Another win for Pichon as Crockard maintains second overall

WORLD 250 Motorcross GP champion Mickael Pichon sealed his ninth win of the season in Italy, as Ulsterman Gordon Crockard took a fifth to hold on to second in the series table.

France’s Pichon looked every bit the new world champion as he stormed ahead on lap four to pull out a healthy lead at the flag, while yet another sluggish start for Crockard left him with hard work to fight his way through the pack.

His performance means he has a 12 point lead over Australia’s Chad Reed going into the final round of the series for the prestigious second overall in the series. Reed took second in Italy on his works Kawasaki.

In the Open class, the only series with the title undecided, Joel Smets won from Belgian countryman Stefan Everts to set up a last-race decider for the title. With a 23 point lead in hand, Everts must finish lower than 13th while Smets wins for the KTM man to retain his title… and if Everts’ Yamaha makes the finish one would expect him to be on the podium. Swede Johnny Lindhe took third on a Husqvarna.

In the 125 class, in which Britain’s Jamie Dobb has already won the title, Norway’s Kenneth Gundersen took his third win of the year.

The final races are at Karnternring in Austria next weekend.