The third round of class SM Junior of the European Supermoto 2018 Championship was held this weekend in Lithania on “Baciunas” Karting track in Sauliai. Even if before the event the sun was hot, with more than 30°C, practices and races of SM Junior class saw an unexpected turn of the weather, with only 19 degrees, clouds and rain without stop.
It was Estonian rider Aksel Partelpoes on his Husqvarna to overcome these conditions imposing himself as the man to beat in all the outings on the track – he scored the best lap in free and timed practices, thus earning the pole-position for the races. He was closely followed by Russian Ivan Mosin (TM) and Jan Ulman from Czech Republic on his Kawasaki.
The first ten laps race was won in high class by Aksel, who did enough to break in front of the pack in the early laps and maintained an advantage on his competitors conserving energy for the second race. Very interesting duelbetween Czech Jan Ulman and Russian Ivan Mosin on all ten laps both riding extremely close to each other, searching for a mistake or a little gap to overtake one another. In the end it was Jan to take the second place with an advantage of only 0,288 seconds, while Ivan had to settle for third position, even though he had scored a better lap time in time practice.
Romanian Daria Ganescu (Husqvarna) did a good tactical race, finishing fourth and scoring valuable points in the Championship.
Second race started on a heavy torrential rain that affected track conditions. Even so, it was again Aksel Partelpoes who managed to take the holeshot and lead the race from start to finish. Unlike first race, Czech Jan Ulman scored
a second place with a gap of almost 20 seconds from Russian Ivan Mosin, proving that his riding on a wet track is as good as in normal track conditions. Fourth position in second race for Romanian Daria Ganescu.
With the points earned in this race, Czech Jan Ulman (Kawasaki) comfortably sits on top of the standings heading to the last event in Pleven (Bulgaria), scheduled for 22-23 of September.
Full results on FIM Europe website: http://www.fim-europe.eu/events/616
