By: Eric Johnson - High Drama in Great Britain: Searle and Cairoli win; Ramon takes MX1 title lead - “It would be so good to win here with all my family and friends here,” said Tommy Searle of winning the pole for Sunday’s Grand Prix of Great Britain.

24 hours later, on Sunday, August 26, 2007 at Donington Park, Tommy Searle did, in fact, win the Grand Prix of Great Britain, using 2-1 moto scores to take the measure of Jeremy Tarroux.

“It's been a perfect day, I wanted to win the first moto, but I knew it was about the last race,” beamed Searle in the media tent. “I am glad I got this one out of the way. I had been close to winning a GP, but getting this win out of the way was perfect.”

Searle placed a close second to French rider Nicolas Aubin in the opening moto, then backed it up with a resounding win in the second moto. Second overall in the UK was young French rider Jeremy Tarroux, while Nicolas Aubin, who won the opening moto, was third.

“I managed to win the opening moto and my speed was good, but Tommy came back on me,” explained Aubin. “He wanted to win and he put me under a lot of pressure. He wanted to win his home GP and I understand that. The second moto was difficult, I had a bad start and Tommy got a good start and pulled away, the GP was over for me. I wanted to win this GP so bad. I recovered to fifth place, but it wasn't enough to win the GP.”

As far as the MX1 class was concerned, there was also plenty of high drama in the United Kingdom. Recently crowned MX2 World Champion Antonio Cairoli had been bumped up to the MX1 class for the British Grand Prix, while Josh Coppins, finally returning from injury, was back to action, hoping to fend off a hard charging Steve Ramon for the 2007 MX1 World Championship.

In the opening MX1 moto, Billy Mackenzie held the lead for the first six laps before staling his motorcycle. With that, young Cairoli went flying by and into the lead. Meanwhile, back in ninth, Coppins was struggling, no doubt feeling the effects of his damaged shoulder. Cairoli held the lead up to lap number nine when Kevin Strijbos moved in and made the pass. Strijbos would continue to motor away while Cairoli held on to place second. World Championship hopeful Steve Ramon finished sixth in the moto, while Coppins was 14th, his championship lead over Ramon down to just four points.

Moto two at Donington will no doubt go down in the history books as Antonio Cairoli grabbed the holeshot and just plain cleared out to both win the moto, as well as the Grand Prix of Great Britain overall. Quite a premier performance for the amazing little Italian rider. Behind Cairoli, the fate of the 2007 MX1 World Championship rested on the handlebars of Steve Ramon and Josh Coppins. With the moto beginning to wind down, Coppins, struggling at the rear of the field, pulled out of the race, while Ramon raced all the way up to fourth. When the points were all added up at the end of the day, it was determined that Ramon — despite not having won a Grand Prix (yet) in 2007 — now led the MX1 World Championship by 14 points.

Still, the man of the day was certainly Cairoli.

“I am very happy for sure. I didn’t expect to win. I had just 20 minutes training with the 450 bike, this track has many bumps and I didn't have the speed in the corners,” he said of his race. “In the second moto I lead from the start, so that was easier than the first. There isn't a big difference from the 250cc and 450cc, but the 450 is so powerful.”