Kay de Wolf and Scott Smulders of the Beursfoon KTM team both finished on the podium at the opening round of the Dutch Masters of Motocross 85 at Markelo. De Wolf scored a brace of seconds, and Smulders finished fourth and third in the heats respectively for third overall. Sem Beijer had good starts in both races, but mistakes cost him dearly in both instances, keeping him to 15th and 19th.
Kay de Wolf qualified in second spot, and was keen to take on the challenge. His start in race one left him with work to do, as he was stranded outside the top ten initially. He gained a lot of positions in the first lip, and had already made his way up to sixth when the riders came around for the first time. He had some trouble passing the group ahead of him, but in a few laps’time, he had made second spot his own, and set to work reducing the 15 second lead of the race leader. He closed it to within two second, but just could not claim the win. A much better start in race two had De Wolf take the early lead. A mistake cost him a spot, and after that he battled to find a rhythm. With three laps to go, he mounted an assault for the lead, but again he came just two seconds short of the race – and overall victories. His pair of seconds also yielded him second for the day and in the championship standings.
Scott Smulders qualified in the strong third position. A nervous start in race one had him down in ninth. He gained three spots in the first moto, and after a fierce battle with a group of riders, he claimed two more spots to finish fourth. A much better start launched Scott into third spot for race two. After a bit of a yo-yo battle for third, he prevailed, and crossed the line in this position. This also earned him a podium call-up with third overall.
Sem Beijer qualified seventeenth, and true to form, grabbed an excellent start in race one. A mistake dropped him down to 20th, but he worked his way well into the points to finish 15th. Sem again blasted off the line like a rocket to hold third spot in the second race for a while. A mistake brought on by over eagerness dropped him out of the points, but he clawed his way back to 19th to add to his tally.
Sem was disappointed but took heart form the fact that these results are good, due to the fact that he had missed an entire month’s training in January.
The team will line up for the second round of the series in three weeks’time at Oldebroek.