US-Boy Mike Brown wins Dortmund Supercross by a margin
Three days of excellent racing at the Westfalen-Halle
by Bernd Kroemer / Photos by Holger Kroemer

I was very honoured when I received the invitation to the Jubilee-Event “25-Years of Supercross in Dortmund” in Germany. Quality racing in front of nearly 30,000 spectators, the usual Laser-Show, Freestyle and the loudest Fireworks south of the North Pole!

Friday Night: Rodriq Thain from France was the “Überflieger” on this night, won all the heats, until the referee made a major mistake in the final race. Florent Richier blocked  his countryman in the start bend and Thain crashed heavily. Ready for a restart Thain climbed on his bike only to learn that he will be excluded from the Final! Believe me, he was fuming. Same applies to Fabien Izoird and Canadian Doug DeHaan who were leading the pack before the aforementioned crash occurred. After the restart it was Frenchman Cyrille Coulon who set the pace and only Mike Brown (pictured right) and Florent Richier could follow his speed.

Friday Result: 1. Cyrille Coulon (F) Suzuki; 2. Florent Richier (F) Kawasaki ; 3. Mike Brown (USA) Honda ; 4. Gordon Crockard (IRL) Honda ; 5. Travis Preston (USA) Kawasaki.

Saturday-Night: Saturday night was the night of Frenchman Thain. His threat to refrain from ever racing again in Dortmund, was forgotten. Julian Vanni, his countryman, was his biggest competitor and only a fatal crash in the last lap by Vanni was a victory delived on a silver-platter. Coulon the winner of the previous night also was hampered by a crash in the start bent and only finished 7th. Daniel Siegl from Germany however was the hero of the crowd. After a stupid mistake in the “last chance qualifier”, the jury supplied him with a wildcard for the final. Siegl fought like a tiger, the crowd pushed him… pushed him too hard. Nevertheless his fight with US-Boy Travis Preston was the talk for many days after this event.

Saturday Result: 1. Rodriq Thain (FRA) Suzuki; 2. Richier; 3. Brown; 4. Vanni; 5. Preston.

Sunday Afternoon: Who would become “König von Dortmund” that was the question, after all he would receive a Toyota Yaris motorcar out of the box! Coulon had to go via the “last chance qualifier”, but played no major role in the final. Richier had a bad start and could not move forward from his 7th position. Brown, trailing behind leader Vanni, knew that he was in the lead and made sure that Joaquim Rodrigues would stay in distance.

Then it happened, Thain in fourth position crashed after the finish-table and lay unconscious on the track. Because two thirds of the race were already completed the referees stopped the race, thus giving the overall victory to Brown, one point ahead of Richier.

Total points “König von Dortmund”: 1. Brown (52 points); 2. Richier (51); 3. Coulon (42); 4. Vanni (38) ; 5. Preston (31), 6. Thain (25) ; 7. DeHaan (23) ; 8. Crockard (19) ; 9. Izoird (17) ; 10. Lopes (17).

In the SX 2 Class it was Frenchman Marvin Musquin of the Sturm Racing-Team who demonstrated excellent supercross skills. He won the “Prinz of Dortmund” title ahead of Rinus van de Ven (Netherlands) and Germany’s 13-year-old superstar Ken Roczen.

Florent Richier (France)



Busti Wolter



Ken Roczen



Ken Roczen



Rodrig Thain



Swian Zanoni (Brazil)



Bernd Kroemer (our writer of this story) watches intently with Erika.



The girl in charge of the 15 second board



Freestyle action from Dortmund.