IMBA Championship,Denmark

Written by MIKE WOOD Tuesday, 08 May 2012 00:00

Following a non-start the previous week,the 2012 IMBA MX European Championships are now firmly up and running after the opening round of both the IMBA MX2 and Ladies title races were held in Lindknud,Denmark on Sunday. 

Yes,the potential points haul of the AMCA Team Great Britain riders was restricted by a series of mechanical problems and spills,but nobody could question their fantastic effort and commitment.In the deep,black Danish sand,Scott Mathia was to finish as top Brit with 15^th overall in MX2 whilst Shane Holmes took 17^th,Paul Neale 18^th and Lewis Abbott 20^th.Despite being the sole British female competitor,Leonie Smith got home 15^th overall in the IMBA Ladies contest following a typically gutsy performance which saw her also earn 15^th spot finishes in both motos.

The IMBA MX2 contest was to be rather dominated by the Dutch and Danish sand-track Experts who filled the top nine places in the final overall standings.Going onto bag maximum points,Dutchman John Cuppen made his intentions perfectly clear by leading the opening moto of the season from gate to flag.Making their full IMBA debuts, both Lewis Abbott and Paul Neale made strong starts in moto one,holding early 7^th and 11^th places respectively with Shane Holmes 12^th and Scott Mathia 14^th.Suffering from frustrating fuel injection problems on his KTM,Holmes eventually dropped back to a 23^rd place finish after stopping.Top Brit in the opener was to be Abbott in a fine 11^th, just one place ahead of Mathia with Neale getting home in 20^th.

Unable to resolve his mechanical gremlins,Holmes was aboard his spare bike for moto two as the rapid Cuppen again led all the way ahead of his Dutch teammates Ralph Hubers and Maikel Brands.Fastest Brit away was again South Coast based Abbott in 8^th with Holmes gunning his number two bike hard in 10^th as Neale was charging in 15^th and Mathia held 18^th.In what was to prove to be a tough moto for our Brits,Abbott then crashed on lap eight dropping back to 22^nd,Neale was T-boned by a German rider before stalling and Mathia fell,going down the leaderboard to 25^th.On completion ,Holmes was the highest Brit finisher in a fine 9^th with Neale,Mathia and Abbott all working very hard to recover and earn respective 15^th,18^th and 21^st places.

The fortunes of the brave,battling Brits were not to unfortunately improve for the final Lindknud moto.Forced to use a borrowed bike,Holmes then had to stop when a brake lever worked itself loose!!.Despite those problems, Shane still finished 18^th.First man home for Team AMCA Great Britain was a very determined Mathia in 13^th spot as Neale took 20^th.For Abbott,moto three was to be rather disasterous,falling on turn one he blasted back to 13^th only for his Kawasaki to then grind to a halt!!.

With Cuppen dominating the IMBA MX2 racing,Nicky van Wordragen then made it a memorable weekend for the Dutch MON Federation by bagging both moto wins in the IMBA Ladies contest.Indeed in the Ladies racing,Dutch riders filled six of the top eight placings.

RESULTS    IMBA EUROPEAN MX2 CHAMPIONSHIP(ROUND ONE)

MOTO ONE(TOP TEN)  1 John Cuppen(Holland) 2 Chris Pol vd(Holland) 3 Ralph Hubers(Holland) 4 Andreas Jorgensen(Denmark) 5 Christian choler(Denmark) 6 Davey Janssen(Holland) 7 Maikel Brands(Holland) 8 Jarno Derks (Holland) 9 Erik Stig Hansen(Denmark) 10 Marcel Machler(Germany)  British Placings 11^th Lewis Abbott 12^th Scott Mathia 20^th Paul Neale 23^rd Shane Holmes.

MOTO TWO  1 Cuppen 2 Hubers 3 Brands 4 Scholer 5 Pol vd 6 Derks 7 Jorgensen 8 Hansen 9 Holmes 10 Tim Wirtz(Germany)  Other British placings 15^th Neale 18^th Mathia 21^st Abbott.

MOTO THREE  1 Cuppen 2 Scholer 3 Janssen 4 Hubers 5 Derks 6 Brands 7 Jorgensen 8 Pol vd 9 Roberto Dalla Bona(Italy) 10 Riccardo Vitaliani(Italy).  British placings 13^th Mathia 18^th Holmes 20^th Neale 28^th Abbott.

OVERALL  1 Cuppen 180 points 2 Hubers 151 3 Scholer 146 4 Pol vd 138 5 Brands 134 6 Jorgensen 129 7 Derks 127 8 Hansen 109 9 Janssen 106 10 Dalla Bona 90   British placings 15^th Mathia 83 17^th Holmes 78 18^th Neale 68 20^th Abbott 66. 

IMBA EUROPEAN LADIES CHAMPIONSHIP(ROUND ONE)

OVERALL(TOP TEN)  1 Nicky van Wordrangen(Holland) 120 points 2 Brenda Wagemans(Belgium) 108 3 Catja Rasmussen(Denmark) 97 4 Lianne Muilw ijk(Holland) 97 5 Kelly Oossanen(Holland) 88 6 Mandy Koning(Holland) 84  7 Danielle van Kempen(Holland) 74 8 Fiona Lauwen(Holland) 74 9 Joan Anderson 72 10 Jessica van de Velden(Belgium)  68 British placing 15^th Leonie Smith 52 points.  

Report by Mike Wood