Brit's Swiss hoorah
By TMX Archives on 1st Oct 10
Following 48-hours of persistent rain, there was serious concern among the competitors that the final round of the IMBA European MX2 Championship at Amriswil, Switzerland, on Sunday, would not take place.
On the grassland circuit which is only used just once a year, the Swiss organisers had already made the decision to cancel the entire programme scheduled for Saturday in an attempt to protect the track surface, but with the ground already heavily waterlogged and more bad weather expected, the odds of any action were rather slim.
However on the main race day, no more rain fell and although the conditions were initially very slippery, the going eventually dried and was just about ideal by the time the opening IMBA moto blasted off, proving the organisers knowledge of their terrain was vindicated.
And, what another glorious occasion this final round was to be for our super British team. Reigning Champion Lee Dunham wrapped up his second IMBA MX2 title just two weeks after successfully defending his home AMCA crown, thus making it an incredible ‘double double', Wow what an achievement!
To add to the British joy AMCA competitors claims the top four positions in the final points table.
On his farewell IMBA meeting, Phil Mercer bowed out in style, taking the overall win at Amriswil to also secure the Championship runners-up spot. Back in 2009, Brits finished 1-2-3 in the final IMBA MX2 standings, but in 2010 they brilliantly went one better as Jack Taylor took third and Sean Frayne hauled himself up into fourth, taking full advantage of some riders who had decided not to cotest the event.
Completing the British team was Carl Benjamin who, despite not being selected for round one, still finished a great 11th in his debut IMBA season.
Going into Sunday's event, defending champion, Lee Dunham, held a 63-point advantage over Phil Mercer but it was the latter who had made a late switch to compete aboard his mechanic Luke Brown's rapid 250F KTM, grabbing the holeshot in moto one at Amriswil.
Full story and pictures in T+MX issue dated October 1, 2010.
IMBA MX2 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 5 (Final) – Amriswil, SWITZERLAND
OVERALL: 1 Phil MERCER (GB) 165 points, 2 Andy Baumgartner (CH) 158, 3 Ronnie Van Rooji (NL) 157, 4 Lee DUNHAM (GB) 148, 5 Jack TAYLOR (GB) 122, 6 Stefan Ruger (CH) 119,... 8 Carl Benjamin (GB) 111,... 10 Sean FRAYNE (GB) 99.
MOTO ONE: 1 MERCER, 2 DUNHAM, 3 Baumgartner, 4 R Van Rooji, 5 Christoph Selent (D), 6 TAYLOR, 7 Prendes Pascal (CH), 8 FRAYNE, 9 Benjamin, 10 Josef Mnuk (CZ), 11 Ruger, 12 Jarno Derks (NL), 13 Fabian Weilenmann (CH), 14 Jeroen De Groot (NL), 15 Dennis Van Rooji (NL), 16 Frederic Birh (France) 17 Nathanael Hediger (CH), 18 Petitprez Camille (F), 19 Marcel Steiger (CH), 20 Andreas Jensen (DK).
MOTO TWO: 1 MERCER, 2 Baumgartner, 3 R Van Rooji, 4 DUNHAM 5 Derks, 6 Ruger, 7 Mnuk, 8 Selent, 9 Benjamin, 10 Weilenmann, 11 FRAYNE, 12 Adrian Scheiwiller (CH), 13 TAYLOR, 14 De Groot, 15 Steiger, 16 Birh, 17, D Van Rooji 18 Camille, 19 Hediger, 20 Anthony Dumilly (F).
MOTO THREE: 1 R Van Rooji, 2 Baumgartner, 3 TAYLOR, 4 DUNHAM, 5 MERCER, 6 Ruger, 7 Derks, 8 Scheiwiller, 9 Benjamin, 10 D Van Rooji, 11 Pascal, 12 Steiger, 13 Camille, 14 FRAYNE, 15 Hediger, 16 Selent, 17 Dumilly, 18 Jensen, 19 Stefan Bech (D), 20 Mnuk.
FINAL IMBA MX2 CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS: 1 Lee DUNHAM 684 points (CHAMPION), 2 Phil MERCER 638, 3 Jack TAYLOR 583, 4 Sean FRAYNE 461, 5 Jaromir Romancik (CZ), 445, =6 Mnuk and R Van Rooji 443, 8 Selent 442, 9 D Van Rooji 414, 10 Kevin Reynaert (Belgium) 373, 11 Benjamin 372, 12 Martijn Romviel (NL) 364, 13 Bjorn de Cort (NL) 331, 14 Birh 314, 15 Gaeten Van den Bosche (Belgium) 297, 16 Rene Albers (NL) 276, 17 Maurice Van Kasteren (NL) 270, 18 Nick Sauremann (D) 264, 19 Dumilly 263, 20 Baumgartner 255.