For the second time in just three GPs heavy rain caused the organisers to halt Saturday's schedule early and condense qualification and racing into a new timetable on Sunday. The riders had one session against the clock from which to qualify for the main races.
In group A Bax / Stupelis were fastest ahead of Willemsen / Bax. Of the three Brits in the group it was a case of very mixed fortunes. Jenkins / Chamberlain were 13th whilst France / France were 16th and hence a reserve. The Millard brothers failed to make the cut.
In the B group it was a surprise leader with Stenborg / Nilsson fastest ahead of Giraud / Musset. Brown / Chamberlain were 7th, Wilkinson / Parmenter 11th and Jarvis / Humphrey 13th.
With the rain holding off and the club working hard on the track to ease some of the places that had become a bit of a lottery everything was set for the two GP races.
Although it was perfectly rideable the sandy track cut up very badly making it very difficult to overtake as it was a risky business deviating from the racing line. This made the two races more processional than at other GPs.
When the gate dropped for the first leg Bax led the charge up the hill from Giraud and Adriaenssen. A four bike pile up on the first turn involved Willemsen and group B winner Stenborg. The uphill drag from turn two found Brown failing to make it up the hill and having to turn round and take a run at it for the second time thus leaving him well adrift of the pack. The leading Brit was Jenkins who was in 12
th place.
On the third lap Giraud and Adriaenssen got stuck and were overtaken dropping them both to outside the top ten. On this same lap Jarvis hit the bike in front of him and hurt his leg thus bringing his day to a premature end. At half distance Hendrickx, who had been in third place, went out with mechanical problems promoting van Daele up to third. Jenkins was now up to tenth, Wilkinson fifteenth and Brown seventeenth. Willemsen was by now up to sixth place.
After twenty minutes Gustavsson fell out of the Soederqvist chair and was immediately hit by a following outfit. Although very sore he made it back onto the platform and they continued in fourth place. At the front Bax was leading from v. Daele with Daiders up to third.
Bax went on to take the win with v. Daele just holding off Daiders. Soederqvist lost out to Adriaenssen with Willemsen finishing sixth. Jenkins finished in an excellent eighth place with Brown sixteenth and Wilkinson seventeenth.
The start of the second race was less eventful with no pile up on turn one. Once again Bax took the holeshot from Hendrickx, Adriaenssen and Willemsen. Jenkins was once again the leading Brit in tenth place with Brown thirteenth. Wilkinson and France were near to the back of the field.
By the second lap Willemsen was up to third place and had his sights on Hendrickx. On the next lap Brown was up to eleventh and right behind Jenkins. France was now in the points and Wilkinson was twenty third.
At around the half way stage France had to pull in to carry out some quick running repairs to passenger Stewart’s jeans that had slipped down to his ankles. With three laps to go Willemsen made a mistake and lost third place to Adriaenssen and on the same lap Brown finally got past Jenkins. Wilkinson and France were in the last two points scoring places but with one lap to go France lost out to Morch.
Bax again took the win from Hendrickx with Adriaenssen third and Willemsen fourth. Brown was tenth but Jenkins made a mistake within sight of the line and dropped down to fourteenth place. Wilkinson was nineteenth and France twenty first.
Adriaenssen still leads the championship from Giraud who is two points above Daiders. Bax, having missed the first round completely is now fourth. Brown is the leading Brit in sixth place whilst Willemsen is back in thirteenth, eighty one points adrift of the leaders.
The next round is in two weeks at Kramolin in the Czech Republic.