Markus Schlosser and Marcel Fries will arrive at Assen with their LCR, Yamaha, with a slender 2 point lead in the championship over Todd Ellis and Emmanuelle Clement who sit with 113 points with their LCR, Yamaha.
Schlosser and Fries had a mixed weekend at Donington park, a second place in race one, and a non-start in race two due to mechanical problems. But rivals Ellis and Clement stood on the top spot of the podium for the first time in race one and third spot in race two, what a season so far for the Anglo French team. Race two in Donington was a hard fought third place for Ellis and Clement. They were to take the lead on the last lap of the race from Tim Reeves and Kevin Rousseau on their Adolf RS, Yamaha, but contact between the two teams in the last corner whilst battling for the race win left them entangled together leaving Stephen
Kershaw and Ryan Charlwood, LCR, Yamaha to pick up the pieces and win the race to the delight of the team who have had a bad start to their championship campaign, they are sitting with 60 points in fifth place.
Pekka Paivarinta and Ilse de Haas have 92 points and are third in the championship, like Schlosser and Fries, very small teams with most of the work on their machines being done by themselves. Paivarinta and De Haas will hope to have a good weekend in Assen with their LCR, Yamaha, as De Haas is from and lives in Assen.
Like the previous rounds in Le Mans, Pannonia Ring, and now Donington Park, let’s hope Assen will be the same, the ladies on the podium again.
Reeves and Rousseau sit with 69 points, fourth place in the championship; they have had a troubled season so far with mechanical problems and a disqualification. Reeves and Rousseau like the Assen circuit, so they will be hoping for a big points haul over the weekend to get their championship campaign back on track.
Kershaw and Charlwood will want to continue their last race result on to Assen. They will want to forget about all the problems they have had so far in the season, like Reeves and Rousseau a good haul of points over the weekend will get the team back up in contention for their championship campaign.
Lukas Wyssen and Thomas Hofer with their LCR, Yamaha missed out on Donington Park, but they will be trying to have a good meeting in Assen and increase their points tally, they are sitting sixth in the championship with 41 points.
Another team who missed out at Donington Park was Kees Endeveld and Hendrik Crome. Endeveld will want to have a good result here in Assen as it is his local track, a good showing here will be good for the team.
A welcome back to the championship for Bennie Streuer, this will be his first race this season, he was going to contend the championship with Emmanuelle Clement, however a crash whilst testing in Oschersleben, Germany, before the season started halted the teams plans. As we know, Clement continued passengering and joined up with Todd Ellis. Streuer who lives near the Assen circuit will now contest the rest of the season with fellow Dutchman Jeroen Remme. They will be running an Adolf RS, Yamaha.
Kevin Cable and Kyle Masters will be hoping that their luck will change here in Assen, they have had a lot of problems so far this season with their LCR, Yamaha. The team has worked hard to solve these problems, so maybe the team will have a good weekend here in Assen.
In Le Mans at the first round young Ted Peugeot with his father passengering, Vincent, on their LCR, Yamaha had a great debut in the championship with a seventh and fourth place leaving them with 22 points and ninth in the championship up till now. They are entered to race here in Assen, they will hope they can continue their success like in Le Mans.
English driver Robb Biggs with his Dutch passenger Jeroen Schmitz will want to show that the problems the team had in race two at Donington Park with their LCR, Yamaha, did not dampen the team spirits. A good weekend here at Assen will be good for them, and with Schmitz being Dutch, local knowledge will be good for them.
Entered as a wild card at Donington Park and with not much experience racing a long chassis LCR, Yamaha, Harry Payne with current championship winning passenger Mark Wilkes had a hectic weekend, they had engine changes, chassis set up and braking issues to sort. However, it turned out to be a great weekend for the team, two eighth places left the team wanting more. With Wilkes on board, his experience at Assen will be good for the young driver Payne.
There will be two French teams here at Assen too. Claude Vinet and Damien Common, they raced in Le Mans with their LCR, Yamaha, they will hope that they can add points to the 13 they have from there. Benjamin Luneau and Nicolas Bidault will race their LCR, Yamaha, in Assen and hope they have a trouble free weekend.
There will be two 18 lap races in Assen. Race one will be at 16:45 local time on Saturday the 24th. The second will be at 16:00 on Sunday the 25th.
Mark Walters.
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