Brits do well in French dust-up
By TMX Archives on 3rd May 07
AS the saying goes, the first impression is the most important. Well Sunday's opening round of the 2007 IMBA 125cc European championship held at Chateau Renard only produced bad impressions. Scorching temperatures produced thick, choking dust clouds on a narrow, one-line circuit, littered with large stones and best described as an extended supercross layout - certainly not an ideal venue for a series which is after all the Grand Prix of the amateur motocross organisations.
Although some riders could recognise the obvious danger, they werestrangely in the minority, so with no backing from their fellowcompetitors the result was three motos producing a scenario akin todriving down the motorway at 80mph in dense fog.
In the eventual overall standings, super Czech Republic star Michal Votroubek, IMBA runner-up in 2006. took the win.
For the Brits who were superbly marshalled by Colin Price, makinghis debut as team leader, they were totally together and unanimous intheir condemnation of the ridiculous conditions and rode with greatthought and reservation.
Best finisher was Phil Mercer (Delkevic Kawasaki) taking a fantasticsecond overall while Mark Hooley (Servo KTM) was denied an almostcertain podium placing following a final moto puncture.
Another of the many puncture victims was Lee Dunham (MotoExtremeKawasaki) who went on to take tenth overall thanks to a brace of verystrong sixth placings. After suffering a fall in the second moto, BradO'Leary (FotoX AMS KTM) was restricted to 12th overall on the day whilethe very unlucky James Lane (Honda Equipe) remarkably picked up frontwheel punctures in all three races! - pushing him back to 24th spot.
With all the track ingredients mentioned above, having a clean,strong start was imperative if you held any ambitions of featuring inthe top ten placings, so it was that expert holeshot king O'Leary ledthe moto one charge.
IMBA 125cc EUROPEAN MX CHAMPS
Rd 1 - Chateau Renard, FRANCE
MOTO ONE: 1 Michal Votroubek (Czech Republic), 2 Brad O'Leary (GB),3 Mark Hooley (GB), 4 Jaromir Romaneik (Czech Republic), 5 Phil Mercer(GB), 6 Lee Dunham (GB), 7 Rene Egsgaard (Denmark), 8 Tiziano Pevefieri(Italy), 9 Graziano Pevefieri (Italy), 10 Frederic Birh (France), 11Menno Verleng (Holland), 12 James Lane (GB), 13 Jim B Sorensen(Denmark), 14 Maurice van Kasteren (Holland), 15 Lukas Elmer(Switzerland).
MOTO TWO: 1 Votroubek, 2 Mercer, 3 Hooley, 4 G Pevefieri, 5 vanKasteren, 6 T Pevefieri, 7 Romaneik, 8 Egsgaard, 9 Birh, 10 Verleng, 11Dirk Felix Sigmund (Germany), 12 Marc Storms (Germany), 13 Josef Mnuk(Czech Republic), 14 Alexander Hubner (Germany), 15 L Elmer. OtherBritish placings: 23 Dunham,... 31 Lane,... 35 O'Leary.
MOTO THREE: 1 Egsgaard, 2 van Kasteren, 3 T Pevefieri, 4 Votroubek,5 Mercer, 6 Dunham, 7 G Pevefieri, 8 O'Leary, 9 Verleng, 10 Patrick vanBreugel (Holland), 11 Sorensen, 12 Birh 13 Mnuk 14 Rene Albers(Holland) 15 Ronnie van Rooij (Holland). Other British placings: 27Lane,... 30 Hooley.
OVERALL: 1 Votroubek 167 points, 2 Mercer 144, 3 Egsgaard 140, 4 TPevefieri 132, 5 v Kasteren 126, 6 G Pevefieri 125, 7 Hooley 111, 8Romaneik 109, 9 Verleng 105, 10 Dunham 104, 11 Birh 103, 12 O'Leary 9913 Sorensen 83 14 Mnuk 74 15 Albers 71. Other British placings: 24 Lane55.
For full report, results and pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, May 4, 2007.