Under radiantly blue skies, the opening day of the 2025 season burst into life. The paddock had filled overnight and the last of the team registrations were done and dusted. The customary ballot took place to sort the group split ahead of the qualifying sessions.
Free Practice – The track was well prepared, and most teams knew it well. The fastest free time was by the Lielbardis twins, who were the only crew to go below 1.50.00 in Group B”, over one second faster than Davy Sanders and his group “A” time. The rest of the star teams were obviously taking it easy, so the real test would, as always, be when it really counted.
Timed Practice – Group “A” was headed for mostly the whole session by Killian and Evan Prunier who registered a stunning lap of 1.49.104, well inside the Lielbardis free practice time. Davy Sanders/Jens Vincent and Justin Keuben/Dion Rietman were the only other teams to go sub - 1.50.00.
A new triple jump, mid-way round the lap took courage, and Prunier did a great job.
Group “B” took to the rack with expectations high by the Lielbardis boys. They went quickly, but with six minutes still on the clock, still had work to do. Tim Prummer/Jarno Steegmans were back with a bang and sat second fastest ahead of Koen Hermans/Ben van den Bogaart.
Into the closing stages and still the Prunier brothers were showing their class as top of the pile with their Group “A” time. Hermans improved to second fastest at the close behind Lielbardis.
Qualifying Race Group “A” - Nineteen eager teams dropped their clutches when the gate went down, with Marvin Vanluchene/Nicolas Musset and Brett Wilkinson/Joe Millard heading the charge alongside the Prunier brothers into the first left-hander. Streaming down the back hill, the chasing pack were very tightly bunched as Killian Prunier opted for a tight line which got him sideways and stuck. They got going again, but Vanluchene and Wilkinson were away.
It was also a great start by Stuart Brown/Scott Grahame and Stuart’s son Jake partnered by Lars de Laat. These crews fought a race-long battle with Tim and Sem Leferink, Justin Keuben/Dion Rietman and Joshua/Noah Weinmann.
Brett Wilkinson almost did not make the start as his rear shock had leaked all its oil in the paddock box, so he had no choice but to ride with faulty rear suspension. This made his eventual third place even more credible.
At the front, Vanluchene made no mistakes, the Prunier boys made it to second after their first lap upset, and Keuben claimed fourth.
Result – 1/ Vanluchene/Musset, 2/ Prunier/Prunier, 3/ Wilkinson/Millard,
4/ Leferink/Leferink, 5/ Keuben/Rietman, 6/ Brown/Grahame,
7/ Weinmann/Weinmann, 8/ Brown/de Laat, 9/ Sanders/Vincent,
10/ Gordejev/Lebreton
Qualifying Race Group “B” – Another great start by Tim Prummer/Jarno Steegmans saw them vying for the lead with Koen Hermans/Ben van den Bogaart into the right hander before the top of the straight. There was also a good showing by Benny Weiss/Patrick Schnieder from Austria who slotted third and gave chase. Slightly further back but determined, came Daniel and Bruno Lielbardis.
Jason Van Daele/Loet van der Putten would have been more in the early hunt but were trapped on the inside of the first left-hander and had to give ground.
Then the chase was on at the front. Prummer was hounded for three laps by Hermans before succumbing on lap three. At the same time, or maybe one lap later, Benny Weiss was passed by the Lielbardis twins but did not lose much ground on them for the entire race. This five-way scrap raged throughout the race.
Prummer eventually gave way to Latvia and the Lielbardis boys were on their way – or so we thought.
Hermans/Ben van den Bogaart rode a perfect race and stretched the advantage over Lielbardis to around eight seconds, holding it for lap after lap, Towards the end of the race he had moved ahead by twelve seconds and was home and dry. Weiss/Schneider closed to within two seconds of Prummer, but the German held firm for third place.
Result – 1/ Hermans/van den Bogaart, 2/ Lielbardis/Lielbardis,
3/ Prummer/Steegmans, 4/ Weiss/Schneider, 5/ van Daele/van der Putten,
6/ Willemsen/Gabor, 7/ Wijers/Van Hal, 8/ Hodges/Henderson,
9/ Hofman/Zimmermann, 10/ Uhlig/Oettel
Last Chance – Fourteen crews did battle for the final six grid spots, and all the top names made it through with no dramas. I was good to see the young Verhees brothers make it to tomorrow’s GP races, because they, along with other young talent, are the future of this sport. The Danish/Belgian pairing of Jensen/Vanhamel were very fast and topped the session
Result – 1/ Jensen/Vanhamel, 2/ Peter/Hoffmann, 3/ Verhees/Verhees,
4/ Erlecke/Freygang, 5/ Chanteloup/Chanteloup, 6/ Wisselink/Rostingt
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From Barry Nutley.
