Jaromir Czechs in
By TMX Archives on 12th Jul 07
AFTER Mark Hooley's win in Italy was quickly followed by Clinton Barrs Open championship victory at Little Hereford, the British 125cc IMBA team travelled to Krasny Dvur in the Czech Republic on Sunday, gunning for a European championship treble.
However, although the day started well, with Hooley leading theopening moto, the podium was to be eventually filled by surprise Czechwinner Jaromir Romancik, the current IMBA series leader MichalVotroubek and Italian Tiziano Pevefieri on the two-stroke TM.
Despite not getting that treble, the Brits again did team managerColin Price proud, with Mark Hooley (Servo Racing KTM) in fifth, PhilMercer (Delkevic Kawasaki) sixth, Brad O'Leary (Foto-X/AMS KTM)seventh, Lee Dunham (MotoExtreme Kawasaki) tenth and James Lane (HondaEquipe) 12th.
With track watering by the local fire brigade, the Krasny Dvurcircuit was in top condition for the opening IMBA clash which producedimmediate drama.
As the pack hit the first turn, the home favourite Votroubek andDutchman Maurice Klijn collided leaving the Czech star in last place.At the front though, Hooley had made yet another great holeshotfollowed by German Andre Adrian, Lane, Maurice van Kasteren, Pevefieri,O'Leary and Dunham whilst remaining Brit Phil Mercer was down in 11thspot.
That's the way it stayed for a couple of laps until the unfortunateLane stalled his motor and was unable to quickly fire it back intolife, whilst top Dutchman van Kasteren fell, but moving in the oppositedirection was a very rapid Czech Jaromir Romancik, enjoying his recentswitch from KTM to Suzuki machinery.
IMBA 125CC EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP Rd 5 - Krasny Dvur, Czech Republic
Race One: 1 Jaromir Romancik (Czech Republic), 2 Tiziano Pevefieri(Italy), 3 Andre Adrian (Germany), 4 Mark Hooley (GB), 5 Phil Mercer(GB), 6 Rene Edsgaard (Denmark), 7 Brad O'Leary (GB), 8 Lee Dunham(GB), 9 Maurice van Kasteren (Holland), 10 Michal Votroubek (CzechRepublic), 11 Kim Schaffter (Switzerland), 12 Miroslav Jiranek (CzechRepublic), 13 Dirk Felix Sigmund (Germany),14 James Lane (GB), 15Graziano Pevefieri (Italy).
Race Two: 1 Votroubek, 2 Romancik, 3 van Kasteren, 4 O'Leary, 5Hooley, 6 G Pevefieri 7, T Pevefieri, 8 Mercer, 9 Adrian, 10 Jiranek,11 Dunham, 12 Lane, 13 Schaffter, 14 Alexander Hubner (Germany), 15Josef Mnuk (Czech Republic) .
Race Three: 1 Votroubek, 2 T Pevefieri, 3 van Kasteren, 4 Romancik,5 Mercer, 6 G Pevefieri, 7 O'Leary, 8 Hooley, 9 Lane, 10 Adrian, 11Dunham, 12 Edsgaard, 13 Jiranek, 14 Schaffter, 15 Patrick van Breugel(Holland).
Overall Results: 1 Romancik 161 points, 2 Votroubek 155, 3 TPevefieri 149, 4 van Kasteren 137, 5 Hooley 131, 6 Mercer 129, 7O'Leary 129, 8 Adrian 122, 9 G Pevefieri 112, 10 Dunham 105, 11Edsgaard 99, 12 Lane 95.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS: 1 Votroubek 798 points, 2 van Kasteren 698,3 Mercer 689, 4 T Pevefieri 606, 5 Hooley 592, 6 G Pevefieri 567, 7O'Leary 522, 8 Edsgaard 522, 9 Dunham 487, 10 Romancik 487, 11 vanBreugel 434, 12 Menno Verleng(Holland) 425, 13 Sigmund 388, 14 Lane379, 15 Frederic Birh(France) 361. Other British Riders: 36 ScottMathia 110 points.
For full story and pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, July 13, 2007.