EMX Quad European Championship: Markelo is hunting ground for Saar
Race 1
Twenty-seven eager Quadcross racers lined up on the gate to spark life into the 2022 EMX Quad European Championship. The close nature of the lap times during the earlier practice sessions suggested that a closely fought battle would be on our hands.
From the gate drop it was Joe Maessen who took the hole-shot ahead of Christopher Tvaraen and reigning champion Kevin Saar. Throughout the first lap, Massen did a grand job of defending his lead, however Saar had other ideas and soon started implementing his plan of overhauling Tvaraen and himself.
Onto the second lap, Saar put the power from his Yamaha down in superior fashion compared with Tvaraen, and soon found himself snapping at the heels of Joe Maessen. However, Maessen was quickly dispensed of, and Saar pulled the pin, and nobody saw which way he went. An advantage of over five seconds as they headed onto the third lap of the race would be the template that the race was set to follow.
Tvaraen and Maessen fought gallantly for the second place, but an unforeseen visit to the pits for Tvaraen soon left Maessen with a solid and secure second place, to which he cruised home to take. The reason behind Tvaraen’s pit stop was that he had suffered a puncture, however, a very swift change of tyres performed by the team meant he could fight his way back through the order after re-joining in last place. He scythed his way through the field to take 13th place, and with this, take 8 important points for his championship battle.
Further down the order, Valentino Roks and Marc de Vries were swapping paint for positions with each and every corner. A slight mistake from Roks meant that he dropped a few seconds behind de Vries, and in his attempts to catch back up, he made a small error which unfortunately gave him a large price to pay in the form of a crash. Roks dropped down the order and, like Tvaraen, he carved his way through the pack to finish an excellent 12th place, to capture 9 points in his championship efforts.
At the helm of the pack, Kevin Saar displayed why he is the reigning European champion, and won the race by a significant margin, ahead of Joe Maessen and Rick Havidil who managed to keep himself out of trouble for the duration of the race.
Top five
1. Kevin Saar, EST
2. Joe Maessen, NED
3. Rick Haverdil, NED
4. Marc de Vries, NED
5. Joakim Granli, NOR
Race 2
A stiff breeze was blowing across the circuit as the EMX Quad European Championship
competitors made their way onto the gate. Saar had first gate pick and decided that the very left of the starting gate was his ideal position that would put him in good stead to take the holeshot, with Joe Maessen and Christopher Tvaraen. to his right-hand side.
The gates snapped down and 27 quads hurtled toward the tight first turn, with the holeshot being taken by Rick Haverdil on his CRQF, with the hard chargers being an army of Yamaha’s in the form of Saar, Maessen. Christopher Tvaraen found himself in fifth place on the first couple of laps, however persistence and superior pace lead to him eventually making his way up into second come races end. A great result considering that he could only achieve 13th in the first race.
Joe Maessen put up a solid defence in the first half of proceedings, but in the end the charge from Tvaraen would prove too much for the home hero, and he finished in a relatively lonely third position.
Further down the order, the heat was being turned to the max as we had a 4-way scrap on our hands for seventh position consisting of Brhel, Roks, Phoelich and van Lith. There were mere inches separating these riders as they made their way through the rough conditions. A fantastic overtake saw Phoelich promote himself three positions in the space of one corner, and once he got into seventh, he found a rhythm and wasn’t challenged for the remainder of the race.
With only two laps remaining, Jan Brhel found an opening and made a move on Valentino Roks, to place himself in eighth position and undoubtedly boosting his confidence.
Top five
1. Kevin Saar, EST
2. Christopher Tvaraen, NOR
3. Joe Maessen, NED
4. Rick Haverdil, NED
5. Joakim Granli, NOR
Race 3
After the earlier two races, it would’ve appeared that the race was to see who would finish second, however, the first half of the race couldn’t be further from the truth. Joe Maessen got the launch and took the holeshot ahead of Roman Gwiazda and Kevin Saar, with Christopher Tvaraen languishing down in fifth.
In the opening couple of laps, the positioning inside the top five was constantly chopping and changing with Saar making some very brave moves to put himself with Maessen, and Tvaraen putting in a fantastic move on Saar around the outside to put himself in contention too.
Further down the order, Miro Cappucio and Jan Brhel were carving their way through the pack as they soon found themselves on the verge on the non-point scoring positions. As the clock ticked ever-closer to zero, they were battling for positions inside the top ten, with Cappucio managing to come home ninth. Young Jan Brhel meanwhile, wasn’t done yet. He had a tenth-place finish in race one, an eighth in race two and wanted more from the third and final race. Going into the final lap, he was trailing Rubben van Lith by a mere two seconds, and managed to squeeze in one final move to claim seventh place and take away 14 points from this race. Fantastic stuff from the 16-year-old Czech debutant!
Tvaraen and Maessen were still fighting hard for second place, and eventually this would go the way of Maessen as he increased his pace to a level that Tvaraen seemingly couldn’t match.
Top five
1. Kevin Saar, EST
2. Joe Maessen, NED
3. Christopher Tvaraen, NOR
4. Ricardo Phoelich, NED
5. Rick Haverdil, NED
