Germany (6/9/2011)
- Behan Remains In Touch Despite Nasty
Crash In Germany After successfully breaking
in to the top ten at the previous round in France,
OEC Behan Racing’s James Behan continued
to impress on the European stage at the weekend
as the 2011 GOLDSPEED EMX Quad European Championship
moved to Germany for round three of the series
.Making the thirteen hundred miles round-trip
from his Oxfordshire base for the first time
to the city of Reutlingen in the south-west
of the country, Behan put in yet another scintillating
performance to boost his credentials as a
serious contender for a top ten finish in
the series, only a nasty tumble at the hands
of another rider in the final outing of the
day preventing him from finishing inside the
top eight after a superb opening moto 10th.
Limited to only one free practice session
before timed qualification at the hot hard-pack
circuit just twenty-five miles south of Stuttgart,
Behan found a good set-up on his Extremetech
suspension and continually improved his times
as the day progressed to qualify 9th for an
all-important front row start for race day.
With yet more hot and humid conditions as
Sunday’s racing action got underway,
Behan got bogged down slightly of the line
and swept around the first corner in 13th
but immediately began to move through the
field, completing the first of eighteen laps
in 11th. Gradually increasing his pace as
he found his rhythm, Behan slotted in to 10th
as the race approached the ten-minute mark
and began to close the gap to the duo battling
for 8th, but a misfire from the half-way point
hampered his progress, Behan comfortably holding
position to take the chequered after thirty-five
gruelling minutes for a solid 10th place finish.
A much changed and tricky circuit greeted
the riders for the final heat of the day,
heavy rain just prior to the start of their
race turning the polished surface in to a
quagmire. Once again gating mid pack as the
field charged out in a shower of mud, Behan
quickly began to scythe through the field
to break the timing beam for the first time
in 11th, but in a cruel twist of fate his
race was to be prematurely ended on the next
lap, another rider crashing in to him with
the resultant tumble requiring a trip to the
nearby hospital where he was admitted for
two days.
Speaking after being given the all clear
on Tuesday, a battered and bruised Behan said
“the weekend has definitely not finished
the way I wanted it to, but thankfully after
a few days in hospital the injuries are not
as bad as I’d originally thought and
there’s nothing broken. I’ve never
been to this circuit before so it was a tough
test to get a good set-up with the reduced
practice sessions, but the new rear Extremetech
shock I’ve been using this weekend is
absolutely awesome and allowed me to qualify
9th in practice which I was really happy with.
The circuit here is narrow in places which
makes passing quite difficult, but in the
first heat I was able to gain a few places
before my bike started misfiring and I had
to settle for 10th, but the conditions in
the second moto after the heavy rain caught
a lot of people out as it was more like a
skating rink, unfortunately for me I was the
victim of somebody else’s mistake but
that’s racing I suppose. The medical
team at the circuit and in the hospital were
fantastic and very thorough in checking me
out so I’d like to thank them a lot
for their care. I’m feeling a little
second hand at the moment so it looks like
I won’t be travelling to Scotland this
coming weekend for my first outing in the
2011 British Championship, but I’ll
be focusing on getting fit again for the next
round of the European Championship in Denmark
on the 18th & 19th of June where I’ll
be aiming to breach the two point gap to 10th”.
| Goldspeed
European Championships - ATV Pro
Top 5 Points Standings |
| Place |
Name |
Points |
| 1 |
Romain Couprie |
118 |
| 2 |
Stefan Schreiber |
97 |
| 3 |
Paul Holmes |
91 |
| 4 |
Jan Vlaeymans |
87 |
| 5 |
Mike van Grinsven |
80 |
| |
|
|
| 11 |
James Behan |
39 |
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