FIM Long Track World Championship
Final 4 Morizes (France) 3rd September 2016
Within the triangle between Bordeaux, Toulouse and Bergerac beats the heart of French track racing and World Championship action returns to Morizes, one of its most famous venues on Saturday next with the fourth round of the current series. Temperatures of around 33O are predicted on Saturday evening and it is forecasted that action on the track will be as hot as the weather.
Currently leading the Intermediate Classification by 8 points, Erik Riss the 2014 champion is fighting hard to regain the title from Dutchman Jannick de Jong but in Morizes the eyes of the many spectators will be on local star Mathieu Tresarrieu. The youngest of three racing brothers, his spectacular performance in last week’s round in Forssa, Finland has lifted him into third place in the standings and he will be expected to use this meeting on home soil to maintain contact with the leaders and put himself into a strong position for a medal place.
Dmitri Berge slipped a place following the last round but trails Tresarrieu by only one point and along with Theo Di Palma who returns from injury and Wild Card Gabriel Dubernard he completes a strong French entry.
The Germans have been buoyed by their improved scores in Forssa where both Jorg Tebbe and Mathias Kroger posted their best results of the year in this competition so far. Stephan Katt who has had a miserable run to date is their other entrant.
Aki-Pekka Mustonen enjoyed a birthday celebration after a successful home meeting in Finland. At 520 metres the track is almost half the length of last week’s so he will find next Saturday’s event more taxing but he is no stranger to the French tracks and he will approach this meeting with added confidence.
Great Britain suffered a dismal meeting in Finland and only Richard Hall now appears to have any chance of a medal place. He will need to be at his best if he is to recover the lost ground and both Andrew Appleton and Glen Philipps will be racing to restore some pride as their season draws to a close.
Leading scorers after 3 rounds:
•Erik Riss (Germany) 70 points
•Jannick de Jong (The Netherlands) 62
•Mathieu Tresarrieu (France) 53
•Dmitri Berge (France) 52
•Theo Pijper (The Netherlands) 43
•Aki-Pekka Mustonen (Finland) 36
•Richard Hall (Great Britain) 36
The first race in Morizes starts at the traditional evening start time of 20.45 on Saturday. Jury President will be Denmark’s Jan Staechmann and Referee Artur Kuzmierz from Poland
Graham Brodie