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By - Gerald Langston:
Part 2 – The European Tour – Austria & Holland
After our Motorex tour on Sunday it was back on the bus to Geneva Airport where we once again flew to Munich then another 2 hour bus ride back to our hotel just outside Matighofen. Monday and Tuesday were spent at KTM. The time was spent with the mechanics rebuilding the engines and some Dyno testing and we had some meetings with the engineers on where we are going with the bikes, engine and suspension wise. Talking of Dynos, there were about 7 Dyno rooms at KTM, ranging from the simple to the exotic remotely controlled. They had a Paris Dakar bike, which seemed to run around the clock. But what was impressive were the hydraulic actuators that loaded the bike in different ways to simulate the bike hitting jumps etc, as I say – VERY IMPRESSIVE.
Wednesday the 11th was another bus ride back to Munich airport, then a flight to Amsterdam, and for a change – rental cars. We got into Amsterdam at 5am and being rush hour it was a 2-hour drive to Arnhem, which is near the German border. Why we did not fly to Dusseldorf in Germany I don’t know, it is actually closer.
Thursday was an open practice in the afternoon. Holland being part of the lowlands (used to be under the sea millions of years ago) all the soil is sandy. I think the organizers who had shipped in a soil with a higher clay content wanted to see how it would hold up. The other reason was probably to let the Dutch and Belgium riders get used to Supercross for the 125 support race. With the exception of Dutch Champion Marc De Reuver, this was not a pretty sight. I am told half the entry list either hurt themselves or pulled out in fear before the final.
This brings me to an opinion on the World SX GP. I am certainly behind a world series and I hope it will grow from strength to strength but here are some problems. First the only two countries outside of America who have domestic Supercross series are France and Australia and it shows in the American series. Every country has a motocross series with “no double” rules from the FIM. This effectively outlaws jumps over a certain height and distance apart. In Holland not one rider ventured into the 250 supercross class, and with good reason, they had never seen anything like it before.
So it’s my opinion that the overseas rounds should initially be in France and Australia, otherwise we are travelling half way round the world to race the same people we race every weekend in America. Also there has to be a feeder system for young riders, a relaxation of the “no big jump” rules or some sort of Arena X series to at least expose them to supercross.
Anyway, back to the tour. Friday was a tour of the WP Suspension factory, which is now 100% owned by KTM. Having been there before a few years ago, the thing that struck me most was the expansion of the place and how gig they are getting in road racing, especially 600 Supersport racing.
Friday night’s practice with the whoops in was good for us with Grant second quickest in 2 of the 3 timed sessions. Saturday dawned another cold shitty day and falling on my backside on the ice outside the hotel reminded me of how much I hated European winters. Race evening finally arrived and the opening ceremonies were a total mess up. The crowd took a long time to get “into” the whole SX thing but this is what I said earlier, they have never been exposed to it so they didn’t know what was going on.
In the main, Grant started well pressurizing Tortelli into a mistake and passing La Rocco through the whoops. However he then lost this rhythm and was re-passed by La Rocco a few laps later. Ferry also passed him but crashed. Grant should have finished 3rd but his lap times dropped off too much so a distant 4th was the final result. Anyway after 2 rounds Grant is 3rd overall which is better than we expected.
Sunday was an early morning wake up call to get to the early flight from Amsterdam – Chicago – Los Angeles. It took me another week or so to get my biological clock back onto Pacific Coast Time. When I finish this column it is a short 1-hour drive to Anaheim for round 3 today.
