Germany’s famous Muhldorf track starts the 2016 Long Track World Championship season as fifteen of the best riders compete in Final 1 on Sunday afternoon. Although multi-champion Joonas Kylmakorpi has now retired from Long Track to concentrate on his speedway career, the line up is hardly diminished by his absence.
Starting List HERE
Looking to set a marker for his opponents will be current holder Jannick De Jong and his early season performances suggest that he has every chance of retaining his title. The Dutchman arrives in Bavaria full of confidence despite the quality of the competition for this event and he will not relinquish his title without a fight.
2014 winner Erik Riss leads the German challenge and will make the overnight dash from Kings Lynn where he starts in the Under 21 Speedway Championship on Saturday evening. Whilst this might not be the best preparation for Sunday’s meeting it is a typical of the schedule that most of the top track racing stars have to follow in a busy racing calendar. Riss is determined to win back his world title and dominated the Fathers Day meeting in Herxheim last month ahead of many of Sundays field. His national colleagues, Matthias Kroger, Jorge Tebbe and Stefan Katt are likely to provide tough opposition before their home fans and the Wild Card will be former Grand Prix rider Martin Smolinski who has not contested this championship recently but who has a great deal of experience on the sand tracks of his native country.
Another young rider who will be flying in from Kings Lynn is Frenchman Dmitri Berge who was third in this championship last year and heads a strong Gallic challenge. Two of the Tresarrieu brothers, Mathieu and Stephane will line up alongside Berge and Theo Di Palma will add support to the belief that the ‘tricoleur’ could be flying above the podium at the end of the meeting.
Great Britain has only two representatives this year but in Richard Hall they have a rider who has the capacity to beat any rider in the world. Those who witnessed his unbeaten performance on this track in the team final last year will testify to his ability to beat the best and his spectacular fence scraping rides are sure to please any neutral spectator. Glen Phillips is the other Brit on parade and he will be keen to recapture the form that has eluded him over the past year or two.
Theo Pijper took a fourth place in the title race last year and is one of the most experienced racers on show. The Dutchman cannot be overlooked and knows that a strong performance here will be a major step towards achieving his medal aspirations. Josef Franc from Czech Republic is another who is often underrated but his record in this competition is a good one and his consistency took him to fifth position in 2015. Aki-Pekka Mustonen completes the field as Finland’s sole representative.
Racing in Muhldorf starts at 13.30 local time on Sunday. Denmark’s Jesper Steentoft will be Referee and FIM Jury President is Christian Bouin from France.
Graham Brodie