Special Brou
By TMX Archives on 14th May 08
TWO British riders climbed onto the winner's podium at the first round of the European QuadX Championship at Brou, France, at the weekend, with England's Paul Winrow second, and Scotland's John Mitchell third. But there was just no stopping French rider Romain Couprie on his very fast Yamaha as he stormed passed any opposition that came his way to score a maximum with two fine wins. Under clear blue skies, the famous GP track, just off the main road between Paris and Le Mans was hot, hard, fast and very dusty, with the countless local solo championship races changing it between each time the quad riders went out.
Frenchman Jeremie Warnia was fastest in timed qualification but word around the paddock was that he might not last the race distance because of lack of practice after an operation. However, the next three qualifying places set the scene for Sunday's races with Couprie, Winrow and Mitchell, qualifying in that order.
Just as warm-up was coming to an end on Saturday, Winrow hit trouble when he tried a new line but landed badly and the bike pitched him off and landed on top of him. He hurt his knee, but admitted that when the gate dropped on Sunday it would be OK.
Mitchell got the holeshot in moto one with Winrow second and Warnia with Couprie burried mid-pack early on.
However, as they drifted out onto the finish straight for the first time, Couprie was already passed Warnia, and set off after Mitchell and Winrow.
Richard Tordoff crashed into a trackside fence on lap four, and had to call into the work area for repairs.
On lap two Warnia took the lead and, shortly afterwards, Couprie slotted into second, ahead of Mitchell and Winrow.
At the halfway stage Couprie had a ten-second lead over Mitchell with Winrow third, six-seconds further back. Warnia, after a small crash, was struggling in sixth, one place in front of Paul Homes.
With two laps to go, Couprie was controlling the race with a gap of 12-seconds still from Mitchell and Winrow, with Stefan Schreiber in a lonely fourth.
Holmes moved up one place, to sixth, on the final lap. Warnia explained why he pulled in after lap seven: I had an operation three-weeks ago to try and stop arm-pump, but this is the first time I have been on the bike since. I think it may have been too soon as I had to pull off!
Sole Irish rider, Sean Goss's day ended after race one: I dislocated my thumb at the last British round and it's come out again, so I can't hang on to the bike!
Just to prove, it wasn't a fluke and this county has some of the fastest quad riders there are, Winrow got the holeshot in race two, followed into turn one by Mitchell with Warnia and Couprie snapping at their heels.
By the end of the lap, however, Warnia had split the two Brits, while the back of Mitchell's bike was getting some very close attention from Couprie.
Couprie finally found away passed Winrow's 'very wide' Honda at the halfway stage, as Warnia was dropped slightly by the leaders
Mitchell was having a battle with Schreiber for fourth.
With two laps to go the front three Couprie, Winrow and Warnia seemed settled, with Mitchell on his own in fourth. Couprie crossed the finish line nine-seconds clear of Winrow with Warnia third as Mitchell closed, but ran out of time.
Tordoff's day went from bad to worse: I hurt my back after the last British round and they tried to put it back into alignment in the week, and it felt great , but evidently not good enough for this event. So, I am happy the day is over as it took me half-an-hour to get off the bike after the race because of the pain!
How many times do two British riders get on a podium at the same time at this level?
EMX EUROPEAN QUADX CHAMPS
Rd 1 Brou, FRANCE
1 Roman Couprie (F - 450 Yamaha) 25 + 25 = 50
2 Paul Winrow (GB - 450 Winrow Honda) 20 + 22 = 42
3 John Mitchell (GB - 450 ATV World Yamaha) 22 + 18 = 40
4 Stefan Schreiber (D - 525 KTM) 18 + 16 = 34
5 Vincent Broyer (F - 450 Polaris) 16 + 14 = 30
6 Jan Vlaeymans (450 W-Tec Honda) 12 + 15 = 27
7 Cyril Lamet (F - 450 Ligier Sherco) 10 + 13 = 23
8 Maximilian Freund (D - 450 Yamaha) 13 + 10 = 23
9 Paul Holmes (GB - 450 ATV World Yamaha) 15 + 8 = 23
10 Jeremie Warnia (F - 450 Suzuki) 2 + 20 = 22
11 Ingo Ten Vregelaar (D - 450 KTM) 9 + 12 = 21, 12 Ivan Puime Rodriguez (F - 450 Honda) 11 + 9 = 20, 13 Anthony Sousa Borges (F - 450 Honda) 8 + 11 = 19, 14 Davy Brems (B - 450 W-Tec Honda) 14 + 2 = 16, 15 Sebastien Afflard (F - 450 Suzuki) 7 + 6 = 13, 16 Tobias Lenz (D - 510 KTM) 5 + 7 = 12, 17 Cyril Debouck (F - 450 Kawasaki) 6 + 5 = 11, 18 Richard Tordoff (GB - 450 Mercuria GYTR Yamaha) 4 + 4 = 8, 19 Nikky Vaes (B - 450 W-Tec Honda) 3 + 3 = 6, 20 Sean Goss (IRE - 450 ATV World Yamaha) 1 + 0 = 1.
SERIES ATANDINGS: As Overall above.
For full pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, May 16, 2008