The Beursfoon KTM had a tremendously successful outing at the first round of the European Youth Championship elimination series in Esbjerg in Denmark. The team came away with a win, several top ten places, bags of points and loads of experience.
Kay de Wolf started the weekend off with a strong pole position in his class. The first 85cc race started off well for him and he dove into second position. After exerting pressure on the leader, he took the lead on lap two. They fought hammer and tongs, and when lappers started entering the equation, Kay had to keep his wits about him to not lose the lead. He kept the plot going, and won the race. A holeshot in the second race gave Kay good cards in hand. He held the lead for a long time, only to lose it after a small mistake. A lap later, he regained the number one spot and held it to the end. He clinched a hard-fought victory again, and this gave him overall victory for the day and the early points lead in the series. Scott Smulders qualified in third spot in both the qualifying practice and the qualifying race. He had a start just inside the top ten in race one, but an early crash dropped him to near last. After using all his racecraft, he finally managed to recover to tenth before the end of the race. Another duff start in race two again left Scott with lots of work to do. This time he recovered to seventh, close to the group stretching from fourth position backwards. He also finished seventh overall for the day, a result which would have been much better but for his misfortune.
Sem Beijer posted the 11th fastest training time, and qualified in a solid 15th position in the qualifying race. Sem is normally a reliable good starter, but on this weekend the starts eluded him in both races. In the first race, he fought forward from 34th to 19th, and got his first two points in the bag. A few mistakes crept in in race two and kept him down to 24th. Sem saw this outing as a tremendous learning opportunity, and will go to the next round at Mill full of confidence. Ten year old Milan Beijer had his European Championship debut in the 65cc class. He was nervous going into the event, but posted the 40th fastest time, and qualified in a strong 14th place. In the first heat, he seemed underway to some debut points, but a crash dropped him back to the ungrateful 21st position, just outside of the points. After a troubled start in the second race, he fought hard, again to finish 21st, without points, but a wealth of experience richer.
The team will line up for the third round of the Dutch Master of Motocross at Mill next weekend.