Spaniard Jonathan Barragan successfully defended his Motocross Internacional Tenerife 'Golden Tyre Trophy' in the fourth edition of the event in front of a massive crowd on the weekend, but had to overcome adversity to do so.

After crashing in Saturday's qualifying session, and again in Sunday's second MX1 moto, the KTM factory rider eventually made it through to the Superfinal, where he battled Italian Alex Salvini and MX1 poleman Cedric Melotte for the win.

Despite his earlier setbacks, Barragan led from the start, although both Melotte and Salvini moved past him before battling each other for first place. Salvini finally appeared to have snatched the upper hand when, with three laps to go, Melotte tried another overtaking move, causing the two leaders to crash. Barragan, meanwhile, had been holding on in third, and was handed victory on a plate.

Salvini restarted quicker than his assailant and took the chequered flag in second place, followed by countryman Davide Guarneri, who brought home the best-placed 250cc machine in the Superfinal. Belgian Melotte finished the race in fourth, ahead of Brian Jorgensen, who claimed a top five result on his last outing, having decided to call time on his career at the end of 2006.

Enduro champion Ivan Cervantes was right behind the group of motocrossers, taking sixth place in the Superfinal.

Before the main event, the 'Golden Tyre Trophy' had offered the massive crowd four exciting heats, two for the MX1 class and another two for MX2. The best 15 riders from each class were then entered for the 30-minute-plus-two-lap Superfinal.

Salvini won the MX1 class with a second place and a win in his two heats, although nemesis Melotte won the first heat. The Belgian, however, was forced to settle for second in the overall classification, in front of Jorgensen, Aitor Santana and the recovering Barragan. Cervantes was again sixth.

Davide Guarneri took back-to-back wins and topped the overall MX2 standings with 50 points, ahead of Jose Butron Oliva and Pol Panes, who completed the top three, while Livia Lancelot, the only female racer in the event, clinched a satisfactory ninth place.

Luigi Seguy crashed in the first moto and injured his right shoulder. The Frenchman eventually finished in fourth place in the class classification, but doctors prevented him from racing in the rest of the event. France was already missing its MX3 world champion, Yves Demaria, who had been expected to take part in the event, only for an injured knee, sustained after November's FIM Off-Road Awards, to rule him out.