 Marc in the green of the Toscana
It was a picture perfect weekend for weather, however, there was a
bit of a black cloud hanging over the team. Steve’s wife is ill so he was
unable to make it this weekend, Dietrich’s new engine was only 98% complete, and
unknown to Andy he was about to experience some mechanical problems as well.
Marc and Andy arrived late Thursday night due to work obligations,
and only had enough time to register for the race weekend before heading off to
bed.
The first problems arose Friday morning. Andy’s mechanical
issues raised their ugly head during the 2nd session on Friday. His engine
was running quite loud and he could not reach speeds above 8000RPMs. After
close inspection it turned out that he had a large hole in the top of the
exhaust can on the back of his bike and was losing tremendous
pressure. This was the end of the weekend for Andy.
Now it was all up to Marc to get it done for the team. He
had already been pressured by both Dietrich and Steve to represent RoPa Racing
this weekend, and not to come home without a trophy!!
Qualifying went fairly well and Marc qualified in 9th place
for the V2 race.
Marc got a tremendously good start in the race and was able to
pass several people into turn 1, including Piero Sibilla, who normally is 2nd
behind Steve in the races. To further secure his place towards the front
of the pack Marc continued to push and pass a few more riders putting him within
viewing distance of the leaders who were closely grouped together. Marc
continued his aggressive ride lap after lap only to begin having suspension
problems again, as well as a leak in the clutch line leaving him with a
difficult time of downshifting. During all of this Piero was finally able
to catch Marc with only two laps to go. Marc tried as hard as he could to
keep up with Piero, however, with his rear tire slipping coming out of the
corners, and the lack of gear shifting, it just wasn’t possible.
Still, based on the strong beginning of the race Marc was able to
gain 3 places from where he started finishing 6th out of 23 overall!
On a side note fellow V2 compatriot, Hans Liesenfeld had his first
mechanical free, crash free race weekend for the season!! Hans was able to
qualify 2nd in the V2 race with a 2:08 lap time and was able to finish in 3rd
place out of 23 in the V2 race. Congratulations to Hans for a job well
done ;-)
Now both Andy and Marc’s bikes will be going back to Ducati Krinke
for some much needed service in order to be ready for Round 5 of the ESC
Championship next month in Mugello.
See you then!!!!!!!!!!!
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