| 7th out
of 56 starters. Quali: 10th. ~500 spectators My bad luck in first motos of the day continues. Fun racing at least, but not good for results ;-) Overall, I finished well in 7th out of 56 starters. First race was full of action, with some mistakes on my side, but avoided any crashes at least. It was the hottest day of the year with 38 degrees Celsius in the afternoon! Somehow it was still manageable, luckily with a little breeze during the day. |
| The bike worked perfectly last race, so nothing had to be fixed. Just a new rear tire, that one really took a beating last weekend! Weather was certainly a factor on race day, the hottest day of the year with temperatures reaching up to 38 degrees Celsius! Therefore, race prep was key. A lot of cooling water, a lot of drinking water and sports drinks and light food. |
| Qualification was at 9:30 in the morning, so temperatures were
still in the mid-twenties. I chose my old leather suit, which is a bit
more spacious and comfortable. The track was somehow very busy, a lot
of slow riders sort of occupying the track. The offroad section was
very sandy at the entry, a very loose right turn and then a straight
with three jumps that were easy. Every second lap, someone was laying
in this sandy corner. I stopped almost every fast lap because someone
got in the way. It would have been better to just let it flow and then
catch a clear lap in the progress. But I let myself interrupted a lot
and ultimately couldn’t clock a really fast time. 10th in qualifying
was certainly sub-optimal… what’s even more disturbing; I missed only
half a second to fifth position. Top 3 were out of reach, everything
else looked possible. Quali result: 10th |
| As often recently, I got off the line very well, but the guy in
front of me didn’t, so I was a little blocked. Entering the offroad, it
went wild, gained some, lost some in the first two corners. At the exit
of the offroad, a guy fell on the asphalt and I went by on the left
side, but of course had to slow down a little. One rider went by inside
and one in front of me slowed. We went on the fast straight, fifth
gear, and I had a good position to pass one. Unfortunately, I braked
too late on the inside and I risked to hit another rider full sideways
as he was about to turn into the right corner. So I decided to actually
loosen the brakes again and even accelerated a little to go straight
into the emergency exit. This meant I had to turn around to get back on
the track, obviously losing a lot of positions… I was in 17th after lap
one to be precise… in lap two, I passed six riders, coming out of lap
two already back in 11th position. I gained more positions in third
lap, but another a bit too ambitious attempt made me miss another
corner and again, I had to take the emergency exit and turn around to
come back. Now 13th after lap three… Somehow I got a good motivation
out of this and went into full attack mode. In lap seven, I was in 10th
position with a huge gap to 9th, I couldn’t even see him on the long
straights. But my speed was great and I kept pushing, suddenly coming
closer and closer. In the end, I finished 9th, only one second behind
7th. Very unfortunate, one more lap… Race 1 result: 9th |
| Had a decent start, again with a lot of action in the offroad. I
came out of first lap in 11th position only. I managed two passes and
moved up to 9th position. Then down one and up one again, running in
9th until lap 10. Cees Haan passed me on the inside line of the
offroad, this way I found out that this was the better line. I was able
to follow him closely and we caught up with the two positions in front
of us. In lap fourteen, Cees made a little mistake and I pulled up on
him inside on one of the straights and I passed him with only two laps
to go! Unfortunately, I screwed it up in the next offroad section; I
went inside, missed a bit the drive and he went by outside again… but I
stuck with him. In the last lap, we moved close to both riders in front
of us. I tried to pass Ceed first in the offroad, which didn’t work
out. Normally, that’s it, but the two riders in front of us ran into
each other on a down slope right turn and crashed quite hard. While two
bikes were literally flying around and two riders on the ground, Cees
avoided to hit any of them by braking really hard and moving to the
right. I had a little more time, so went to the right and thought maybe
I can take advantage of the situation to get by Cees! But in the spirit
of safety first, I left him room for the following chicane. Two more
corners and I was right at his rear wheel, but he didn’t make a
mistake, so we finished 7th and 8th. Exciting race action with a quite
good result in the end. By the way, I managed the heat very well; I didn’t get very tired in the races. But it took almost seven liters of water and sports drinks and another ten for cooling only ;-) Race 2 result: 8th Overall: 7th |
| Again, just next week in Joure. A terrible offroad section for me
with deep ruts. Plan is to go there and mainly use as much practice
time as possible and then see how to go about the race. After that,
there is only the last race in Lelystad end of September and
potentially the Supermotard in Mette, the world’s biggest Supermoto
event! Let’s see how the calendar works out. |