BMW Motorrad wins at Erzberg again!
The ´Mountain of Iron´ beckoned and BMW Motorrad Team Offroad answered the call as the factory team travelled to Styria again to demonstrate the potential of the HP2 Enduro at this legendary off-road event. Like last year, this 12th Erzberg Rodeo also included a separate 2-cylinder race so BMW sent its top riders to tackle the 17.5-kilometre rough gravel track. Flying the flag for BMW at Erzberg were Simo Kirssi, Jimmy Lewis, Chris Pfeiffer and guest rider Gerhard Forster. Here´s what happened.
Thursday - the 2-cylinder 'Royal Class'
An entry list of 115 riders in 2006 clearly reflected the great success of this new racing class, where only road-legal motorcycles with at least two cylinders are allowed to start. The route is exactly that of the legendary Prologue and consists of 17.5 kilometres of full throttle action on the gravel tracks of the Styrian Erzberg. The KTM factory team meant business and its starting line-up included Enduro World Champion David Knight, former Enduro World Champion Giovanni Sala, and Dakar winner Cyril Despres.
Perfect conditions greeted the riders for the first race, which started at 1pm on Thursday. Lots of grip, sunshine and dust-free conditions allowed riders to keep their throttles pinned, with top speeds of over 175 km/h possible for those who dared. Simo Kirssi had set his sights particularly high this year, because he narrowly missed out on winning the 2-cylinder class last year in spite of an absolute best time in the second race.
Unfortunately, Simo made a braking error in the first race, came off on a bend and lost vital seconds. His renewed attack came with a perfect second race but it was regrettably too late. Even though he won the race and was the only top rider to improve on his personal time, the increasing amount of ruts appearing in the bends (caused by the effects of over 100 riders braking in almost exactly the same spot) meant that he could only reduce Knight´s lead from the first race to 1.94 seconds - and only the faster of the two races counts towards the result.
In third place was another KTM, ridden by Cyril Despres. The previous year´s winner Giovanni Sala took fourth place, while Chris Pfeiffer came home in fifth place, just in front of Jimmy Lewis. Guest BMW rider Gerhard Forster was eighth, while other HP2 riders included Peter Bachler in 12th and BMW instructor Andreas Rothballer in 15th.
Friday - The Iron Road Prologue, 1st Race
Never before in the 12-year history of the Erzberg Rodeo have so many world stars lined up for the start. It was Simo Kirssi however, who made a lasting impression, as he was virtually unstoppable on the BMW HP2. His fastest time up the 17.5 kilometre mountain track was almost five seconds faster than his nearest challenger and he was in fact the only rider to complete the Prologue in under nine minutes.
Local rider Werner Müller finished in second place, Dakar winner Cyril Despres was third and BMW Motorrad´s Chris Pfeiffer finished fourth on the BMW HP2 Enduro, while rally specialist Jimmy Lewis finished in sixth. All in all, there were representatives from 23 nations for the Prologue races and the overseas superstars put on an impressive show. US Supercross legend Jeremy McGrath finished a sensational seventh and freestyle-MX superstar Travis Pastrana came a respectable 10th.
Saturday - the Iron Road Prologue, 2nd Race
This was another huge success for BMW, as Simo Kirssi won on the HP2 ahead of Werner Müller and Cyril Despres. Although Kirssi was not able to better his previous day´s time due to the drastic deterioration in conditions (because of rain) his time of 09:05.82 was still 24 seconds faster than nearest challenger Cyril Despres.
Chris Pfeiffer - four-times winner of the Red Bull Hare Scramble - once again finished fourth on his BMW HP2 and Jimmy Lewis was sixth. In the rain they were also considerably slower than they had been in the first Prologue race, but the HP2 Enduro riders felt more comfortable than most in the difficult conditions due to the bike´s legendary traction, as Chris confirmed: "I used to find the Prologue rather boring as a qualifier for the Hare Scramble, but on the high-speed HP2 it´s really exciting. Bombing across gravel at over 170 and braking as late as possible on so many hairpin bends really gets the adrenalin going."
Berti Hauser, BMW Motorrad Sports Director summed up another successful weekend for the HP2 Enduro riders: "As expected, the KTM factory team was a very powerful opponent in a ´home game´. Nonetheless, the perfect performance of the HP2 and the great team spirit and enormous dedication of our riders gave us this truly wonderful result, of which everyone should be really proud."
