: 1. Romain Febvre (FRA, YAM), 50 points; 2. Tim Gajser (SLO, HON), 36 p.; 3. Jeremy Van Horebeek (BEL, YAM), 34 p.; 4. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, HON), 32 p.; 5. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), 31 p.; 6. Shaun Simpson (GBR, KTM), 27 p.; 7. Gautier Paulin (FRA, HON), 26 p.; 8. Kevin Strijbos (BEL, SUZ), 23 p.; 9. Ben Townley (NZL, SUZ), 22 p.; 10. Tommy Searle (GBR, KAW), 22 p.

MXGP Championship Top Ten: 1. Romain Febvre (FRA, YAM), 92 points; 2. Tim Gajser (SLO, HON), 86 p.; 3. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, HON), 74 p.; 4. Jeremy Van Horebeek (BEL, YAM), 68 p.; 5. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), 64 p.; 6. Shaun Simpson (GBR, KTM), 57 p.; 7. Kevin Strijbos (BEL, SUZ), 48 p.; 8. Tommy Searle (GBR, KAW), 47 p.; 9. Maximilian Nagl (GER, HUS), 44 p.; 10. Ben Townley (NZL, SUZ), 42 p.

MX2 class

MX2 Race 1 Top Ten: 1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 34:33.241; 2. Aleksandr Tonkov (RUS, Yamaha), +0:32.233; 3. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, Suzuki), +0:37.283; 4. Benoit Paturel (FRA, Yamaha), +0:41.235; 5. Thomas Covington (USA, Husqvarna), +0:59.709; 6. Petar Petrov (BUL, Kawasaki), +1:12.586; 7. Vsevolod Brylyakov (RUS, Kawasaki), +1:26.229; 8. Samuele Bernardini (ITA, TM), +1:34.550; 9. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KTM), +1:39.392; 10. Roberts Justs (LAT, KTM), -1 lap(s)

MX2 Race 2 Top Ten: 1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 34:48.194; 2. Max Anstie (GBR, Husqvarna), +0:24.954; 3. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, Suzuki), +0:26.854; 4. Aleksandr Tonkov (RUS, Yamaha), +0:39.636; 5. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KTM), +0:43.934; 6. Benoit Paturel (FRA, Yamaha), +0:50.686; 7. Alvin Östlund (SWE, Yamaha), +1:30.625; 8. Brent Van doninck (BEL, Yamaha), +1:35.213; 9. Vsevolod Brylyakov (RUS, Kawasaki), +1:36.124; 10. Petar Petrov (BUL, Kawasaki), +1:39.906

MX2 Overall Top Ten: 1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 50 points; 2. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, SUZ), 40 p.; 3. Aleksandr Tonkov (RUS, YAM), 40 p.; 4. Benoit Paturel (FRA, YAM), 33 p.; 5. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KTM), 28 p.; 6. Vsevolod Brylyakov (RUS, KAW), 26 p.; 7. Petar Petrov (BUL, KAW), 26 p.; 8. Alvin Östlund (SWE, YAM), 24 p.; 9. Max Anstie (GBR, HUS), 22 p.; 10. Samuele Bernardini (ITA, TM), 22 p.

MX2 Championship Top Ten: 1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 100 points; 2. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, SUZ), 74 p.; 3. Aleksandr Tonkov (RUS, YAM), 70 p.; 4. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KTM), 68 p.; 5. Petar Petrov (BUL, KAW), 56 p.; 6. Samuele Bernardini (ITA, TM), 47 p.; 7. Benoit Paturel (FRA, YAM), 46 p.; 8. Dylan Ferrandis (FRA, KAW), 44 p.; 9. Brent Van doninck (BEL, YAM), 44 p.; 10. Vsevolod Brylyakov (RUS, KAW), 38 p.