Tommy Searle

As Great Britain’s most successful Grand Prix racer this century, Tommy Searle returned to Europe from a dally with American racing with unfinished business in 2011 but is now setting his sights firmly on the 2012 MX2 FIM Motocross World Championship and a duel with Jeffrey Herlings that could go to the wire.


An injury-plagued venture to the USA for 2009 and 2010 means that Searle had to readdress the goal he set out to achieve in 2008 as a teenager making an impression on the Grand Prix scene. Searle was the ace in the pack for the Brits right from the beginning; a fifteen year old who set the pace in the UK and Europe and then immediately gelled with the pressures and demands at world level. He was the original ‘Roczen and Herlings’ and needed just one season in GPs to begin vying for the top step of the box.


Searle immediately boosted his creds with a debut podium appearance in his rookie season and then went on to add ten trophies in 2007 and another eleven the following year, totalling six victories. His American venture was hampered by a troublesome shoulder but his readmission to the MX2 GP ranks – with CLS Kawasaki and the brand with which he initially starred in 2006 – was another shot in the arm for the FIM contest.


This year the title chase is neck-and-neck with Herlings and Searle had four wins and eight podiums hitting the half way mark. Gripping stuff. This is Tommy’s last shot for the MX2 crown as his 23 years means that he moves up to play with the big boys in 2013 and insiders are already raving about his speed on the bigger 450cc bike.