Special guest of the evening was Jan Witteeven, the Dutch engineer winner of more than 40 world championships in off-road and GP racing.
Mr Witteveen explained the technical characteristics of the motorcycles which are allowed to take part to this new European Championship, strongly wanted by FIM Europe to give young riders a cheap, “easy” series where they can move their first steps in a Continental contest.
Jan Witteveen at the presentation of European Stock 250 4 Strokes Championship in Trieste.
“This series is the idea which was really missing”, Mr Witteveen commented. “Passing from mini-bikes to Moto3 is hard, the Stock 250 4 Strokes series is the perfect middle step. The bike is light – around 90 kilos – and the power is well balanced: 35-36 horse-power, the same for all the motorcycles, thanks to shared ECU. The motorcycle costs less than 10.000 euro but this does mean that is not safe or valid: it means only that there not expensive materials like carbon, titan or magnesium but aluminium and steel are enough to build a good bike! These motorcycles recall the 125 Sport Production machines of the Nineties: and from that series riders like Capirossi, Biaggi and Rossi emerged”.
Luigi Favarato, President of Alpe Adria Motorcycle Union, with Peter Balaz, member of SMF for Alpe Adria. The motorcycle is the Stock 250 4 Strokes realised by Franco Moro for the European Championship.
One of the motorcycles which will take part to the new series was the main protagonist of the event. It was realised by Italian Franco Moro, but the series is open to all constructors.
“The new European Stock 250 Championship is arousing great attention”, stated Mr Luigi Favarato, Alpe Adria Motorcycle Union President. “Teams and riders from France, Spain, Germany, Holland, Slovackia, Czech Republic and Italy have already registered to take part to the series. In the next weeks we are going to present the championship in other European Countries of Alpe Adria area. We are proud of being the promoters of this new championship, which will race in the contest of Alpe Adria Series. It will give to many young riders the opportunity to live an important experience in their sporting career”.
During the event the calendar of the European Stock 250 Championship was communicated. These are the dates:
17 May Adria Raceway (Italy)
31 May Pannoniaring (Hungary)
21 June Grobnik (Croatia)
19 July Most (Czech Republic)
9 August Hungaroring (Hungary)
13 September Slovakiaring (Slovakia).
The public during the presentation in Trieste.