barbasma
30-05-2005, 11:52
Friday - Iron Road Prologue
Where else can you watch the world´s top motorcyclists starting next to ambitious amateurs and fun-riders? No place else but here at the Erzbergrodeo. No matter if Enduro-Champion, Dakar-Expert, Freestyle-Superstar or just anyone else of the up to 1,500 starters - they all have the same sand between their teeth and the same goal before their eyes: to conquer the hill. Fast. Very fast. Last year the Sunday-event had been stopped due to a cruel snowstorm, this year the curse of the perfect weather-conditions is the dust, that is reducing the visibility down to zero.
http://www.bmw-motorrad2.com/bmwmr_crm_net_news/content/images/meldung002334pic10_2.JPG
"Eat my dust" quickly became the motto of the day on the 13.3 km long and approximately 13 m wide track. Among the first group of starters - sent on the prologue one after each other with a few seconds delay - were also the HP2 Enduro riders Simo Kirssi (12), Jimmy Lewis (13) und Chris Pfeiffer (66). After an impressive demonstration of their skills on the track they commented their runs with cool understatement: "It felt rather unspectacular," Pfeiffer explained. "But sometimes, unspectacular is quite fast." "No special occurrences," let Kirssi know. Nice, to receive such relaxed reports right after flat-out runs up the hill, spiced up with some nasty gravel-chicanes.
http://www.bmw-motorrad2.com/bmwmr_crm_net_news/content/images/meldung002334pic13_1.jpg
Later on the official results brought the sensation. At first, nobody was willing to believe the enormous gap between first and second place - so the announcer waited for another confirmation. Then the sensation: Simo Kirssi (9:05,65 min) defeated Kurt Nicoll on his 1-cylinder by breathtaking 6 seconds. With Chris Pfeiffer on 3rd and Jimmy Lewis on 5th (9:29,38 min) the BMW Motorrad Enduro Team Feil was highly pleased that evening.
"Best time counts" say the regulations for the Iron Road Prologue. Which simply means, that the personal best - no matter if reached on Friday or Saturday - determines the final result. So for tomorrow everything is still possible. And the riders have already started to prepare their equipment.
The 1,500 contestants of the previous day turned the track into a nightmare. Toughest conditions for the riders as well as for the bikes - not to mention the dust, that even got worse. Would the King´s Class-winner Giovanni Sala be able to strike back and defeat the young Fin Simo Kirssi in today´s 2nd run? Or would the young generation take over? All three HP2 Endurists had splendid runs - skillfully powerdrifting the bikes through the hairpins and up the hill.
Everybody waited excitedly for the official results. In the meantime the top-riders of the event showed their best tricks to the gathered crowd. For Stunt-Champion Chris Pfeiffer the laws of gravity didn´t even seem to apply any longer, performing breathtaking wheelies during an extremely steep hillclimb. No wonder that there were numerous requests for autographs afterwards! Again, the BMW Motorrad Instructor Team took part in the event as well - with la lot of fun - and also highly successful: In the Desert Bomber category for 2-cylinder-bikes 2 Instructors made the Top-Ten. On their 100 % production R 1200 GS Enduros!
GIO SALA E SIMO KRISSI
http://www.bmw-motorrad2.com/bmwmr_crm_net_news/content/images/meldung002334pic13_2.JPG
Responsible for the best news of the day was again the young Fin Simo Kirssi. Despite the tough conditions he reached a fabulous 9:02,67 min. - even two seconds faster than his time in the first run. A time noone else was able to beat. So Congratulations to Simo Kirssi, the winner of the Iron Road Prologue 2005! Jimmy Lewis also improved his time - by unbelievable 20 seconds, which put him on third, right behind the Erzberg-Legend Werner Müller. Chris Pfeiffer´s fifth place turned BMW Motorrad´s first official appearance at the Erzberg into a complete success. Sometimes one cylinder simply isn´t enough!
See you there...
