A hard time for Brits at Venray
By Mike Wood on 14th Jun 07
HISTORICALLY, the IMBA championship rounds held in Holland often prove to be the least productive for British riders as they lock horns in combat with the European sand-track masters.
In preparation for the 2007 IMBA 125cc sand-blast,some of the competing AMCA riders even intended to spend some valuabletrack time in the deep Belgium sand of Lommel before proceeding ontoVenray, the venue selected for this season's Dutch round of the series.
However, typical of the sheer misfortune which wasto contrive to eventually produce a difficult weekend for the Britishteam, they were only able to complete a total of seven laps at Lommelas torrential, relentless rain resulted in a very early halt to theirpractice ride.
On arrival at Venray, as expected, the Brits stillgave their all with Phil Mercer (Delkevic Kawasaki) taking fourthoverall, just missing out on a podium placing after crashing twice inthe final moto, while Brad O'Leary (FotoX AMS KTM) was in sixth place,Scott Mathia (Wulfsport KTM) 16th, James Lane (Honda Equipe) 18th, LeeDunham (MotoExtreme Kawasaki) 20th and Mark Hooley (Servo KTM) 29th.
In what was the first IMBA 125cc event since the sad death of former British team manager Lionel Beck, a minutes silence was held before the opening moto in Venray.
When that gate did drop though, Lionel would havebeen very proud to see the British flag flying high, as Mark Hooley ledthe charge followed by home favourite Maurice Van Kasteren, O'Leary,Kim Schaffer, Mercer and Patrick Van Breugel while the other AMCA lads- Dunham, Mathia and Lane held tenth, 16th and 17th places respectively.
Further downfield though, there was an usual sightas the series leader, Michal Votroubek, was stranded in an incredible32nd spot following a fall. However, he then produced one stunning lapto pass 16 of his rivals. The immaculate Czech was now on a seriouscharge with the leading pack being reeled in.
IMBA EUROPEAN 125cc MX CHAMPS Rd 3 - Venray, HOLLAND
RACE One: 1 Maurice Van Kasteren (NL), 2 MennoVerleng (NL), 3 Ronnie Van Rooji (NL), 4 Phil Mercer (GB), 5 BradO'Leary (GB), 6 Patrick Van Breugel (NL), 7 Nick Kouwenberg (NL), 8Rene Egsgaard (DK), 9 Andre Adrian (D), 10 Michal Votroubek (CZ), 11Jim B Sorensen (DK), 12 Mark Hooley (GB), 13 Maurice Klijn (NL), 14Christian Schoeler (DK), 15 Kim Schaffter (CH). Other British placings:17 Lee Dunham,... 21 Scott Mathia,... 26 James Lane.
RACE TWO: 1 Votroubek, 2 Mercer, 3 Adrian 4, VanKasteren, 5 Verleng, 6 Klijn, 7 Arnold Smits (NL), 8 Sorensen, 9 VanRooji, 10 Egsgaard, 11 Tiziano Pevefieri (I), 12 Van Breugel, 13Schoeler, 14 Marc Storms (D), 15 O'Leary. Other British placings: 16Lane,... 25 Mathia, 26 Dunham.
RACE THREE: 1 Van Kasteren, 2 Votroubek, 3O'Leary, 4 Verleng, 5 Van Rooji, 6 Klijn, 7 Schoeler, 8 Jeppe Birkedal(DK), 9 Smits, 10 Egsgaard, 11 Mercer, 12 Mathia, 13 Adrian, 14Sorensen, 15 Alexander Hubner (D). Other British placings: 16 Lane,...20 Dunham,... 31 Hooley.
OVERALL: 1 Van Kasteren 167 points, 2 Votroubek149, 3 Verleng 146, 4 Mercer 134, 5 Van Rooji 132, 6 O'Leary 121. OtherBritish placings: 16 Mathia 67,... 18 Lane 65,... 20 Dunham 60,.. 29Hooley 41.
SERIES STANDINGS after 3 rounds: 1 Votroubek 490points, 2 Van Kasteren 452, 3 Mercer 429, 4 Egsgaard 339, 5 O'Leary308, 6 T Pevefieri 306, 7 Verleng 303, 8 G Pevefieri 301, 9 Hooley 294,10 Dunham 267, 11 Van Breugel 248, 12 Van Rooji 233, 13 Frederic Birh(F) 228, 14 Dirk Felix Sigmund (D) 223, 15 Jaromir Romaneik (CZ) 221.Other British placings: 17 Lane 213,... 30 Mathia 110.
For full report, results and pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, June 15, 2007.