Australian Motorcycle News - June 21, 2018

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SoN

TT Spirit Award

The brother of the late Dan

Kneen, who was killed

during practice for the 2018

Isle of Man TT, has been

awarded the 2018 Spirit of

the TT Award. Ryan Kneen

competed in this year’s event,

wore his brother’s helmet

during a tribute practice lap

just 24 hours after the tragic

crash, and together with his

father led an estimated 8000

motorcycles around a legacy

lapoftheMountain Course in

Dan’s honour.

Vive la France

Fast Frenchman Loci Larrieu

(Yamaha) has won the 2018

Trèfle Lozérien, which this

year doubled as the third

round of the inaugural World

Enduro Super Series. Racking

up Yamaha’s 20th win in

the French-based Enduro

event, Larrieu fi nished ahead

of another local star, Theo

Espinasse (Sherco), while

Red Bull KTM’s Josep Garcia

rounded out the podium.

“I’ve been trying to win this

race for three years, so to

fi nally get it done is a special

moment for me,” Larrieu said.

Jonny Walker (KTM), who

fi nished 10th overall, still leads

the series on 2130pts, ahead

of KTM’s Manni Lettenbichler

(1865pts) and Husqvarna’s

Billy Bolt (1830pts).

Junior titles

No racing was possible on the

scheduled second day of the

2018 Australian Junior Dirt

Track Championship meeting

at Kurri Kurri, on the recent

Queens Birthday weekend,

due to wet track conditions

from light but persistent rain.

The practice session and two

rounds of competition were

staged on the Saturday,

while a date for the

rescheduled second day will

be announced soon. PB

briefs

Russian revolution

THE INAUGURAL FIM Speedway

of Nations tournament turned

into a Russian Revolution

as Artem Laguta and Emil

Sayfutdinov took Russia to

victory at the culmination of four

nights of racing.

While Russia (and previously

the USSR) has dominated ice

racing, and Sayfutdinov is a two-

time world Under 21 champion,

this was Russia’s first ever world

championship victory in senior

shale track racing.

Instead of the Speedway World

Cup format, which required

four-rider teams, the Speedway

of Nations tournament was

staged on a pairs format with a

view to giving more nations a

chance of glory.

Both Race-Off meetings and

the finals featured sudden-death

deciders where a three-all result

was resolved with the nation

with riders finishing second and

thirdbeatingthenationwhohad

the race winner.

Final results of the tournament

showed that the quality of the

number-two riders in each team

was the most significant factor in

the outcome, as well as showing

that the Under-21 reserves

played a negligible role, except

for runner-up Great Britain,

which used Robert Lambert as

partner for Tai Woffinden.

Without Chris Holder (yet to

obtain a visa to ride in the UK

and now likely to miss racing in

the UK this season), Max Fricke

joined Jason Doyle.

Doyle’s performance was far

better than in the opening SGP

rounds and, while Fricke was

never disgraced, he struggled to

rack up the points.

Race-Off 1 at Teterow in

Germany finished with Russia

on 25 ahead of Germany 20,

Denmark 18, Slovenia 17, USA 17,

Ukraine 15 and Latvia 14.

Manchester in England

staged Race-Off 2, with Sweden

finishing on 26 points ahead of

GB 23, Australia 21 (Doyle 14,

Fricke 7), Czech Republic 20,

France 14, Finland 14 and Italy 8.

Australia left itself with too

much to do after the first night

of the final in Warsaw, and

ultimately did well to get so close

to being in the Final Qualifier (for

second and third-placed teams

over the two nights).

Scores over the two nights

of heats were GB 46, Russia 45,

Poland 36, Denmark 35, Australia

35 (Doyle 29, Fricke 6), Sweden

32 and Germany 23.

With Polish rider Patryk Dudek

disqualified in the Final Qualifier,

the Russian duo only needed

to finish second and third to

progress to the decider, where

they followed Tai Woffinden

home while keeping Robert

Lambert at the back to take the

victory. PB

GST

THE2018BMWMotorrad

International GS Trophy was run

across eight days and almost

2400km through Mongolia,

pitting 18 teams from as many

countries against one another in

a series of time trials, special tests

and technical skill events.

The South African squad

were the team to beat this year,

and prevailed with 338 points

in the fi nal standings, 52 points

clear of eventual second-place

getters USA (286pts), with

France (246pts) rounding out the

podium.

Team Australia, which was

made up of Shane Guttridge,

Simon Turvey and Michael

Haley, fi nished a credible 10th

overall on 170 points, while our

‘Ausamerica’ female team, made

up of two Aussies (Julia Maguire

and Andrea Box) and two yanks,

finished15thoverallon125 points,

twoplacesaheadoftheother

female team, ‘Eurafrica’, in 17th

place and with 116 points.

The 2018 event was the biggest

GS Trophy to date and comprised

of a total of 54 riders. KB

Aussies 10th in GS Trophy

Jarek Pabijan

Artem Laguta, Emil Sayfutdinov

and reserve Gleb Chugunov

celebrate gold for Russia