RACE 2 (MX2 + OPEN)
Race 2 turned out to be cracker and, surprisingly, the battle of the MX2 class after early leader and holeshot winner Ivan Tedesco (MX3) faded leaving Italian MX2 rider Antonio Cairoli to run away with victory.
Behind Cairoli a war raged between the MX2 brigade with Ben Townley, Ryan Villopoto and Christophe Pourcel. Pourcel crossed up badly on a jump in the first half of the race and crashed leaving him out of the battle. This left Townley and Vilopoto continue their war. In the end Villopoto remained strong despite plowing into the trackside hay bales at one stage and almost bringing his day to an end then and there. Townley stayed solid until the end and only finished a bit over 3 seconds behind Villopoto in third.
Belgian Steve Ramon was the hard charger of the race coming from way down the field to finish fourth. Unfortunately for Ramon his team-mate Kevin Strijbos, who had followed him through the field, crashed near the end and was only recorded as 33rd, thus killing any chances Belgium had at the title.
The USA ended race 2 as tear away leaders on 13 points with New Zealand, on the back of Townley's 3rd and Cody Coopers' 17th the next best on 31 points and the Italians third on 34 points.
Brett Metcalfe ran well early for the Aussies but struck trouble and ended the race in 25th, one place behind team-mate Cheyne Boyd. Australia still maintained 11th outright.
RACE 3 (MX1 + OPEN)
With America so far out in font by the time the final race rolled around James Stewart and Ivan Tedesco would have had to packed up and headed to a strip club instead of racing to lose the 2006 Motocross of Nations for America, thus all the excitement was on the head to head battle between Everts and Stewart.
Philippaerts exploded out of the gate with Brit Billy McKenzie and Josh Coppins in tow. Everts and Stewart where never far away tough and the duo made it through the intense battle after Coppins crashed and McKenzie and Philippaerts succumbed to the cracking pace.
After that it became a pretty un-eventful race with Everts checking out and Stewart holding second to the flag. Team USA had done all it needed to take back to back Motocross of nations win's
Stefan Everts was awarded the MX1 winners plate, Ryan Villopoto was awarded the MX2 plate and Steve Ramon the MX3 plate
Results:
1 USA 15
2 Belgium 22
3 New Zealand 35
4 Italy 37
5 France 48
6 Great Britain 55
7 Republic of South Africa 59
8 Spain 67
9 Estonia 69
10 Finland 78
11 Australia 102
12 Japan 118
13 Germany 125
14 Portugal 133
15 Slovakia 134
16 Czech Republic 136
17 Switzerland 138
18 Canada 139
19 Sweden 154
20 Norway 163
