As several protagonists of the past season stepped up to Supersport World Championship and numerous young talents from European Junior Cup (including 2012 Champion Lukas Wimmer) and national championships arrived, the European Superstock 600 Championship gets underway with a new mix of riders ready to fight over the 9 rounds in calendar.
Close racing was the main factor of yesterday’s first race of the year at Alcañiz MotorLand Aragón. Pole man Gauthier Duwelz (MTM Racing Yamaha) gets a hard-won victory after a breathtaking 10-lap race on the 5344 m Spanish venue. It’s the maiden win for the 19 year old Belgian, who was able to take advantage of the tough four-way battle behind him, eventually making a small mistake towards the end of the race that allowed his rivals to close the gap down to 1 second.
But the battle for the 2nd place helped once again Duwelz to maintain a small margin up to the finish line. Tony Coveña (Nito Racing Kawasaki) made his final move on Swiss Bastien Chesaux (EAB Ten Kate Junior Racing Honda) during the final lap, down the long straight going into Turn 16, and set at the same time the new Lap Record in 2’05.250.
Robin Mulhauser (MTM-MVR Yamaha) kept his team mate Adrian Nestorovic behind to get a 4th place finish, while Franco Morbidelli (San Carlo Team Italia) lost some ground in the early laps and was not able to stay with the front runners.
Today was held the European Junior Cup with the victory of New Zealand Jake Lewis, followed by Spanish Albert Arena and Italian Michael Canducci.
The next race takes place on Saturday 27th of April at Assen, Netherlands.
