Showing no signs of slowing down, Tony Cairoli from the Red Bull KTM Factory Team, gave an outstanding performance at this year’s 2017 FIM World Motocross Championship and was named the world champion for an incredible ninth time. While fellow team mate Pauls Jonass stole the MX2 Championship title from his competition.
At 31, Tony Cairoli is one of the older competitors, his age combined with a recent track record of injury, meant that he wasn’t always the favourite to win the championship, but against all odds he pulled it out of the bag for an impressive ninth time. Tony comments: “It was an important championship for me because I didn’t start as the favourite, and for everybody who was ‘talking’ [doubting and criticizing] this is for them. I know what it takes to make a solid and consistent championship. We made it and I’m really happy about this. It was an amazing season, one of my best. It is amazing that I can still improve myself after almost fifteen years in the world championship. I’m proud of this and I think we can still work to be a bit better in some cases but right now I want to enjoy this title. It is the first with the KTM 450 SX-F for me, which is very special. The rest were with the 350 and when I was injured, we were never really in a position where we could test [the 450] a lot. This year I felt very good with the bike and we improved a lot in the winter.â€
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Pauls Jonass either, but he pushed through to put himself in excellent stead for 2018. Pauls explains: “It has been my dream since I started riding to be world champion and I accomplished that in the first moto. I made it tough for myself by crashing in the second corner then got up, cleaned everything and crashed in the next corner! I started from dead last but could finish fifth for the championship. My motivation was a bit down for the second moto but I was feeling good by the end and started to ‘go’. Fifteen podiums from nineteen is a pretty good season and I’m looking forward for some holidays! I’m also happy to finish the year without injury so we can go straight into preparing for 2018 after some time off.â€
As Motorex’s sole distributor in the UK and distribution partner for 18 years, Bickers is proud of KTM’s results and to be offering premium products from the leading oil and lubricant brand to dealers around the UK, with great profit margins and next day delivery.
Motorex is the largest oil blending and manufacturing company in Switzerland, shipping to over 75 countries around the world and this year it proudly celebrated its 100th birthday. More about the company can be found at www.motorex.com.
Photo Credit: R. Archer / KTM Images