If you were to cast a look around the track at the 2011 Latvian GP, you would be forgiven for thinking that you'd landed up at the world's biggest fireman convention. The hills were awash in a sea of red t-shirts, and all of those proudly bore the name of Matiss Karro, Latvia's greatest motocross star. The amiable young man had been on the up and up since recovering from an early season injury, and at his last world championship outing he proved that he had the pace to note a single digit placement next to his name.
IMAGE / Tinus Nel
The Route77energy MVR-D Honda rider came to the Latvian GP with a winner's trophy shining in the trophy cabinet. As is the custom, many of the GP regulars made a stopover in neighbouring Estonia to participate in the annual Somerpalu Motocross in the home town of Tanel Leok, and on this occasion, the Riga Rocket had all the goods to swing victory his way. During races he also finally got to meet the members of South African rock band Wake to Wonder, who are in the midst of a European tour. Rider and band have a mutual admiration society going on, and there was lots of light-hearted banter, especially so once Matiss had the biggest trophy secured.
All of the foregoing was on the periphery, however. The big one of the season for him would always be the Latvian GP, and with the expectation of a nation on his shoulder, Matiss was in high demand. TV interviews, journalists, fans and a mom that demanded that his room be cleaned up all vied for his attention, but in his laconic way, he breezed through all of this, with the possible exception of the cleaning up the room bit.
After posting the 14th fastest time in qualifying practice, Matiss had a solid, if unspectacular qualifying race to secure the 16th start gate choice for himself. He launched well into his first race, and looked set to join the fray in a top 10 position, when a collective sigh went up around the track. A rider had fallen just in front of him, and there was nothing he could do to avoid the new obstacle, which caused him to go down as well. By the time he got up, the race leaders were already in another postal code region, and his job was cut out for him to salvage as many points as possible. He did this with aplomb, and despite having to work away a massive time deficit, he barged all the way to 15th position for 6 valuable world championship points.
A roar went up at the start of race two as Matiss guided his Honda to seventh position. He gave as good as he got and held this position for a good few laps, but a mistake cost him a few sots and left him in danger of losing his top 10 position. He gnashed his teeth and bit back, and when the flag man called a large group of exhausted riders home, Matiss had a ninth place finish in his pocket. With two solid scores, he was tenth in the GP overall, and, more importantly, he had bounced two positions higher in the world championship standings, where he now occupies 22ns position.
The next GP is at Lommel in Belgium and the deep sand pits, notorious for killing giant reputations, are just what the doctor ordered for a sand rider on his way back to the front.
Team riders Erki Kahro and Lewis Tombs raced the EMX2 class and in the ultra competitive class rode respectable races. Lewis was unlucky in race one being involved in a first turn crash that ended his race early with a broken rad. The second race Lewis scored 2 points in a hard fought battle after a poor start. Erki only a few hundred miles from his home in Estonia finished 25th in race one after being held up in the first turn crash and then came so close to points from a bad start to get 21st place and gaining more experience for the young Estonian.
