Road Racing

On Friday the riders arrived in Châtel St. Denis, in Switzerland, under very frosty temperatures with max + 5 degrees. The roads which should host the race were full of snow. Nobody could imagine practice during the next day. On Saturday morning it was cloudy and wet, but with the passing of time the streets became dryer and the temperatures rose up to 10 degrees. The training started in dry conditions at 1 pm. During the heats it was sunny, too. The track – street from Châtel St. Denis to Les Paccots – was in best condition for qualifying. The organising Moto Club Châtel St. Denis did a very good job and the 55 marshals worked perfectly. 31 riders in 4 different FIM Europe classes performed 3 training heats in a day who saw 163 riders at the start. The fastest riders were: Bernard Depierreux from Belgium in the 2T/250

The excellent 2017 season of Michael Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing - Junior Team) continued at his home race as the Italian took a dominant 2.3s victory at Imola in the Superstock 1000 European Championship, with Roberto Tamburini (PATA Yamaha Official STK 1000 Team) and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) also on the podium. Controlling a restarted race from pole position on the grid, Rinaldi was unaffected by two aborted race starts - which were cut short by red flags - as he held his nerve to strengthen his position at the head of the standings. After his win at Aragon and second place at Assen Rinaldi outpaced his rivals over the 9 lap sprint, with Tamburini and Razgatlioglu unable to catch him. Turkish rider Razgatlioglu was the only non-Italian in a top six which also featured Federico Sandi (Berclaz Racing Team), Marco Faccani (Althea BMW Racing Team) and Matteo Ferrari (DMR

It was a case of Italian dominance at the business end of the timesheets in the STK1000 qualifying session at Imola on Saturday as Michael Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing - Junior Team) took pole and was joined on the front row by his fellow countrymen Luca Vitali (Nuova M2 Racing) and Roberto Tamburini (PATA Yamaha Official STK 1000 Team). Ducati equipped Rinaldi took his second pole position of 2017 with a 1'49.113 lap of the 4.936 km Imola circuit, to put him at the head of the grid for his home race. Qualifying +0.629s behind Rinaldi in second place was Aprilia rider Vitali, whilst a further +0.088s margin back Yamaha’s Tamburini made it three Italians and three different manufacturers on the front row. In fourth place Frenchman Florian Marino (Pata Yamaha Official STK1000 Team) was the only non-Italian in the top six, in front of home riders Federico Sandi (Berclaz Racing

The SF4 of the Individual Speedway Euro Championship was held today at Lamothe Landerron in France. Eighteen riders took part to the event in front of 950 spectators. The meeting was run on a really well prepared track. A storm which took place during the night before the meeting did not spoil the organizers’ efforts. Thanks to the excellent work of the club staff the heats were fast and competitive and the spectators watched many fascinating races. The “home” rider David Bellego had big chances to finish the meeting on rostrum but unfortunately he had bad luck on his last regular heat – his bike had an engine failure. Finally David Bellego won the Last Chance Heat and finished fourth in the overall classification after a great, brave attack on leading Piotr Protasiewicz. The winner of the event was Kim Nilssos (SVEMO), in front of Mateusz Szczepaniak (PZM) and Nicolai Klindt (DMU). The

The first round of European Hill Climb Championship was held last weekend at Landshaag, in Austria, in front of 14.000 spectators. In 250 GP class we assisted to the same podium in both races with Italian Guido Testoni winning in front of Bernard Depierreux from Belgium and Rolf Haller from Suisse. Same podium in both races also in the Supersport class, with Italian Francesco Curinga who managed to win in front of home-rider Raimund Soellinger and ofItalian David Lignite. In the top class, Superbike, Wolfgang Gammer from Austria won in front of Italian Stefano Bonetti and of Christian Wiesinger-Mayr from Austria and the three riders confirmed their perfomances in race2. In Supermoto, home-rider Josef Frauenschuh won race1 in front of Johann Karl from Germany and Loris Pedriali from Italy, and they performed the same podium in race2. The next round will be held in Chatel S. Denis, Suisse, from 19 to 21 May.  

The Individual Euro Speedway Championship SF3 was held at Terenzano, in Italy, in front of 940 spectatirs. Sixteen riders and 2 reserves took part to the event. Thanks to the skills of the professional riders and to a good track, the spectators witnessed an interesting meeting, with some spectacular passes expecially from German ace Martin Smolinski. The winner was Timo Lahti (Finland) in front of Martin Smolinski (Germany) and Kenneth Bjerre (Denmark).

A good crowd of around 1600 spectators gathered to watch the Individual Euro Speedway SF2 at Mureck, in Austria. The results were not decided until the last heats and a run-off was necessary to provide the winner of the meeting. The new formula with the “Last Chance Heat” proved to be attractive and Kacper Gomolki from Poland won the last qualifying place for the ECC in Gorican. The first three positions went to Andzejs Lebedevs (LaMSF), Michael Jepsen Jensen (DMU) and Adrian Miedzinski (PZM). The next meeting in the series will be at Gorican, in Croatia, on May 20th. Full results on FIM Europe website: http://www.fim-europe.eu/events/325

The city of Nagyhalasz, in Hungary, hosted the Semi Final1 of the Individual Euro Speedway Championship, which was held in front of around 3500 spectators. The meeting was run with nice weather and in a completely new stadium. Thanks to big work of the local organizers, the track was ready for a perfect competition and the spectators could see a very good show. Przemysław Pawlicki from Poland, Mikkel Bech Jensen from Denmark and Andriy Karpov from Ukraine qualified to the Individual Speedway Euro Championship Challenge that will take place in Gorican, in Croatia, on May 20th. Full results on FIM Europe website: http://www.fim-europe.eu/events/326  

Following an incident during today’s European Superstock 1000 Race at the TT Circuit Assen, Marvin Fritz (Bayer-Bikerbox Yamaichi) is in a stable condition at a local hospital in The Netherlands. The session was red flagged on the opening lap after the German rider was involved in a crash with four riders at turn 16. Two medical cars and then two ambulances were immediately on the scene to treat the 24 year-old, where every possible procedure was undergone in order to stabilize and assist Fritz by TT Assen Circuit. Due to the severity of his condition, the decision was taken to transfer Fritz by road to the nearby Hospital, Universitair Medisch Centrum Groningen. After further examination, Fritz is now in a stable condition and has regained consciousness. Dorna WSBK Organization, TT Circuit Assen and FIM Europe wish to pass on their best wishes and a fast recovery to the Fritz, his family,

A new FIM CEV Repsol season got under way this weekend at the Circuito de Albacete. After a few days of bad weather the sun finally came out allowing 11,000 spectators to enjoy the intense racing on display. In the Moto2 European Championship, World Championship rider Hafizh Syahrin (Petronas Raceline, in the photo) fulfilled pre-race predictions by leading from start to finish. Behind the Malaysian rider came Héctor Garzó (Team Wimu CNS), taking a well-deserved podium in his debut in the category. Augusto Fernández (Easyrace Moto2 Team) ended up in third position in his debut on the Suter after racing last season with Tech3. Augusto Fernández ended up snatching the third position on the last lap from defending champion Steven Odendaal (NTS Sportscode T. Pro), who finished fourth ahead of Eric Granado (Promoracing). The Brazilian rider, like Dimas Ekky (Astra Honda), faded halfway through the race and finished off the