Cairoli secures eighth World MX title

Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Antonio Cairoli added another FIM Motocross World Championship title to his legend at the MXGP of Goias in Brazil over the weekend. Although it came easier than he had first anticipated with his only remaining title challenger, Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jeremy Van Horebeek, crawling to the finish in race one after injuring his ankle in qualifying, it has still been a hard earned season for the 28-year-old Italian.

Out of the 31 gate drops used to crown Cairoli the 2014 FIM MXGP World Champion, the happy-go-lucky guy from Patti, Italy, had a near 50 percent win rate, winning 15 of the races. Out of the first 15 rounds of MXGP racing this year, Cairoli landed on the podium a whopping 12 times. The three times he was not on the podium, he still finished inside the top five. He also wrapped up nine MXGP round victories this season, extending his career total of Grand Prix wins to 72.

It has been ten years since Cairoli’s first Grand Prix win, which he obtained on his rookie season riding for De Carli Yamaha back in 2004, a season in which he finished an impressive third Overall. The following year, in 2005, he claimed his first world title in MX2, and now, nine years on, he has racked up a stifling eight FIM Motocross World Championship titles and is the second most successful rider in history, behind Belgian, Stefan Everts, who has ten titles to his name.