Vintage Road Racing European Championship: the opening round in Sweden
Pictures by www.classicmotofoto.com – Richard Peers-Jones #33, Colin Sleigh #29 & Bjorn Gunnarsson #74
On 28th-29th June competitors in the FIM Europe Vintage Road Race Championship gathered at the former Grand Prix circuit Anderstorp for the opening round of the season.
The weather was perfect all weekend for racing with temperatures in the 20’s and a dry track. Practice and qualifying went without any major problems for the FIME riders who all qualified.
In Saturday’s races Lars Sanberg made it a double success when he took wins in both class 5 and 6. Other class winners were Tanya Hentschel (Class 2), Hans Pallesen (Class 3) Paul Allender (Class 7a) and Richard Peers-Jones (Class 7b), but in the new class 9b all four riders had problems and did not start.
Sunday was the hottest day of the weekend, testing the reliability of the bikes and it showed in the results. Tanya repeated her Class 2 success of Saturday and you could see how delighted she was as her Aermacchi crossed the line. In the Class 7a race the Yamahas of Paul Allender and Sven Erik Johanson only managed two laps between them and didn’t trouble the timekeepers after that, leaving Jurgen Riedel and his Honda to pick up the 25 points. There was a superb battle for the lead between Richard Peers-Jones and Colin Sleigh in Class 7b until Sleigh’s 250 ran out of brakes at half distance and retired. Lars Sanberg, with a little help from his Minnovation engined G50, pulled out a comfortable lead in Sunday’s Class 5 race then settled into a consistent rhythm to come home ten seconds in front of Franz Glauser in second place. The final race of the day was for the new Class 9b and was won by Peter Howarth.
The Championship moves on to the UK at Donington for the second round. The final round will be in September at Pau-Arnos, in southern France.
