The fore last round of this season for the EC Superstock 600 Road Race was run today at the fantastic nice Autodromo Algarve circuit in Portimao (Portugal).
With a points difference of 2, the 1st and 2nd placed riders respectively Dutch Michael van der Mark (Honda) and Italian Riccardo Russo (Yamaha) had a prestigious race to go. Michael had pole position and Ricardo second after he had technical problems in the 2nd qualifying practice. After a brilliant start of Russo with Van der Mark on the fourth place the battle starts after the fourth lap when Van der Mark catches Russo. For a couple of laps they came side by side over the finish. But in the sixth lap Russo made a little mistake in the difficult hairpin. After this Van der Mark finished with a gap of almost 6 seconds before second Russo.
A very exciting fight was on the 6th to the 10th place where these five riders finished within 1 second!
The Rumanian rider Mircea Vrajitoru was crashed and brought for examination to the hospital. In general this European Championship class is, in all its races, a very exciting class with many different classifications during the season. But both, Van der Mark and Russo are the most consistent scoring riders. In the standings is Van der Mark now in the lead with 194 points and Russo has 187 points.
Next and exciting final race is on Saturday the 6th October at the France track in Magny Cours.
In the same event the Moriwaki Cup was run it’s second race this year after a round in Assen (NED). The young riders (13 to 18 yrs) had a fantastic experience in this World Championship environment. A very learn full event for all of them. After several instructions and tips from (very) experienced riders, they started the race with full excitement.After several changes of positions, Bo Bendsneijder (NED) won before Angelo Lucciardi (BEL) and Koen Mueffels (NED). Adrien Pittet was the first Suisse rider on the 7th place. A fantastic racing school project which is coordinated by the Dutch Ten Kate team and Honda Europe.
