| 10th out
of 78 starters. Quali: 9th. ~1,000 spectators. Quite a good race on the first unknown track. It's tough with only one practice... Qualifying went well, the races were mixed with a 11th in race one and 9th in race two. Main problem was a rather average start in race one and losing quite some strength towards the end - a nice battle for 10th that I lost one lap before the end in the first race. Same rider also in race two, fighting for 9th, this time I defended the position! |
| The plan was good: after Lelystad, there should have been four
practice sessions possible before the race in Zelhem. Wishful
thinking,,, first planned Supermoto session, I could not make it to the track
in time due to traffic jam - traffic in Holland is truly terrible in rush hour! Then I had to take my entire exhaust system off and send the air filter box to my team support in Germany so they could cut it properly in order to fit the new twin-pipe DOMA exhaust system that promised to make the 96db "easily" (quote: more like 94db) without power loss. Not only the traffic is rather problematic in Holland, also the mail service... tip: don't use regular mail! Only use DPD, FedEx or UPS from Germany! The exhaust system came back just in time for the race, no extra session possible... but my all new IZOD bike decals arrived, so this would be the first race in my new IZOD outfit (minus the Bib and neck brace decal). Two out of three planned MX sessions also didn't work out. First a flat tire and no extra tube and then a car break-in, so that Sunday was over by the time it was fixed... In summary, didn't feel much better prepared than for the first race and the bike was a big unknown after the last minute installation of everything.... |
| The track in Zelhem looked good, basically built into a
industrial zone on public road. Thanks to YouTube and quite a good race
coverage of the Dutch series there, I was able to prepare for the track
layout. It looks like all race tracks are covered on YouTube, so at
least I can prepare for the layout before the races! In Zelhem, the
track was exactly the way I expected it after the YouTube studies with
a more challenging offroad than Lelystad. During practice, everything went fairly well, I still get tense with arm pump during this first session, I really miss the free practice to warm up. I picked some fast riders that I knew from the first race and tried to hang on and actually, I felt like I can actually hang on to it. In my qualifying, I was only 0.5 sec off the first on 4th position, but some riders in the other qualifying were a bit faster. Quali result: 9th |
| My start was not ideal, I tried to enter the first corner on the
outside and lost quite some positions to riders that went through on the inside.
First lap is always a little hectic, but on the track, I quickly
ended up on position 11. First, I was able to keep contact to the group
in front of me, but in the middle of the race, I lost my rhythm and
ended up getting pressure from the back. A nice little fight started,
going back and forth a little and two laps before the end I made a
mistake in the offroad and dropped down to 12. Luckily, there was a
jumpstart of another rider, so I gained one more, but finishing 12th
was not what I was looking for. Race 1 result: 11th |
| This time, I watched my start better and staid on the inside, so I
came out of lap one on 7th position! Knowing how the first race went, I
tried to hold on to that as much as possible. One of the front riders
went off the track at the beginning and came quickly from behind, so I
had to let him by in lap three. Then I lost another position in lap
6, dropping down to 9. For the rest of the race, I had the same rider
behind me as in the first race and I really did not want to make
another mistake to let him by and lose this position, especially
because this would also make one position up or down in the daily
classification. Sure enough, in the second to last lap we ran into
lappers and at the exit of the offroad, I decided to go outside instead
of the safer inside line. He slipped through, but I cut the corner
behind him so I could hit the throttle earlier and passed him back on the
following straight. Now I kept it to the end, securing 9th in this race
and 10th overall. Race 2 result: 9th Overall: 10th |
| The next race is on 15 May in Boekel, again a track that I
don't know at all, so it is going to be interesting again what it looks
like. Only one week time, but bike does not need any additional maintenance, everything seems to run well. |