Strong race for Allard at Dutch SBK race Oschersleben

07-07-2010

Just like the years before, again this year we went to Oschersleben Germany, under tropical conditions. On Saturday during the qualifications the temperature got over 30 degrees Celsius. We didn’t find a good setup fast enough and Allard qualified only in 11th place. Sunday, around noon the first race started. With a super start Allard got into 7th position through turn 1. Halfway through the race the red flag appeared. Allard had to restart in 5th position. Starting again very well, he took 2nd position but finished overall in 5th. Because of delay and a crash during the warm-up lap, the second race didn’t start at all.

Over the past few years it has been tropical weather at the Dutch Championship races at Oschersleben in the first weekend of July. After the team trailer arrived at the track, many top teams were already there for testing). At 7pm, when the gate opened, everything was build up quickly, including a swimming pool to cool down.
Saturday during the qualifications Allard took some time to get used to the track. Also finding the right setup did cost some time. He wasn’t satisfied with 11th position, he knew he could do better in the race.

It was really weird, waking up on Sunday morning with some heavy rain falling down on the track. The weather forecast for the rest of the day was a lot better, the rain tires were brand new, so we decided not to take part in the wet warm-up practice.

When the first race started at noon, the track was dry and the temperature increased quite a bit. At Oschersleben there’s no long starting procedure. The warm-up lap and race will start right after the sighting lap. Again Allard had a very good start and came through the first corner as 7th. At the end of the first lap he was pushed back a position. After a few laps Allard, with in his slipstream Rob Hakvoort, got quicker and the lap times improved. After three different crashes from Veijer, Johansson and Vos, the race was red flagged because of the last crash.
With the restart Allard moved up to 5th position on the grid. With again a very good start he got in second position in the first corner! He didn’t have a lot of confidence in his tires and went back again to 5th position battling again with Hakvoort. Untill the last corner he followed him close but Allard stayed in front of him and took 5th position.

The second race was supposed to start at 17.15, but was delayed untill 17.50 because of a crash in another class. Because it was getting so late, we already started packing the trailer. Allard was extra motivated for the race. He came back as first rider from the warm-up lap. When the grid filled up, one spot stayed open and the “start delayed” sign was shown.
A rider crashed during the warm-up lap, cleaning the track took some time and at 18.15 we were informed that the race wouldn’t be started at all. Most of the people in pit lane were very upset about this.

Happy with 5th position, but disappointed about the second race being cancelled, the team left the track. Next race will be on the 8th of August, during the Rizla Racing Day at Assen. This combined car en motorbike racing event is for sure an i