FIM Europe News

The second round of the Dragbike European Championship was held from the 5th to the 7th of July in Alastaro (Finland). Track conditions were a little slippery on Friday, but perfect Saturday and Sunday. The Birtish Ian King was the winner in Top Fuel Bike. Runner up was Norwegian Sverre Dahl. Finnish Samu Kemppainen was the winner in Super Twin Bike. Runner up was Norwegian Ronny Aasen. Frederik Fredlund from Finland was the winner in Pro Stock Bike. F. Fredlund also set new European ET record at 7,005 sec. Runner up was Swedish Ulf Ogge. The third round of the Dragbike European Championship is going to take place in Hockenheim (Germany) from the 9th to the 11th of August. (FIM Europe Press Release 91/2013)  

‘Zelta Zirgs’ track in Kegums, Latvia, hosted this weekend rounds three and four of the EMX125 and EMX250 championships. Loamy caramel dirt, big fluffy berms, rolling wave sections and perfectly formed table tops sum up the circuit features. In the EMX125 class, local youngster Wilvo Nestaan JM Racing KTM’s Pauls Jonass remained unbeaten this year taking his fourth final win. The EMX125 Final saw Jonass take the holeshot only to be passed through the first wave section by a dynamic Team MJC rider Nicolas Dercourt. Dercourt rode an amazing two laps looking to be a worthy challenger for the talented Latvian Jonass. Unfortunately for Frenchman Nicolas Dercourt the energy he had in the first two laps soon dwindled and he could no longer hold the pace of the red plate holder Jonass. As Jonass took over the lead, Dercourt dropped off the pace for one lap allowing a charging Team

The European Championship Challenge (ECC) was held today in Zarnovica, Slovakia. Nearly 4000 spectators have seen a very well organized meeting with a fantastic line-up and very exciting speedway sport without any fall. After 20 heats victory was taken by Jurica Pavlic, HMS but 5 more riders have been tie on points on the place 2 to 6 and therefore run-offs have been necessary. Second place went to Roman Poman Povazny, MFR and third place to Grigory Laguta, MFR. 9 riders in total have qualified now from this Challenge in Zarnovica to the 4 Finals wich will be live broadcasted in Eurosport all over the world. The next round will be the first final of the Individual Speedway European Championship and it will be held in Gdansk (Poland). (FIM Europe Press Release 89/2013)  

The Final of the Team Speedway Under 21 European Championship was held yesterday in Opole (Poland). The winning team was Poland, which managed to win with the riders: Piotr Pawlicki, Artur Czaja, Pawel Przedpelski, Krystian Pieszczek and Bartosz Zmarlik. Second position went to the Danish team and third position the Czech team. (FIM Europe Press Release 88/2013)  

Sweden Eddie Karlsson (JTG) won 10 points clear of Italian Luca Cotone, Gas Gas, the second round of the UEM FIM Europe held at Barzio, Valsassina, Italy. High scores for everybody nevertheless the good condition of the soil and the wonderful weather. It was due to the perfect implementation of the non stop rule. Right or not , good or bad, this rule is what decided in this year, but some riders are still stuck to their old riding. Cotone at section 13 of the first lap was punished for having jumping on his rear wheel without advancing! Same was happened to Borrellas few minutes earlier. Both astonished for the probably exaggerate strictness of the observer, but they have to cope with this, at least in this season. Anyway if Karlsson and Cotone were very close at the turning point, in the second part of the competition Karlsson was able

Next Saturday it will be the turn of Italy to host the European Trials circus in occasion of the second round of the UEM FIM Europe Championship. The venue of Barzio, in Valsassina, North of Milan should offer a better weather compared to what happened in Czech Republic at the first one. About 90 riders have already sent their entry-forms and this confirms one more time as these series are always alive, no matter the real economic crisis spread on all the continent. In the top class, Sweden Eddie Karlsson, JTG, is expecting to defend his leadership, but it won't be easy because the twos who are chasing him in the overall standing are Italian's and will be able to count on the support of their fans in order to ride at their best: Matteo Poli, Ossa and Luca Cotone, Gas Gas, will take the chance to beat the favorite.

The third round of the Road Racing Hill Climbing European Championship was held this weekend in Chatel St Denis (France). The competition was held under difficult weather conditions: rainy weather all day for the trials, 8 degrees all day. On Sunday, the sun was shining all day. 9 degrees in the morning, 22 at the best of the day. All classes had good sporting results and there was fighting between many riders. 2 pilots got injured and The winners of the different categories were the following: Moto3/125GP: Giovanni Ronzoni (ITA, Honda) 250cc Open: Pierre Favre (FRA, Yamaha) Sidecar: Dichamp/Peugeot (FRA, LCR) Superbike: Uwe Rademacher (GER, Kawasaki) Supermoto Open: Jürgen SCHÖNLEITNER (AUT, Husqvarna) Supersport: Stefano Bonetti (ITA, FMI) Superstock 600: Jean-Noel Salvi (FRA, Honda) Superstock 1000: Jean-Noel Salvi (FRA, Honda) Next and final round is scheduled in Villers sous Chalamont (France) on the 20th and 21st of July.   (FIM Europe

Third round of the EMX250 European Championship was held this weekend in Uddevalla (Sweden). After a week of dark clouds and rain, the skies cleared up to host the EMX250 Championship where Valentin Guillod kept up his momentum taking his third consecutive overall win to remain so far unbeaten in 2013. Damon Graulus was second and Jeremy Seewer was third. The EMX250 Final kicked off with Standing Construct KTM’s Damon Graulus firing out of the gate to take the holeshot and the early lead. Following closely behind was Stabilo Progrip MX Team’s Brian Bogers who was chased hard by the current championship point’s leader Guillod Motorsport’s Valentin Guillod. After sitting calmly in third, around half way the Swiss Guillod set the fastest lap time and began plotting his attack. While Brian Bogers put up a good fight, a crash would hand the second place to the flying Swiss Valentine Guillod

The Final of the European Pairs Speedway Championship was held yesterday in the German track of Waldstadion Herxheim near Karlsruhe. The winners were the home riders (Smolinski, Wölbert and Dilger) in front of the Polish team (Ulamek, Kosciuch and Puskakowski) and third the Ukrainian team (Karpov, Loktaev and Melnychuk). (FIM Europe Press Release 82/2013)  

Estonian Kuressaare’s Airport was the host of the fourth event in the 2013 European Supermoto ES2 + Young Trophy Championship. Sunday morning started with an upset for French rider Frederic Guerin who fell down during Warm-Up and damaged his right shoulder, not being able to defend his hard fought pole-position on Saturday’s Time Practice in any of the Sunday’s races. Italian Edgardo Borella (Yamaha) managed to take the hole-shot and lead the first laps of the first race with Championship Leader Dutch Devon Vermeulen (KTM) close on his tracks. A compact group of six riders were escaping in front, great racing being cheered by the thousands of spectators who were present. Not too long and overtaking started: First, Vermeulen (KTM) moved at the lead of the race after a great pass on Borella (Yamaha) on the waved off-road section. Then, Finnish rider Sami Salstola (TM) moved in front of Italian