The tip of a nice 'berg!
By TMX Archives on 21st Aug 09
ON his local club track, German Andre Adrian again displayed just why he is the King of Ohlenberg', by scorching to maximum points in the latest IMBA European MX2 Championship round on Sunday.
Although the German obviously took the overall win, the Brits on duty fought hard to maintain their current dominant positions at the head of the IMBA championship table with Phil Mercer being the best of the bunch by producing a truly heroic performance.
Report and Pictures: MIKE WOOD
Just one week earlier, Mercer had badly torn his left ankle ligaments at Hawkstone Park and was therefore naturally considered an almost certain non-starter for the German event. However after a week of intensive physiotherapy, he made a late decision to travel in an attempt to just collect as many points as possible to keep his title dream alive. Wearing a protective splint and oversize boot on his injured ankle, Phil then remarkably not only completed the meeting, but also incredibly produced a stunning 2-3-2 scorecard sufficient to secure a fantastic second overall.
IMBA series leader and British team-mate, Lee Dunham, could well have also joined him on the podium after finishing level on 138-points with German Sebastian Potraz. However, Potraz finished in front of Dunham in the deciding final moto and thereby snatched away that third place trophy.
For the other Brits, Ohlenberg did not prove to be the most productive meeting of the series although as always they still gave total commitment to the cause with Matt Porter taking ninth, birthday-boy Sean Frayne 12th, James Lane 18th and Simon Lane, having his first outing for six weeks, claiming 20th spot.
Although Mercer went on to take that silver medal, his day began in the worst possible fashion after falling and further aggravating his injured ankle during practice – an incident which seriously threatened his actual participation in the proceedings.
For full report and pictures see T+MX News, August 21
IMBA MX2 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 5 – Ohlenberg GERMANY
1 Andre Adrian (D) 60 + 60 + 60 = 180
2 Phil MERCER (GB) 54 + 50 + 54 = 158
3 Sebastian Potraz (D) 41 + 47 + 50 = 138
4 Lee DUNHAM (GB) 50 + 43 + 45 = 138
5 Pascal Proenen (D) 43 + 45 + 47 = 135
6 Maurice van Kasteren (NL) 47 + 54 + 21 = 122
7 Rene Albers (NL) 39 + 37 + 43 = 119
8 Menno Verleng (NL) 35 + 35 + 41 = 111
9 Matt PORTER (GB) 37 + 31 + 39 = 107
10 Christoph Selent (D) 45 + 41 + 15 = 101
11 Josef Mnuk (CZ) 31+29+37=97, 12 Sean FRAYNE (GB) 18+39+35=92, 13 Dennis Van Rooij (NL) 27+25+33=85, 14 Randy Morand (CH) 29+33+23=85, 15 Nick Sauermann (D) 33+26+22=81, 16 Bjorn De Cort (NL) 25+24+31=80, 17 Janecek Vojtech (CZ) 24+22+25=71, 18 James LANE (GB) 26+27+18=71, 19 Jonathan Lesage (F) 16+23+27=66, 20 Simon LANE (GB) 21+20+24=65.
RACE ONE: 1 Adrian, 2 MERCER, 3 DUNHAM, 4 van Kasteren, 5 Selent, 6 Proenen, 7 Potraz, 8 Albers, 9 PORTER, 10 Verleng, 11 Sauermann, 12 Josef Mnuk, 13 Randy Morand, 14 Van Rooij, 15 James LANE, 16 De Cort, 17 Vojtech, 18 Birh, 19 Guinet, 20 Simon LANE.
RACE TWO: 1 Adrian, 2 van Kasteren, 3 MERCER, 4 Potraz, 5 Proenen, 6 DUNHAM, 7 Selent, 8 FRAYNE, 9 Albers, 10 Verleng, 11 Randy Morand, 12 PORTER, 13 Josef Mnuk, 14 James LANE, 15 Sauermann, 16 Van Rooij, 17 De Cort, 18 Lesage, 19 Vojtech, 20 Birh.
RACE THREE: 1 Adrian, 2 MERCER, 3 Potraz, 4 Proenen, 5 DUNHAM, 6 Albers, 7 Verleng, 8 PORTER, 9 Josef Mnuk, 10 FRAYNE, 11 Van Rooij, 12 De Cort, 13 Sigmund, 14 Lesage, 15 Godderz, 16 Vojtech, 17 Simon LANE, 18 Randy Morand, 19 Sauermann, 20 van Kasteren.
SERIES STANDINGS after 4 (of 7) rounds: 1 DUNHAM 618 points, 2 MERCER 600, 3 PORTER 511, 4 Adrian 509, 5 FRAYNE 452, 6 Albers 445, 7 Potraz 426, 8 Randy Morand 393, 9 De Cort 381, 10 Josef Mnuk 371, 11 Verleng 350, 12 Beekmans 345, 13 Van Rooij 334, 14 Birh 304, 15 Schøler 295, 16 Lesage 269, 17 Proenen 263, 18 Tony Morand 213, 19 Guinet 210,
20 Simon LANE 196,... 22 James LANE 174,... 29
MATHIA 121,...
NEXT ROUND: September 6 – Emmental, SWITZERLAND.
Lee Dunham (11) leads an MX2 charge into the first Ohlenberg bend, closely followed by Matt Porter (12) and German home boy, Andre Adrian (28).