Results and further informations at:
www.erzberg.at (German only)
The ´Mountain of Iron´ beckoned and BMW Motorrad Team Offroad answered the call as the factory team travelled to Styria again to demonstrate the potential of the HP2 Enduro at this legendary off-road event. Like last year, this 12th Erzberg Rodeo also included a separate 2-cylinder race so BMW sent its top riders to tackle the 17.5-kilometre rough gravel track. Flying the flag for BMW at Erzberg were Simo Kirssi, Jimmy Lewis, Chris Pfeiffer and guest rider Gerhard Forster. Here´s what happened.
Thursday - the 2-cylinder 'Royal Class'
An entry list of 115 riders in 2006 clearly reflected the great success of this new racing class, where only road-legal motorcycles with at least two cylinders are allowed to start. The route is exactly that of the legendary Prologue and consists of 17.5 kilometres of full throttle action on the gravel tracks of the Styrian Erzberg. The KTM factory team meant business and its starting line-up included Enduro World Champion David Knight, former Enduro World Champion Giovanni Sala, and Dakar winner Cyril Despres.
Perfect conditions greeted the riders for the first race, which started at 1pm on Thursday. Lots of grip, sunshine and dust-free conditions allowed riders to keep their throttles pinned, with top speeds of over 175 km/h possible for those who dared. Simo Kirssi had set his sights particularly high this year, because he narrowly missed out on winning the 2-cylinder class last year in spite of an absolute best time in the second race.
Unfortunately, Simo made a braking error in the first race, came off on a bend and lost vital seconds. His renewed attack came with a perfect second race but it was regrettably too late. Even though he won the race and was the only top rider to improve on his personal time, the increasing amount of ruts appearing in the bends (caused by the effects of over 100 riders braking in almost exactly the same spot) meant that he could only reduce Knight´s lead from the first race to 1.94 seconds - and only the faster of the two races counts towards the result.
In third place was another KTM, ridden by Cyril Despres. The previous year´s winner Giovanni Sala took fourth place, while Chris Pfeiffer came home in fifth place, just in front of Jimmy Lewis. Guest BMW rider Gerhard Forster was eighth, while other HP2 riders included Peter Bachler in 12th and BMW instructor Andreas Rothballer in 15th.
Friday - The Iron Road Prologue, 1st Race
Never before in the 12-year history of the Erzberg Rodeo have so many world stars lined up for the start. It was Simo Kirssi however, who made a lasting impression, as he was virtually unstoppable on the BMW HP2. His fastest time up the 17.5 kilometre mountain track was almost five seconds faster than his nearest challenger and he was in fact the only rider to complete the Prologue in under nine minutes.
Local rider Werner Müller finished in second place, Dakar winner Cyril Despres was third and BMW Motorrad´s Chris Pfeiffer finished fourth on the BMW HP2 Enduro, while rally specialist Jimmy Lewis finished in sixth. All in all, there were representatives from 23 nations for the Prologue races and the overseas superstars put on an impressive show. US Supercross legend Jeremy McGrath finished a sensational seventh and freestyle-MX superstar Travis Pastrana came a respectable 10th.
Saturday - the Iron Road Prologue, 2nd Race
This was another huge success for BMW, as Simo Kirssi won on the HP2 ahead of Werner Müller and Cyril Despres. Although Kirssi was not able to better his previous day´s time due to the drastic deterioration in conditions (because of rain) his time of 09:05.82 was still 24 seconds faster than nearest challenger Cyril Despres.
Chris Pfeiffer - four-times winner of the Red Bull Hare Scramble - once again finished fourth on his BMW HP2 and Jimmy Lewis was sixth. In the rain they were also considerably slower than they had been in the first Prologue race, but the HP2 Enduro riders felt more comfortable than most in the difficult conditions due to the bike´s legendary traction, as Chris confirmed: "I used to find the Prologue rather boring as a qualifier for the Hare Scramble, but on the high-speed HP2 it´s really exciting. Bombing across gravel at over 170 and braking as late as possible on so many hairpin bends really gets the adrenalin going."
Berti Hauser, BMW Motorrad Sports Director summed up another successful weekend for the HP2 Enduro riders: "As expected, the KTM factory team was a very powerful opponent in a ´home game´. Nonetheless, the perfect performance of the HP2 and the great team spirit and enormous dedication of our riders gave us this truly wonderful result, of which everyone should be really proud."
Results and further informations at:
www.erzberg.at (German only)
