The track of Pleven, in Bulgaria, hosted the European round of Supermoto S3 and Junior in front of 1000 spectators and with arounf 12 degrees and rainy weather.
S3
Qualification was won by Hakan Halmi (KTM, BUL) with a time of 1:29:310, who made a gap of 2.2 secs to the runner up Alex Dimitrov (KTM, BUL) with 1:31:588. Third was the rookie for the class Dimitar Petrov (KTM, BUL) with 1:33:316.
The Qualifying practice for S3 was red flagged 12 minutes after its start due to thunderstorm and very heavy rain.
Sunday’s weather was cold (10-12 degrees) with rain through the whole day which resulted in more complicated racing conditions.
SM Junior
Kristian Ivanov (KTM, BUL) won the two heats of the SM Junior class leading from start to finish, challenged only by VIktor Neychev (KTM, BUL) who managed to close the gap between both only in race 2, but crashed on the slippery asphalt in the slide section and lost the motivation to chase Ivanov. However, the fight for the third place between Ares Stefan Bengic (KTM, TUR) and Denis Fligr (Honda, CZE) was an interesting battle between 85cc 2 strokes KTM and 150cc 4 strokes Honda. Bengic saw the finish flag in race 1 in third position, the Fligr was fourth. In Race 2, Fligr made a good start and was permanently attacked by Bengic at every corner and jump, but the luck was not on the side of the Turk, who made a wrong move and crashed in the sky section without any injuries but with a big gap to the Fligr, who remained third for the race and for the event overall standings.
The championship leader in the Junior category Kristian Ivanov is leading the championship with 50 points, followed by Viktor Neychev (KTM, BUL) with 44 points and third is Denis Fligr (Honda, CZE) with 38 points.
S3
In S3, Hakan Halmi (KTM, BUL) was the man to dictate the pace in both races, whining them with an ease in front of his countrymen Alex Dimitrov (KTM, BUL) and Dimitar Petrov (KTM, BUL). Another Bulgarian – Yanislav Stoinov (KTM) tried to put some pressure on the rookie in the class – Petrov, but a good defense in the tricky conditions was the key for the podium position of Dimitar.
The leader in the class of the 250cc bikes is Hakan Halmi (KTM, BUL) with full 50 points after two heats, second is Alex Dimitrov (KTM, BUL) with 44 points and third is Dimitar Petrov (KTM) with 40 points.
Full results on FIM Europe website: http://www.fim-europe.eu/events/323
© Copyright: Boris Barbolov / LAP.bg
Above, Hakan Halmi, winner in the S3 class.
Below, Kristian Ivanov, winner in the Junior class
