The track of Pleven, in Bulgaria, hosted the Supermoto Junior and S3 European Championships
SM Junior, Race 1: The first race of the SM Junior class started with a holeshot of Viktor Neychev (BUL, BMF), who faced a lot of pressure from Ares Stefan Bengic (TMF, KTM) during the whole race. At the checkered flag however, the Bulgarian managed to assure his win with a ten seconds gap ahead of his rivals. Bengic finished second. The fight for the third position was a great battle among 5 riders which: Kristian Ivanov (BMF, KTM), Radostin Mihaylov (BMF, KTM), Jan Ulman (ACCR, Kawasaki), Hristian Georgiev (BMF, KTM) and Ivan Mosin (MFR, TM). The five riders constantly changed positions during the 8 laps race, but at the very last corner Ivanov managed to overtake Mihaylov from the outside, thus securing the third place for the race.
In Race 2, the holeshot belonged to the Czech rider Ulman, who made a few laps on the lead. Ivanov and Neychev, having more experience on that particular circuit, quickly recovered from their bad starts and pushed hard, obtaining the first two positions, leaving Ulman on third. Despite making the best overall weekend Junior laptime (1:32:377), Neychev was forced to remain second for the race, with Ivanov winning it. Bengic suffered a few crashes and was not able to move further than the fifth place, but with the points earned he secured position 3 on the podium for the race day, having Ivanov in second place and Neychev as the overall winner of the event.
In class S3, Michael Ivanov (BMF, KTM), a former European SuperMoto Junior Champion (2012) and currently motocross rider, returned to the all asphalt venue in Pleven after 5 years of “tarmac break” with a pole position at the 250cc category and a clear perspective of winning the races. It happened in Race 1 without any doubt and a gap of 29 seconds to the second rider – Mucahit Zengin (TMF, TM). But it Race 2, a technical problem forced him to retire from the race at lap 5, giving the opportunity for Zengin to win the race and become the overall winner of the event in Pleven. Second of the day was Zengin’s compatriot Mehmet Celik, while Ivanov was third on the podium, scoring 7 points less than the leader in the series.
Full results on FIM Europe website: http://www.fim-europe.eu/events/557
