Kay de Wolf of the Beursfoon KTM team won the first heat of the 85cc Dutch Masters of Motocross in Oss last Sunday. In the second heat, Kay finished seventh, which was good enough for third overall. Team mate Scott Smulders was tenth and fifth for seventh overall, and Sem Beijer finished 28th overall.
The conditions were near perfect at Oss, and a large crowd of spectators arrived to watch the exciting racing. The Beursfoon KTM riders showed early intent with good qualifying performances. Kay de Wolf was second in qualifying, just 0.5 seconds off pole. Scott Smulders piloted his Wiseco-driven KTM to the third qualifying time, and Sem Beijer proved again that he is finding his place in this elated company with the 22nd qualifying time.
Kay de Wolf grabbed the holeshot (and HGS-sponsored Holeshot Award) in the first race. He quickly built up a comfortable lead, and the rest of the field never smelt him again for the remainder of the race. Scott Smulders launched himself into the top ten. He worked his way up to fifth, but unfortunately crashed, undoing a lot of his good work. He eventually finished tenth. Sem Beijer was very nervous before his first outing in this, the premier racing class in the Netherlands, and it reflected in a poor start. He made a few more mistakes, but got smoother as the race went on, and worked his way forward to 25h.
The second heat was a complete Beursfoon festival at the start, Sem Beijer’s Eurol-lubricated bike obviously had the goods, for he shot to the front, with his team mates in hot pursuit. Alas, Sem and Kay tangled at a downhill corner, and both crashed. This cost them a lot of time to regather their bikes and get going again. Scott Smulders meanwhile missed the melee and found himself in a large leading group. He held it together to finish fifth. Kay and Sem had to make good the places they had lost, and Kay worked his way up to seventh. Sem also regained some places, finishing 28th.
Kay finished third for the day, and donned a clean new Fox shirt for the podium ceremony. Scott Smulders was seventh overall and Sem Beijer 28th, with his steep learning curve continuing.
The next round of the Dutch Masters of Motocross is at Harfsen in two weeks’ time. Next weekend, though, they will first travel to Denmark for the first of the European Championship elimination rounds.
Overall Dutch Masters 85cc Oss:
1 Nikita Kucherov 42 Pnt
2 Ryan de Beer 41 Pnt
3 Kay de Wolf 39 Pnt
4 Noel Nilsson 38 Pnt
7 Scott Smulders 27 Pnt
28 Sem Beijer 2 Pnt