Yeah, It was the Italian MX2 rider Alessandro Lupino. He's had way too many DNF's the last few years and will be on a Kawasaki next year. The Des Nations was probably his last race on a Husqvarna. A KTM broke too which screwed up the Belgians...but it does look bad when the only Husky on the line gets pushed back to the pits so often.
Just did some more reading. There is an interview with Cairoli on racerxonline now. He said Lupino was riding hurt. He got taken out racing go carts the day before the race and broke a ligament in this thumb. Not sure if his first moto DNF was a mechanical problem or something to do his injury.
Bummer either way. But seeing that Husky being pushed right in front of the camera was a burn for sure!
Pretty sure Lupino had a crash and called it a moto due to his karting injury and was not a mechanical. Was back out in the next moto but was not setting the world on fire. Hope this was not the last moto we see Husqvarna racing MX for a while.
It's weird how some riders never have real issues and others seem to have issues each race ... Myself, I cannot believe you take ~30 bikes, line them up in a row and have a race and the Husky is the only one that breaks or has issues about every race ... There has to be more to it than what meets the eye ... Does your dog eat your homework every day? If so, shoot that dog and get another one ... Or teach him what to eat ... Now a go-cart story? lol ... WTF ... Aliens took over my EFI? ... Story at 6 ... There was a thread out here somewhere that mentioned Husky was withdrawing some of it support from the MX2 racing ...
In the space of a few minutes, 3 KTM 250s, 2 of them full works bikes, the 3rd semi works, were out. Seriously damaging each countries scores. Nicholls for Britain, Van Horebeek for Belgium, Coldenhoff for the Netherlands. There were quite a few other bikes that went Kaboom, Kaboom, as well. The nature of a real motocross track, that requires the engine to be hammered. It happens to all sorts of bikes.
Excellent point ... 3x as many pumkins when belly up as compared to Huskies ... Too bad the only Husky out there eats a plate of crap in front of the world ... The EU world and the fatherland of bmw ... Bmw should be embarrassed and vow to win this race and cost is no object ..
True .. its just advertising your product ... Its a live performance of your product ... Works for everyone except Milli-vanili .. not they were any better in the studio... ESP true in the case of Husky where they are trying to improve sales ... Instead, belly flop in the sand... I hope to see a video of the bike being pushed in the sand ... It is one way to get camera time but that ain't an easy job as compared to a PRO rider, riding the bike.
Lupino had a crach and hurt his shoulder ;dislocated i have seen lupino on a trainingstrack in belguim (sand)that bike whent well but the ktm's are stronger.
I think the TC range is the weak link in the Husky line up, almost the reverse to KTM. I am convinced the TE's are better in terms of reliability and general form than the EXC's (haven't ridden a 350 exc though). Husky needs to advance the TC's and use them as the test bed for TE development, or perhaps letting them go. It cannot stay as is indefinately. Just a view, I know TC owners may think differently but in Australia they are generally an orphan.
Maybe ... I'm not sure about the engine performance between the different models or the competition's bikes either ...Since the TC gets so little PRO racing for us to see, its hard to really judge how good the bike is ... AL finished 11th in MX2 this yr and could have been placed several places better with just some better starts probably ... ----------------------- AL words via the Husky News Letter --AL seems like a straight forward guy ... He normally takes things on his shoulders ... With better team support, he'll to better I think ... I'm still with the bike as a contender ... Alessandro Lupino: “I came to Lommel with the intention of having a good race for my country, but things went wrong before even starting. I had to take painkillers before the start of race 1, but I was counting on a good race. Instead after only 2 laps I crashed and my shoulder was badly injured. Doctor Scevola helped me take part in race 2 but I could not give everything I had. We got close to the podium again, but two unfortunate events kept us off it. I'm really disappointed, especially for my teammates, who had a great race.” (Must be different drug laws over there as I don't think you can take any pain killers in the states ...)
I went the 2011 TC route because our TE's here in the states are pretty bottled up from the dealers. I didn't want to go messing around with fuel system and all of that to get the desired performance. In retrospect i should have held out for 2012 TXC. Those seem pretty sweet.
LOL! Great point! Leave it to Ajax to uncover the "elephant in the room"! If only Husky would update the 250 2 stroke and make an MX version like KTM, TM, Yamaha.... I see 250 KTMs and Yammis routinely spanking 450 four strokes on the local tracks all the time.
I like your spirit but when was the last time you saw someone at the top level MX take a 2 stroke to a title or even to the podium.
