Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Tony Cairoli settled his career eighth world motocross title. At the Goias Motocross Grand Prix in Brazil Tony Cairoli crossed the line in fifth place in the opening race to give him an unbeatable lead in the championship points of 89 with just 75 up for grabs in the three races that remained. Despite racing with a painful eye injury picked up in Saturday’s qualifying, Cairoli, a Red Bull sponsored athlete, rode his KTM 350 SX-F to a 4-3 result on Sunday for his eventual overall third.
Cairoli said it was amazing to have taken his eighth title. “When you are a kid you wish for such a thing but you never think you can do it,” he said. “Its hard work but it gives you back many good things. I managed to finish on the podium in all but three races and that was good to achieve points for the season.
Red Bull Teka KTM factory rider Tony Cairoli on Sunday sealed the 2011 MX1 World Championship title to retain the number one position in the sport for yet another year. It was the Italian rider’s fifth world title and another testament to his superb skill on all racing surfaces, his legendary fighting spirit and his wily race tactics that often see him go on the attack in the closing stages of a race. Cairoli settled the matter of retaining the title after the first moto at Gaildorf, Germany in the GP of Europe with one moto and one GP still in hand. It is the second consecutive year that Cairoli has triumphed on the light and lively KTM 350 SX-F factory bike, developed with input from KTM’s factory team boss Stefan Everts and so successfully launched in 2010. The Italian factory rider’s season was, however, not as straightforward as he would have liked.
After a setback with injury in the opening round in Bulgaria he then set about showing his usual tactical brilliance and absolute determination to consistently score as many points as possible to put him in range of the title. Despite his knee injury in Bulgaria Tony still managed to pick up 25 championship points. In fact that proved to be the lowest scoring round of the competition. His unsettling injury problem may have kept him leaning on the side of caution in the first half of the season but he was still rarely off the podium.
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