2007 ROTAX EURO CHALLENGE, 2° ROUND (GERMANY)

POULTER AND BIREL STILL ON THE LEAD

YET AGAIN THE SOUTH AFRICAN DRIVER HAS WON BOTH RACES AND IS ALONE AT THE TOP OF THE DD2 TABLES. POSITIVE RESULTS ALSO FROM SIMPSON IN THE MAX CATEGORY.

The beautiful track at Wackersdorf north of Munich, in Germany, hosted the 2nd leg of the European Championship of the Rotax Series. The championship comprises 4 events during which two races are held for each of the four admitted categories: Junior, Max, Master and DD2. From an international point of view, in terms of market the series promoted by Rotax plays an important role and, for this reason, it is increasingly attracting more attention from major firms and operators and from authoritative representatives. As far as Birel is concerned for example, Wilson (manager of the firm from Lissone since last year) personally follows each race working alongside the operators. But as well as commercially, the Rotax Series has also become very popular thanks to the value of the drivers taking part in its races as they guarantee high standards and a great show both nationally and in the more important continental series. The 2nd leg of this season was no exception, thanks to exciting races which herald a very interesting season’s finale. In terms of results, Birel’s colours have been in the spotlight, particularly in the DD2 category, where Leroy Poulter (Kalman Team) proved to be the undisputed leader by achieving another double victory (following the one at Salbris) both in the Pre-final and in the Final. This complete success propels the South African driver to the top of the Championship’s tables with 178, 18 more than Dannis Kroes who, in Germany, only managed a 3rd place. Disappointing performance from Wesleigh, former winner of the Rotax Series who, representing Pcr, could do nothing against the representative of the Birel team. Worthy of notice in the DD2 category is the great performance of the German driver Scheibinger who is now in 13th place in the Championship tables. Michael Simpson also achieved good results in the Max Category, gaining 3rd place in the Pre-Final and 2nd place in the Final; during the latter his engine had a slight drop in performance which prevented him from attacking the winner Jossen. The Dutch driver is now leading the championship with 164 points, although Simpson is in 3rd place with only 14 points of difference. In the Junior Series Jefferies showed great improvement and ended the race in 12th place, which also gave him a 13th position in the Championship. In the Master category on the other hand it was Florent Lambert who shone, ending both the Pre-Final and the Final in 4th place. The driver from the Simpson team is now in 5th place in the championship, 24 points from the leader Davis. Van Wyk (Kalman) and Parias (Parrot Motorsport) also did well, concluding the Final in 7th and 10th place respectively. Both drivers are now in the top ten of the championship tables. The next rendezvous with the Rotax European Championship will be on 29th July in Austria, with the 3rd leg of the season.