Long Track: Lukas Fienhage on top of the World

Lukas Fienhage was the winner of the first Final of the FIM Long Track World Championship in Morizes on Saturday and confirmed his place as the next German Long Track star. The 20-year-old from Vechta in only his second season in this competition was joint top scorer in the qualifying races dropping only one point to veteran Theo Pijper and won the ballot to ride directly into the Final. The meeting favourite, European Champion Mathieu Trésarrieu also made the final by winning his semi final race ahead of Britain’s Zach Wajknecht and they were joined by Pijper and fellow Dutchman Romano Hummel.

In the Final Fienhage saw off the opposition, after a brave outside burst on the first bend and again beating Trésarrieu into second place with Hummel who had been the lowest scoring qualifier holding on to third place ahead of Pijper and Wajknecht. Under the new scoring system Fienhage has a three-point lead over Trésarrieu and a six points advantage over Hummel as they move onto Final 2 in Rzeszów, Poland later this month.

Unluckiest of the semi-finalists was Dane Kenneth Kruse Hansen having made the long overnight journey from Poland after his league match there on Friday but whose third place was not enough to take him into the five-man final. However, this performance in his debut was impressive and promises well for his future at this level. Max Dilger riding in place of Bernd Diener was another to have made the trip from Poland, but also dropped out at the semi-final stage.

There were also disappointments for Brits Chris Harris and James Shanes as neither were able to produce their best form. Harris who races for Morizes in the French Speedway league was let down by his starts and was not able to use his home track knowledge to recover. Shanes appeared to be hindered by his lack of racing practice.

Leading Scorers from this meeting are:

1. Lukas Fienhage (Germany) 25
2. Mathieu Trésarrieu (France) 22
3. Romano Hummel (Netherland) 19
4. Theo Pijper (Netherland) 17
5. Zach Wajknecht (Great Britain) 15
6. Kenneth Kruse Hansen (Denmark) 12
7. Max Dilger (Germany) 11
8. Josef Franc (Czech Rep), 10
9. James Shanes (Great Britain) 9
10. Chris Harris (Great Britain) 8FIM Communications