ACU Team GB Accident
at Quadcross of European Nations
2011 Quadcross of
European Nations - Jauer, Germany - September
24-25, 2011
Jauer, Germany
(9/30/2011) - Team GB riders Mark Watson,
Paul Holmes and John Mitchell travelled to Jauer,
Germany last weekend for the third annual Quadcross
of European Nations. Supported by the ACU, team
GB arrived in good spirits and were seen by many
as the team to beat from the 17 countries entered
for the European Motorcycle Union (UEM) hosted
event.
The team’s chances of a win were however
destroyed when Mark Watson suffered numerous facial
injuries after a horrific accident in practice,
leaving him in hospital for at least the next
three weeks. Without Watson, the team were unable
to get on the leaderboard, however well they went.
It was a team event and riders were divided into
three separate groups for qualification races
on Saturday. Three groups would then compete in
separate heats on Sunday with the worst results
from each country dropped. The country with the
lowest total points score would win.
Watson and Mitchell went out together in the
free practice session with Mitchell following
close behind Watson when he landed badly off a
tabletop. Mitchell was first on the scene:
“It was a horrific landing with his quad
landing on it’s front bumper and and I knew
it was bad. Mark was unconscious, there was a
lot of blood and he was in a bad way”. Watson
was subsequently airlifted to hospital having
suffered a broken jaw, broken eye sockets and
cheek bones. Despite both coming off in the qualification
races, Holmes and Mitchell continued and each
qualified fifth in their groups on Saturday.
Sunday’s first race involved both Holmes
and Mitchell, with Holmes starting on the first
row and Mitchell on the second. Holmes made a
good start and was up at the front while Mitchell
got up to seventh and was wiped out on a corner,
hitting the floor and being left at the back.
He managed to make his way back up to 14th place
where he finished. Holmes meanwhile was riding
impressively in third. With two laps to go he
was able to pass Adrian Mangieu of France and
took second place.
The second race involved Holmes again but sadly
no Watson. Holmes battled hard in an intense race
and took the lead after about 15 minutes. Keeping
his cool he gained a 7.4 second lead ahead of
Adrian Mangieu and Jan Vlaeymans to take the win.
The final race of the event should have seen
both Mitchell and Watson in action. Taking the
holeshot and getting off to a great start, Mitchell
led for four laps until local man and Germany's
top rider Stefan Schreiber passed him and began
to edge away. Mitchell established his own rhythm
and settled for second place.
Without any results from Watson, the GB team
were unfortunately unable to effectively compete
despite such strong finishes from the two riders.
It was Belgium who took victory overall with Germany
in second and the Netherlands in third. Reflecting
on the weekend’s events, team GB manager
Martin Fletcher commented: “It’s been
a tough weekend and a terrible outcome for Mark.
I can report he is going to have an operation
this week to repair his facial damage and will
be in hospital for up to three weeks. It was unfortunate
how the scoring was calculated as both John and
Paul were very impressive. Even if Mark had pushed
his quad over the start line we would have finished
fourth and we just needed a 10th place finish
to win the event. But it wasn’t to be and
we all wish Mark well and a speedy recovery.”
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