Katja Poensgen takes centre stage at Magny-Cours
The FIM e-Power International Championship has a new high-profile ambassadress. Katja Poensgen will be onboard one of the bikes entered for the 2012 season’s curtain raiser at Nevers Magny-Cours. The German rider, who won her spurs in the 250 cc World Championship before bowing out in 2003, is making a popular comeback in this championship reserved for electrically powered machines.
“I stopped riding competitively 9 years ago, then I had my daughter and I wasn’t thinking about racing again, Katja explains, but last year I was invited to test an electric bike on a TV show and I was won over.
When Munch Racing invited me to ride at Magny-Cours, I said yes. The bike is fun to ride. Of course there is no noise or smell, but it is beautifully smooth and you have to use your brain much more to get a good performance than when you ride a classic bike.”
Riding Munch Racing # 65, Katja Poensgen signed the second-best lap time of the first e-Power qualifying session in 2’11.875 behind fellow German Matthias Himmelmann, winner of the 2011 FIM e-Power International Championship. Matthias Himmelmann clocked up his best lap in 1’59.435 on Munch Racing # 49, equipped with a new and more powerful battery pack. Another German, Chris Amendt of EPO Racing Team, took third position in the qualifications with a time of 2’30.294.
For economic reasons and because of delays in preparation at the start of the season, the starting grid of this first round of the 2012 FIM e-Power International Championship is still relatively sparse, but there are plenty of French, Italian, Belgian and Spanish teams waiting in the wings and eager to join the fray.
The second qualifying session of the FIM e-Power International Championship will take place at Magny-Cours in the early afternoon.
Qualifications 1