And for everyone who now wants to meet the Erzberg-Heroes with their bikes: See you at the 5th International BMW Motorrad Bikermeeting (1st - 3rd of July) for the official world premiere of the HP2 Enduro in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
Where else can you watch the world´s top motorcyclists starting next to ambitious amateurs and fun-riders? No place else but here at the Erzbergrodeo. No matter if Enduro-Champion, Dakar-Expert, Freestyle-Superstar or just anyone else of the up to 1,500 starters - they all have the same sand between their teeth and the same goal before their eyes: to conquer the hill. Fast. Very fast. Last year the Sunday-event had been stopped due to a cruel snowstorm, this year the curse of the perfect weather-conditions is the dust, that is reducing the visibility down to zero.
http://www.bmw-motorrad2.com/bmwmr_crm_net_news/content/images/meldung002334pic10_2.JPG
"Eat my dust" quickly became the motto of the day on the 13.3 km long and approximately 13 m wide track. Among the first group of starters - sent on the prologue one after each other with a few seconds delay - were also the HP2 Enduro riders Simo Kirssi (12), Jimmy Lewis (13) und Chris Pfeiffer (66). After an impressive demonstration of their skills on the track they commented their runs with cool understatement: "It felt rather unspectacular," Pfeiffer explained. "But sometimes, unspectacular is quite fast." "No special occurrences," let Kirssi know. Nice, to receive such relaxed reports right after flat-out runs up the hill, spiced up with some nasty gravel-chicanes.
http://www.bmw-motorrad2.com/bmwmr_crm_net_news/content/images/meldung002334pic13_1.jpg
Later on the official results brought the sensation. At first, nobody was willing to believe the enormous gap between first and second place - so the announcer waited for another confirmation. Then the sensation: Simo Kirssi (9:05,65 min) defeated Kurt Nicoll on his 1-cylinder by breathtaking 6 seconds. With Chris Pfeiffer on 3rd and Jimmy Lewis on 5th (9:29,38 min) the BMW Motorrad Enduro Team Feil was highly pleased that evening.
"Best time counts" say the regulations for the Iron Road Prologue. Which simply means, that the personal best - no matter if reached on Friday or Saturday - determines the final result. So for tomorrow everything is still possible. And the riders have already started to prepare their equipment.
The 1,500 contestants of the previous day turned the track into a nightmare. Toughest conditions for the riders as well as for the bikes - not to mention the dust, that even got worse. Would the King´s Class-winner Giovanni Sala be able to strike back and defeat the young Fin Simo Kirssi in today´s 2nd run? Or would the young generation take over? All three HP2 Endurists had splendid runs - skillfully powerdrifting the bikes through the hairpins and up the hill.
Everybody waited excitedly for the official results. In the meantime the top-riders of the event showed their best tricks to the gathered crowd. For Stunt-Champion Chris Pfeiffer the laws of gravity didn´t even seem to apply any longer, performing breathtaking wheelies during an extremely steep hillclimb. No wonder that there were numerous requests for autographs afterwards! Again, the BMW Motorrad Instructor Team took part in the event as well - with la lot of fun - and also highly successful: In the Desert Bomber category for 2-cylinder-bikes 2 Instructors made the Top-Ten. On their 100 % production R 1200 GS Enduros!
GIO SALA E SIMO KRISSI
http://www.bmw-motorrad2.com/bmwmr_crm_net_news/content/images/meldung002334pic13_2.JPG
Responsible for the best news of the day was again the young Fin Simo Kirssi. Despite the tough conditions he reached a fabulous 9:02,67 min. - even two seconds faster than his time in the first run. A time noone else was able to beat. So Congratulations to Simo Kirssi, the winner of the Iron Road Prologue 2005! Jimmy Lewis also improved his time - by unbelievable 20 seconds, which put him on third, right behind the Erzberg-Legend Werner Müller. Chris Pfeiffer´s fifth place turned BMW Motorrad´s first official appearance at the Erzberg into a complete success. Sometimes one cylinder simply isn´t enough!
See you there...
And for everyone who now wants to meet the Erzberg-Heroes with their bikes: See you at the 5th International BMW Motorrad Bikermeeting (1st - 3rd of July) for the official world premiere of the HP2 Enduro in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.