With the last race at the TT Assen being abandoned, the championship moves on to the 3.667 km circuit of Oschersleben in Germany. With a two race format the top teams in the championship will be hoping for a good points tally towards the final championship position.
Championship leaders Pekka Paivarinta and Adolf Hanni on 106 points will not be wanting a repeat of last years race where they picked up a ride through penalty when they overtook under a yellow flag situation in the “Gold Race” And Pekka feels his machine has been down on power the last two meetings, so they will be working hard to keep the championship lead.
Jorg Steinhausen and Ashley Hawes, who have had some handling problems early on this season, will be looking to prove that these problems are behind them now and will be hoping that they can have a good weekend, and pull themselves closer to the table leaders; they are sitting second on 97 points.
Third in the championship are Ben and Tom Birchall who had a terrible start to the season with mechanical problems. However they have been on form the last two races, with pole positions, fastest laps and race wins. They still are a long way off the first and second teams in the championship but with two races there are a lot of points to be had.
Scott Lawrie and James Neave are sitting fourth in the championship and have had a mixed season so far, they had a good start to the season, then a bad race last time out for them with overheating problems, but they have been having tyre and grip problems, they will be hoping to get this sorted and stay in touch with the leading three teams.
Michael Grabmuller and Manfred Wechselberger have been working away steadily in the championship and are sitting fifth, but they had major engine problems at the last meeting, one engine blown, and a second stopped. With no apparent reason for these problems, the team will have been working hard to rectify these problems to keep them in the top five of the championship.
With this meeting running with a round of the FIM World Endurance Championship, there will be a free practice and two qualifying sessions on the Friday. A 10 lap “sprint” race on Saturday, and a 21 lap “Gold Race” on Sunday.
Words & pictures by Mark Walters