Antonio Cairoli successfully defends Italian Championship title

Yamaha De Carli Team rider Antonio Cairoli secured the 2007 Italian championship title at the last of round of the six race championship held at the Gazzane di Preseglie track in Brescia. Cairoli, as defending 2006 champion, entered the last round with a ten points lead on fellow Yamaha rider Manuel Monni and managed to seal his championshipby winning the first moto, while his closest rival placed seventh when penalized for overtaking under a yellow flag. Needing only two points from the second moto Cairoli took things steady and finished second behind winner Monni. The 2007 Italian championship turned out to an all Yamaha affair with the first four riders riding a YZ250F, while 16 year old Team Yamaha de Carli rider Alessandro Lupino, finished in sixth position. With a light early-morning rain watering the track to create optimal racing conditions it was Portuguese Rui Goncalves (KTM) who got the hole shot, but Cairoli soon got by to take the chequered flag without being challenged. Exciting however was the battle between Yamaha Team Ricci rider Davide Guarneri and Manuel Monni for second, it was Monni who eventually took the flag as runner up, but he was later demoted five positions for overtaking under a yellow flag. Only needing two points to secure the championship Cairoli could have been forgiven to just cruise home in the second moto, but as expected ‘Tonio’ diced for the win with Guarneri and Monni. But as the laps accumulated Cairoli settled for a podium while the other two went for the win, a slide of Guarneri finally gave Monni a much deserved moto win. Cairoli confirmed that winning the Italian International championship does mean a lot to him; ‘I had to dig deep today to secure the title, but I’m happy it paid off because winning this championship is really important to me. It’s been hard tough, I have not been able to train regularly the last month and I feel that my condition is weakened a bit. After a long season I feel the batteries need to be recharged. I’m sorry Manuel did not get a real shot at the title today due to his penalty, he was really strong today and deserved to win the second moto. Compliments also to Matteo (Bonini) for finishing in third overall despite having to deal with many injuries this year’. Cairoli will not have much time to recover from the long 2007 motocross season with the second round of the European Supercross championship race on the calendar for coming weekend at Bilbao (Spain), yet another championship title the Sicilian star needs to defend! Standings 2007 Italian Championship 1. Antonio Cairoli / Yamaha De Carli - 277 points 2. Manuel Monni/ Team Yamaha RSC - 261 points 3. Matteo Bonini/ Yamaha De Carli - 221 points 4. Davide Guarneri / Yamaha Team Ricci - 213 points 5. Angelo Pellegrini / Honda - 180 points 6. Allesandro Lupino / Yamaha De Carli - 151 points