Tony Cairoli wins his 9th World Championship Title
Tony Cairoli clinched a ninth title and his seventh in the premier class of the FIM Motocross World Championship today by finishing as runner-up in the first moto at a sunny Assen for the Grand Prix of the Netherlands and the penultimate round of the 2017 series. The GP was won by Jeffrey Herlings: a fourth victory from the last five outings confirming his second position in the MXGP series. Jorge Prado lifted an MX2 winner’s trophy for the third time this year while Pauls Jonass took a step closer to an eighth MX2 crown in nine years for the Austrian marque by scoring second position overall.
A week after sweltering conditions in Florida, MXGP returned to cooler temperatures in northern Europe and for the third year in a row the historic TT Assen Circuit entertained the FIM World Championship with a rough and shallow sandy layout temporarily constructed over the famous GT chicane at the Dutch venue. The eighteenth round of nineteen saw Tony Cairoli needing to finish in the top sixteen of the first moto if teammate Jeffrey Herlings won the race and the Sicilian duly racked-up his ninth crown and sixth for KTM by holeshotting and pushing #84 hard to the finish line. 
The 31 year old is the second most successful rider in the FIM contest that was born in 1957 and gave KTM their first premier class crown with the 450 SX-F after five accolades with the 350 SX-F between 2010-2014. It also completed the set with the motorcycle having won AMA 450SX & 450MX titles in the USA in recent years. In the second moto Cairoli tried to rally from a top six start and again follow Herlings who broke free from the pack after two laps. He challenged Max Nagl for second spot but lost his tear-offs and crashed two circulations before the finish; eventually taking sixth for fourth overall.
Tony Cairoli: “I know what it takes to make a solid and consistent championship; we made it and I’m really happy about this. It was an amazing season, one of my best. It is amazing I can still improve myself after almost fifteen years of the world championship. I’m proud of this. It is the first with the 450 KTM for me, which is very special. We had a good weekend.” (source: ktm)