Jordi Tixier of KTM Sarholz Racing Team further extended his championship lead with victory in the first of three ADAC MX Masters races at Tensfeld. Nico Koch flew the flag for Germany with a maiden win in the ADAC Youngster Cup. Martin Venhoda has regained the lead in the ADAC MX Junior Cup 125 standings with a victory, while Bradley Mesters’ win in the ADAC Junior Cup 85 takes him to the top of the class.
ADAC MX Masters: Tixier posts lights-to-flag victory
After winning the Red Bull Holeshot, Frenchman Jordi Tixier sped away from the competition in the first of three championship rounds to be contested over the weekend. With a maximum of 50 points still up for grabs, he already has a 29-point lead, which means he could even afford a DNF in one of the two remaining races: "I played it safe at the start and opted for the innermost gate. This gave me the shortest approach and ensured that I had all my opponents on just the one side. I got off to a good start and then veered slightly to the right. After nailing the holeshot, I gave everything I'd got and went flat out. I always try to give my best, even when I have pulled out a decent lead."
Tom Koch was initially in second place behind Tixier. The German was involved in a scrap with Nathan Renkens for a few laps, but was passed by the Belgian around the midway point of the race. Koch stayed within striking distance of Renken but was ultimately unable to mount an attack. With the podium finish, though, Koch has the consolation of moving up to third place in the standings where he is only one point behind Brent van Doninck; like Harri Kullas and Henry Jacobi, the second-placed challenger was unable to start at Tensfeld due to scheduling conflicts. Lukas Platt provided another gratifying result for the German fans - the privateer who rides a DW Racing Kawasaki crossed the finish line behind Gert Krestinov in fifth place and still ranks among the championship Top Ten.
MX Youngster Cup: Nico Koch registers a maiden win
The first round of the ADAC MX Youngster Cup in Tensfeld caused a few upsets, with the Top Three from qualifying - Maximilan Spies, Lion Florian and Marnique Appelt - all taking a tumble at the start or on the first lap and having to work their way through the field back to the front again. Nico Koch of SHR Motorsports exploited the situation to the full, taking the lead from Maximilian Frank on the second lap. One lap later, it was Frank's turn to come off his bike, thereby losing his position to Gabriel Chetnicki. Meanwhile, Koch on his Yamaha dug in his spurs to pull out a safe lead and control the race, although Lion Florian was getting dangerously close towards the end. The WZ Racing rider was the most successful of the initial front-runners in staging a recovery from the disaster of the opening stage. He had already moved up from 16th to fifth place on Lap 5, and in the last third of the race, was clocking times that were around three seconds faster than Koch, which eventually put the leader under pressure. But after a collision with a back marker, Florian fell on the penultimate lap and could only re-join the race behind Chetnicki and Noah Ludwig. So it was that Koch chalked up his first ever victory in the ADAC MX Youngster Cup: "I had a good start; Lion was pushing in a bit from the outside, so it was quite tight in the first corner. After I took the lead, I got a bit nervous, but then I concentrated on riding within my own rhythm, just like a midweek practice session. To at last win a race as important as this one after two tough years with quite a few injuries along the way is immense."
After dropping right down to 29th place on the start lap, championship leader Maximilan Spies eventually crossed the line in eighth. He still leads the championship, but only by two points ahead of Lion Florian.
MX Junior Cup 125: Venhoda takes over at the top
Just as he did in the season opener at Grevenbroich, Czech teenager Martin Venhoda won the Saturday race in the ADAC MX Junior Cup 125. With championship leader Max Palsson absent due to a prior commitment, Venhoda came out of the opening lap behind Rasmus Pedersen and Romeo Karu. Karu took the lead on the fourth lap, and Venhoda passed Denmark’s Pedersen to take second place two laps later. Venhoda closed in on the Estonian’s rear wheel, ramped up the pressure and took the lead in the last third of the race. Karu had nothing more in reserve to counter Venhoda's pace. "I got off to a good start, but several opponents squeezed past on the first corner," said Venhoda. "I managed to reel them in one by one. Although my team were signalling to me to take it easy, I applied the pressure because I wanted to win. Even though I now have a small lead in the championship, I'm not going to think about the title before the last race tomorrow."
As third in the standings, Germany's Cato Nickel made a bad start and had to work his way up from the midfield. His chase ended in eighth place, which dropped him one place in the standings, two points behind Karu. Paul Bloy was the fourth best-placed German on the day.
MX Junior Cup 85: Coenen in dominant form
Sacha Coenen from Belgium certainly left his mark on the ADAC MX Junior Cup 85. Having missed out on the opening fixture of the short season at Grevenbroich, he moved into the lead on the first lap and then cruised away from the rest of the field. By the end of the race, he had pulled out a lead of around half a minute. "I had a good start, then took the lead and then just rode my own race," he said afterwards, summing up his performance succinctly. Meanwhile, some way back, Bradley Mesters from the Netherlands and Germany's Maximilian Werner were battling for points. The second and third placed in the championship standings were not doing each other any favours as they rode wheel to wheel around the sandy circuit. In the last third of the race, Mesters' Kawasaki opened up a gap on Werner's Kosak Racing KTM. Mesters now tops the table with a 12-point lead over Werner.
The unluckiest contestant of the weekend was Julius Mikula. After recording two wins in the previous event at Grevenbroich, the Czech rider was excluded from the Tensfeld races due to the spike in corona cases in his home country - despite having tested negative for Covid-19 himself. Hugely disappointing, as it means he has to abandon his title hopes without a fight.
The second and third races at Tensfeld will be held on Sunday 4th October. These will be shown as a free livestream with coverage starting at 10:20 CEST: https://sportdeutschland.tv/motocross/adac-mx-masters-tensfeld-2020-tag-2