Resultat

Dutch SBK Championship.

It’s at the Assen MotoGP circuit, on 21 / 22th of May that the second round of the 2011 ICGP championship took place.

Due to the popularity and location of this track, a full grid was booked for Round 2 of the ICGP series at this MotoGP track in the north of Holland. The track dates back to 1922, with the start line still within cms of the original one, although the track is now shorter than when first built.

On a warm sunny Friday afternoon the ICGP circus started to form in the paddock with some of the riders taking advantage of a practice session during the open Track day. The series is now set up to have two races per meeting, so we were in for a treat, and riders have 2 opportunities to make points for the Championship.

Qualifiers 1 and 2 were exciting in their own right with quite a few riders having issues with their bikes.

Spike Edwards (Veryard Team) who was beset with ignition problems at Catalunya in April was there, but again, had problems, and almost did not qualify, but was kindly lent a bike by Chris Bishop’s sponsor (Stuart Melan) so that he could at least make the back row, even though he did not get sufficient track or transponder time to qualify anywhere else.

RPJ (Yamaha TZ 350 was blackflagged in Qualifier 1 for a malfunctioning transponder, but fortunately still recorded a time from the “beam’ and did get in 5 laps.

Transponder changed and re-fitted, a very cross RPJ was black flagged again in the 2nd qualifier for the same problem … transponder re-sited for races did the trick! Pole position went to Simpson (BSR), then Bertin (Kawasaki), Bishop (Yamaha TZ 350), Parker (TZ 350 MR Jones), Volk (TZ350), RPJ, Hoffmann (TZ350), and Rose (TZ350) made up the two front rows.

Bishop took a tumble on his number one bike during Qualifiers, meaning that he was going to have to use his number 2 bike for the races.

Results and analysis of the QP1 :

350cc Class

Ian Simpson (GB)
Guy Bertin (FR)
Chris Bishop (GB)

250cc Class

Eric Saul (FR)
André Gouin (FR)
Yves Hecq (BE)

Results and analysis of the QP2 :

350cc Class

Ian Simpson (GB)
Guy Bertin (FR)
Chris Bishop (GB)

250cc Class

Eric Saul (FR)
André Gouin (FR)
Yves Hecq (BE)

Cumulation of both qualifying sessions :

RPJ onboard cam during 1st race

Race 1 Saturday evening and the riders gathered at the gate, engines revving, Simmo got off to a flying start, with Bertin, Bishop, Parker and RPJ hot on his heels.

Bertin disappeared off on Lap 1, Simmo disappeared off into the distance, and Bishop and Parker chased his fumes all the way round almost joined at the hip. RPJ led the next group, fractions of a second ahead of Rose, Hart, Hoffmann and Saul (TZ 250).

These five continued to circle as a group seconds behind the double act of Parker and Bertin, with Simmo having his own race at the front. Lap 6 RPJ mis-judged the fast right-hander on the back straight and took to the escape road, costing him four places and some distance.

He chased the four for the balance of the race, whilst they changed positions within their pack… Ant Hart grabbed 4th position from Rose in 5th and Hoffmann 6th, RPJ got the better of Saul on the penultimate lap, whilst Saul struggled with his bike round to 8th position – giving him 1st on the 250s.

Andre Gouin (TZ250) rode a good race, creeping up the positions as riders fell away with bike and handling issues. He took Yves Roger Hecq (Rotax) on the 8th lap, pushing him into 3rd position for the 250’s, after a consistent ride from Yves throughout.

Parker made his move on Bishop on the penultimate lap, tucked his head down behind the screen and kept 2nd position through to the end, with a determined Bishop hot on his heels, pulling wheelies coming out of the slow banked left hander behind the paddock in his efforts to re-gain his position. Parker was darned lucky as on parking up at the podium area, he found his petrol tank spilling fuel – timing eh!

Race 1 done and dusted, the riders returned to the paddock, stripped off their leathers, fettled awhile and then they all gathered together for a team BBQ. Champagne flowed courtesy of a smiling Andre Gouin who was back competing with the series after his Le Mans crash at the beginning of the 2010 season.

Podium 350cc

Podium 250cc

Results and analysis of the 1st race :

350cc Class

Ian Simpson (GB)
Richard Parker (GB)
Chris Bishop (GB)

250cc Class

Eric Saul (FR)
André Gouin (FR)
Yves Hecq (BE)

Full tummies and many glasses of bubbly later, the teams drifted off to their respective camps for some much needed sleep before Race 2 on Sunday lunchtime.

Sunday morning brought rain to the paddock and track for a couple of hours, but by the time the riders gathered at the start line, the rain had abated, and blue skies and dry track lay ahead. TT Timms did not make the start due to scratching his eye the previous night whilst imbibing excessive quantities of beer! A very helpful nurse at the track made him all better with some eye drops but he was told not to drive for 24 hours! … and certainly no fast riding of Lea Gourlay’s Yamaha TZ 350 round the track Mr Timms!

Wolfgang Volk did not make the start of Race 2 due to crashing his bike during Race 1, injuring his ankle and putting himself out of action. Trouble struck again for the Edwards/Veryard team with Edwards’ bike seizing for the 4th time in the first laps of both of the races.

The riders went round on their sighting lap and lined back up again in the same grid positions as the previous day.

Engines revving, anticipation high, as they watched the overhead gantry for the start signal …

The red lights went out, the air was filled with 2 stroke exhaust fumes and the unique sound of a full grid of 2 strokes. Jostling and parrying for positions they came round the first bend with Simmo leading, and then Bertin, Parker and Bishop jostling for position. There was no repeat of the quintet of RPJ, Rose, Hoffmann, Hart and Saul, as Rose had changed his gearing and pulled out very early due to mis-calculation. RPJ was battling with an engine that would not run cleanly, leaving Ant Hart to circulate in 4th position.

The battling trio of Bertin, Bishop and Parker ensued, Simmo stretched his convincing lead right up until lap 5 when misfortune befell him and he was seen riding into the pit lane shaking his handlebars!

The trio changed position as they came round for the next lap, now battling to lead the race. Parker, Bertin and then Bishop changing places constantly with Bertin leading from Bishop and Parker for one lap, but then Parker regained 2nd from Bishop in Lap 9, and then finally Parker executed a well calculated move to head the race and take the checquered flag from Bertin and Bishop.

Ant Hart claimed a well deserved 4th place, with 5th going to Hoffmann just ahead of Peers-Jones in 6th. We enjoyed an exciting 7th lap where newcomer Chris Knight attempted to slot in ahead of Hoffmann, but over zealousness led to an error at the long left hander behind the paddock, and bike and boy-racer slid into the stones.

In the 250’s Colin Sleigh was leading from lap 2 for the 250’s, with Andre Gouin following closely being in 2nd place, Eric’s crank shaft broke on lap 6, leaving the way for Steve Clark to take 3rd place after moving up the field from his original 19th place in the field to 11th, overtaking Yves Roger Hecq on the 9th lap. Both Steve Clark and Steve Boam failed to finish in the first race, and unfortunately Boam went out on the 9th lap of the 2nd.

So that sums up the exciting race meeting that was Assen, more riders failed to finish than did finish – which just shows it is just as much about the maintenance of these lovely old bikes as it is about the way you ride them. 17 finishers, to 18 non-starters and DNFs.

Roll on the 3rd Race meeting in Rijeka, Croatia in 3 weeks time with program available here, and lets hope the Bora wind and rain stays away for a change!