The early crowd was enormous on Saturday morning, with everyone aware of what lay ahead. This had been billed and promoted throughout the region as the place to be over this weekend with the “Mega Party” beer tent crammed on Friday night. Bright sunshine greeted the teams on Saturday, with free practice reminding them just why they love Rudersberg so much.
Free Practice – Group “A” saw the red-plated Prunier brothers slot straight into the groove on a track they admit they are very fond of. They posted a fastest lap almost two seconds faster than Tim Prummer/Jarno Steegmans, with title rivals Brett Wilkinson/Joe Millard taking their time early on with fourth fastest. Group “B” saw the new pairing of Daniel Lielbardis/Nicolas Musset settling in with each other, to top the times ahead of a very rapid Benny Weiss/Patrick Schneider and third-fastest Koen Hermans/Ben van Den Bogaart.
Group “A” timed practice – There were no surprises in this first timed session, with Killian and Evan Prunier continuing their standard, going almost one second faster than their free practice time. They were now well placed for that vital gate choice later in the day.
Prummer/Steegmans also looked very good ahead of Davy Sanders/Jens Vincent and Dan Foden/Noah Weinmann. Wilkinson/Millard were fifth fastest, some three seconds off the French Champions’ time. With two minutes on the clock, Foden showed his speed to move third.
An impressive sixth fastest was recorded by the young Swiss Kaser brothers, giving us a taste of things to come looking into the future.
Group “B” timed practice – Thirty minutes to find one fast lap and all that stood for. Koen Hermans/Ben van den Bogaart would need a good gate slot, so they knew the task ahead. They started slowly, not turning a wheel for the first half of the session, whilst Jake Brown/Chris Booth made the early running, along with Mike Hodges/Ryan Henderson going a full second faster with ten minutes gone. This was all eclipsed when Hermans eventually got going, to put his Mega three and a half seconds clear of Stephan Wijers/Han van Hal.
Yet to show was the Lielbardis/Musset outfit, was just like the tide, it was on its way. Likewise, the Weiss/Schneider show. Both these teams stormed to the top with the Austrians moving ahead with ten minutes remaining.
Benny Weiss was a full second shy of the group “A” Prunier time.
Hermans was now third with just over five minutes to find something extra.
He and Ben did indeed improve past Lielbardis but were three tenths off Weiss at the close. So, they would have fourth pick of grid slot.
Hodges/Henderson claimed fourth fastest, therefore choice eight for them.
Group “A” Qualifying Race – The heat was on in every way as the gate went down. From the very hard right-side of the gate, Dan Foden/Noah Weinmann made it happen, grabbing the hole shot from Tim Prummer/Jarno Steegmans and Davy Sanders/Jens Vincent. In fifth was the Wilkinson/Millard pairing, doing what they needed to do. The Prunier brothers had a dreadful start, completing the opening lap in around seventh place. They then had some serious work to do to catch the rest. Even if they had the speed, passing on this track is not easy. Bit by bit they closed in on Wilkinson/Millard and moved ahead. Wilkinson had already passed Davy Sanders, so he still was in the points. Next up for the Pruniers as they made headway was the Prummer/Steegmans bike which in turn was some five seconds behind race-long leaders Foden/Weinmann.
As the victorious young pairing started their final lap, Prunier caught and passed Tim Prummer who had tangled with back-markers.
This was a good result for the young Anglo/German duo, with first pick of the gate tomorrow.
Result – 1/ Foden/Weinmann, 2/ Prunier/Prunier, 3/ Prummer/Steegmans
4/ Wilkinson/Millard, 5/ Sanders/Vincent, 6/ Gordejev/Lebreton,
7/ Kaser/Kaser, 8/ Brown/Grahame, 9/ Chanteloup/Chanteloup,
10/ Delmotte/Valcke
Group “B” Qualifying Race – From the extreme right side, just as Foden had done, Mike Hodges/Ryan Henderson took the lead into turn one and charged away from Lielbardis/Musset and Weiss/Schneider. Adrian Peter/Joel Hoffmann had a good start ahead of Koen Hermans/Ben van den Bogaart.
Hermans then had to battle through, as he has done so often this season.
Lap three and Nicolas Musset got his foot caught the wrong side of the platform making it impossible for him to get across the bike for the next corner. They rolled the outfit, without injury and rejoined in eighth place. Fighting hard, they made it through to sixth, but that was as far as they could get. Meanwhile, Hodges was under siege from Weiss and Hermans, eventually succumbing to the pressure. Hermans took the lead going into the two-lap stage, with Weiss in tow. Hermans’ fastest lap was the penultimate one, as he made good his escape at the front. His finishing result closed him to within one point of Prunier ahead of the GP races tomorrow.
Further back, there was a strong race from both Jake Brown and Stephan
Wijers, bringing it home fifth and seventh respectively.
Hodges, for his part, kept hold of third, collecting more qualification points, making it something of a habit.
Result – 1/ Hermans/Van den Bogaart, 2/ Weiss/Schneider,
3/ Hodges/Henderson, 4/ Peter/Hoffmann, 5/ Brown/Booth,
6/ Lielbardis/Musset, 7/ Wijers/van Hal, 8/ van de Lagemaat,
9/ Knubben/Plettke, 10/ Raymond/Vareikaite
The final two 2025 Grand Prix races take place tomorrow, so stay with us here for all news plus other updates here on www.fimsidecarcross.com along with all our social media platforms.
From Barry Nutley.
