Final round of the 2011 Stoppelcross season. Airtime in Volkel! By BdJ

Nov 30, 2011

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 2853 times

Last year we pulled up in the pits at the Volkel track in -3 degree temperature. This year the meter said 9 degrees. Much better to say the least but the wind made it feel cold anyway. Luckily we came prepared. Not only did we bring the TwinAir EZ-Up tents, but we brought two side panals too. And not only that, Eric Mulders celebrated his 40th B-day the weekend before and his friends gave him a transportable fireplace so we didn't have to freeze our asses off.

The track was in perfect condition. To be honest, this wasn't a chopped off corn field where they rope off a track and add some jumps. It's a permanent track but it still had a stoppelcross feeling to it. The jumps though were bigger and noone minded the curved turns that you could slap your bike into. The sand was awesome. No mud, no dust, just in between.

We signed up when it was still dark. We arrived early once again and a few bikes needed some work before practice began. During practice the track is always pretty flat which is excellent for all us amateurs. It gets chopped up quickly but with the soil being so good it never got bad. The bigger jumps needed some getting used to. Especially the big table. It was great to jump as long as things went the right way. Mr. Verspui (#64) went OTB in practice and landed 25 meters from the lip. Black eye and all but back on the bike for the race.

Martijn Verbakel, Paul de Jong, Pieter Does, Rob Karsmakers, Eric Mulders and myself all lined up in the even number MX2 Hobby qualification race. 20 to the A final, the rest to the B-final. Had a decent start as did the rest of the crew. Saw that Pieter Does and Rob Kars were in front of me and Eric Mulders wanted to get me on the inside and crashed.

This gave Martijn the opportunity to sneak by. Followed him for a few laps but he was gone soon. I remained in about 14th position and settled for the A-final just like Pieter, Martijn and Rob. But then things got strange...

The results list of our qualification round never showed up. Noone knew exactly if he'd made it to the A- or the B-final. With all the A and B final riders showing up in the pits for their second race of the day, it was still chaos. First it was announced that the A-final was racing first. Then they changed that to the B-final. Then they changed it to all Even numbers.

With 90 riders around wanting to ride, and no PA system to tell them what was going on, it turned into filling up the gate twice and doing some laps. Paul, and Eric Mulders were in my final heat. When the gate dropped I got a good start. I saw Mulders on my right and tried to beat him to the first turn but he had the holeshot and I got out of the first turn in second, on my moped (125cc compared to the 250f 4-strokes). I had to keep an eye out for

Mulderke as we had a personal race going on. At some point I got in his wheel and followed him around. He did not make a mistake but I passed him and never looked back. Some riders had passed us at this point but crossed the finishline in the top 5. Stoked on that.

The second MX2 Hobby final heat left soon after. I grabbed the camera and walked back to the track to shoot some pics of Glenn van de Wetering, Pieter Does, Martijn Verbakel and Wilco Groenendaal. It was a good race for them with Pieter getting 6th and Rob, Glenn and Martijn following soon after him.

We called it a day here. We came away unsketched, the bikes were still running and we had a fun time. The MON had added another third final at this point for everyone who finished the second heat in the top ten. Thanks, but no thanks. Get your act together MON. You failed.

MX season's over. It was a good one. See you in 11 months. Make sure you get there. Broaapp!!

BdJ