The much-expected bad weather hit overnight on Friday, with track conditions soft and muddy for Saturday qualifying. The sandy nature of the track made life easier, with the water tending to soak in, rather than collect, so it appeared to hold up well. Free practice for the quads and two sidecar groups went off uneventfully, with the general opinion being, all was well as far as the teams were concerned.
Group “A” Timed Practice –
The quad session churned the track up quite badly on the tops of some of the jumps, with lines the sidecars found difficult to follow, but Tim and Sem Leferink in group “A” made a good job of it, topping their group from early on, and clearly feeling at home in conditions not unlike those in their native Holland. There were some hard places, but where the track had been constructed and worked in recent weeks and days, that ground was very soft.
Davy Sanders/Jens Vincent were very quick from the off, as indeed were Tim Prummer/Patrick Schneider. These three teams finished the session in that order with red plate holders Killian and Evan Prunier stranded after lap two with a dead engine. Suspecting electrics, they pushed it back and got to work, having failed to get in the top ten in the group.
Koen Grondman/Ross Vincent continued their upward path but almost lost the sixteen-year-old passenger over the handrail, jumping into the double under the bridge, and nearly stopping dead as they slammed into the other side. All was well, and they made the top five.
Group “B” -
Featured the series runners-up Vanluchene/van den Bogaart and the defending champion Koen Hermans/Dion Rietman, as well as local heroes Daniel Lielbardis with Lari Kunnas aboard. These three teams headed the table early on and held that position for most of the session.
Brett Wilkinson/Joe Millard, having had the headstock of their frame welded before any track action, found it hard to match the pace of Daniel Willemsen (the man who welded it), and they were both overtaken by Stephan Wijers/Joel Hoffmann, pushing Wilkinson back to sixth fastest.
Vanluchene did enough early on to secure first place with a 2.07.253 time from Hermans and Lielbardis.
Group “A” Qualification Race –
Having diagnosed and fixed his problem which turned out to be a faulty fuel pump, Killian Prunier would have to work hard from a poor gate choice in this race. He started from the extreme left of the gate and actually hit the turn in fourth behind race leaders Tim and Sem Leferink, Davy Sanders/Jens Vincent and Markus Normak/Thomas Dukulis the Estonian/Latvian pairing.
Tim Prummer locked up his rear wheel at the first turn and stalled the engine, baulking Koen Grondman in the process. These two crews then set about catching the leaders and making up for lost time. They were in convoy cutting through. At the front, Leferink cleared off with Davy Sanders giving chase, and Prunier trying to pass the Estonian crew. Meanwhile, Thom van de Lagemaat/Han van Hall were closing on Prunier and sailed past him on a tight right turn. These two teams battled for a lap or two and then once again Prunier led.
Van de Lagemaat returned the favour next lap and stayed there. It appeared the Pruniers had a problem, but it might simply have been their dislike for these sandy, rutty conditions. Then deeper into the race, Sanders/Vincent hit a deep rut and stalled for many seconds, dropping back as they stood still. Eventually they got going, but not before several teams had pushed them down the order.
Normak held firm but eventually gave way to Tim Prummer who made a remarkable recovery to eventually bring it home in second place. The Estonian was delighted in his interview and will hope for similar tomorrow.
The Leferinks almost did not pull it off as they too got stuck in the closing stages, but such was their lead, they had plenty of time to win by one minute regardless.
Result – 1/Tim Leferink/Sem Leferink, 2/Tim Prummer/Patrick Schneider, 3/Markus Normak/Thomas Daniels Dukulis, 4/Grondman/Vincent, 5/van de Lagemaat/van Hal, 6/Sanders/Vincent, 7/Prunier/Prunier, 8/Pirtinas/Alexsejevs, 9/Rupeiks/Tucis, 10/Padinki/Padinki.
Group “B” Qualification Race –
This was a dramatic start for Brett Wilkinson/Joe Millard as they hit the front and took the hole shot from the extreme right side of the grid. Marvin Vanluchene did not make a good start but Daniel Lielbardis with Lari Kunnas aboard, did. They shot past Wilkinson and cleared off, never to be headed. Amazingly, Vanluchene/van den Bogaart were through the pack and were soon snapping at the leaders heels, passing Wilkinson/Millard into second place. Stephan Wijers Joel Hoffmann had another good start, as is their tradition, and were very much in contention from the start. Then Brett was nowhere to be seen as Koen Hermans/Dion Rietman moved into contention. He had fallen foul of a deep rut stopping him dead, taking what seemed like a lifetime to get going. The same happened to Hermans, and he took even longer to extract himself from the torrid conditions.
There was no such problem at the front, with Lielbardis and Vanluchene stretching away and Brett Wilkinson now involved with a flying Stephan Wijers who had every intention of staying up front. These two had a great battle, passing and repassing before Wilkinson made a final move which stuck, enabling him to open a gap from Wijers.
Hermans by this time had recovered to seventh place, and that is where he finished. His speed was there but his time wasted in the deep hole spoiled everything.
Wilkinson was now into third, and to his delight, that is where he finished.
Result – 1/Lielbardis/Kunnas, 2/Vanluchene/van den Bogaart, 3/Wilkinson/Millard, 4/Wijers/Hoffmann, 5/Willemsen/Lina, 6/Karing/Niitsoo, 7/Hermans/Rietman, 8/Carcreff/Hupon, 9/de Cock/de Wilder, 10/Pirtinas/Zaliauskas.
Two vital Grand Prix races take place tomorrow, so stay with us on FIM-MOTO.TV for the live action as it happens and check out all the latest news on www.fimsidecarcross.com along with all our social media outlets.
From Barry Nutley
