Red Bull KTM factory rider Shaun Simpson continued his road back to form with a strong fifth place overall at the Grand Prix of Czech Republic, as the twenty-two year old placed 5 - 6 over the two motos. The story of Loket was very much a tale of two very different days, with Saturday's programme having to be brought to an early close due to heavy rain, before warm and dry weather on Sunday ensured the track was in far better shape for the main day of racing.

Simpson's return to racing last weekend after nearly a month off due to health problems was a rude awakening for the young Scot, with the deep sand of Lommel probably being one of the toughest stops on the FIM Motocross World Championship. After his exploits at the Grand Prix of Limburg, Shaun made sure he took it easy to give his body the best possible chance of coping with a second consecutive weekend of GP racing.

The circuit at Loket, which sits just over one hundred Kilometres west of the city of Prague, offered a very different test to the deep Belgian sand, with the hard packed track being fast and perhaps not as physical as the previous GP. With this in mind Shaun was looking forward to a less demanding encounter and hopefully some higher placings as he continues to return to full fitness.

Heavy rain wrecked Saturday's schedule, and the traditional qualifying race to determine gate positions for Sunday's two main motos was lost and instead was replaced by timed practice. Shaun once again confirmed his raw speed by placing fifth in free practice, before following this up with a reasonable eighth spot during timed practice to put himself in a positive position ahead of the two points scoring races.

Simpson was restricted to just four laps during Sunday morning's drier warm up session, as the KTM teamster was caught out by a change in the timetable. Despite this minor setback, Shaun did not miss his oportunity as the gate dropped on the first moto as he slotted in behind start to finish race winner Roczen. A series of fast and consistent lap times saw Simpson maintain his second place to past half race distance, before his recent lack of bike time began to show.

By lap twelve of twenty Musquin had demoted Shaun to third, and three laps later Herlings had also passed his team mate leaving Simpson holding a top four placing with five laps to go. Unfortunately the young Scot was unable to sustain his early race speed and was eventually overtaken by Van Horebeek as the race came to a close after forty minutes of furious action on a now rough and drying track.

The second moto followed a similar pattern with Shaun making yet another strong start before slipping down the order as the race wore on. At the mid point Simpson was still inside the top five and looked good to match his earlier performance, however a coming together with Van Horebeek was to leave Shaun on the deck and at risk of losing further places. Thankfully Britain's highest placed MXGP rider was soon back in the saddle and battled hard to cross the line in sixth spot to claim fifth position overall.

Simpson was relatively pleased with his results on the day. "Each week I am feeling better and even though last weekend took a lot out of me, I came here feeling much stronger. It has been a difficult and strange weekend due to the weather, as it has been like riding two different tracks. Given the conditions yesterday I was quite happy to qualify in eighth as it was bit of a lottery out there."

"Somehow I didn't realise that they had brought the warm up session forward this morning, so I missed some valuable track time with the conditions being much drier today. I got a good start in the opening race and managed to put in a good number of laps to hold off Musquin until later in the race. Unfortunately I am still lacking some bike fitness due to my recent lay off, so I wasn't able to keep that speed up until the finish. Anyway fifth place was still OK."

"The second race was almost the same, but my start was not quite as good. By then the track had become really rough and very one line so it was quite hardwork come the finish. Jeremy just clipped my wheel when he passed me and I ended up going down. It was not a big crash, so I still managed to get going and to stay ahead of Tonus to hold on to sixth."

Shaun closed by saying. "Overall it has not been a bad weekend, and at least I am making progress. We now have a short break before we go to the next GP in Brazil, so hopefully I can be stronger again by the time it comes around."

Grand Prix of Czech Republic
MX2 Moto One: 1: Roczen 2: Musquin 3: Herlings 4: Van Horebeek 5: Simpson
MX2 Moto Two: 1:Musquin 2: Roczen 3: Guatier 4: Frossard 5: Van Horebeek 6: Simpson
MX2 Overall: 1: Musquin 47 2: Roczen 47 3: Guatier 35…5: Simpson 31
MX2 Championship to date: 1: Musquin 527 2: Roczen 449 3: Frossard 404…5: Simpson 329

Keep up to date with Shaun's season on his official website at www.shaunsimpson.com