Leok and Guarneri want to score in California

World MX1 Championship, US GP

Eleven years after the last GP on American soil the World Motocross Championship returns to the United States. The sixth GP of the season takes place in San Bernardino, California. This weekend the GP riders will take on one of American motocross's monuments: the legendary Glen Helen track. For most of them, this will be unchartered territory. This means that "local" guest riders such as Mike Alessi and Ben Townley will benefit from their knowledge of the track. The fast and highly spectacular track that incorporates Mount St. Helen has been a regular fixture on the AMA Nationals calendar for years. The last ever GP that was held in Glen Helen dates back to 1992. Back then the 500cc World Championship contenders paid the SoCal track a visit.

For the LS Motors-Honda riders the US GP means an opportunity to make up some places in the current world MX1 Championship standings. Both Davide Guarneri and Tanel Leok, who won the Spanish GP two weeks ago, seem to be in excellent shape. Last weekend the duo shared the heat wins in the International race in Wuustwezel (Belgium) between them. Leok is the first Honda rider in the World MX1 standings, currently laying in 8th. The points gap between him and the 4th placed Desalle is only 23 points. Reigning Italian MX1 champion Guarneri is currently tenth in the World MX1 Championship.

Tanel Leok
"I am definitely looking forward to this GP, as it will be only my third ever visit to the US. Back in 2007 I rode the Budds Creek MX of Nations for team Estonia. On my very first trip to the US I went practicing in Glen Helen. Back then it seemed a nice track with some excellent soil and lots of grip. But we'll probably have to wait to see how much of the actual track has been left untouched. I can imagine they had to modify some thing in order to comply with the rules regarding an FIM GP-track. But it's definitely not concrete and because of the busy practice and race schedule it will roughen up during the course of the weekend. (smiles) But of course I won't mind!"

Davide Guarneri
"My American experience is limited. The 2007 Motocross of Nations in Budds Creek has so far been my only motocross experience in America. Actually it was a bit of a strange race. I did the race on a 450 as the Italian team needed two riders on big bikes. It was my very first race on an MX1 one bike. I didn't even practice on one. The conditions were far from ideal also because of the immense pressure that the MX of Nations brings with it. But this time I'll arrive much more relaxed in the US. I left on monday just to have normal build-up to the race. The track really looks the part and the soil is definitely special. It's actually quite soft though it isn't really sand. I just hope that it won't be too hot, because that was a major problem in Budds Creek. The fact that we'll have some fast riders guesting this weekend might be interesting for the fans, but I'm not bothered about it."

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