Hi all,
after a very, very long winter it was time to pack the van and start driving to the ferry for Tallinn. It has been more than 7 months ago when we travelled to the last event of the 2012 season. It felt somehow that time had paused and at the same it felt like a new trip again. This year no other teams from Finland participating at the Latvian races.
We took the Saturday afternoon ferry and after a stop for provision and fuel in Tallinn the actual driving started. The distance to Aizpute from Tallinn is almost 500 kilometres and we hoped to arrive before dark to have a first look at the track in the evening. We stopped only for a coffee break at Ikla, located at the Estonian - Latvian border.
After our arrival we checked in at the hotel and no surprise that almost all the other guests also stayed there because of the motocross event. Dark was already falling but we were still able to get a quick first look at the track. The dreaded mud swamp was luckily not the case. The organization was working very hard to prepare the track for the next day (at Saturday other classes had had their heats already). Aizpute is when dry a hard packed clay track. The surface was harrowed and I was only thinking how much power was needed to drive through that clay bed. But the organization understood their business and during the next day the track's surface was completely changed in the hard packed clay as last years.
Arriving the next morning in the paddock the van got stuck in the soft grass surface of the paddock. According to a Latvian spectator the Latvian soil is very "elastic" this year ;-). New for this year was that the track's driving direction had been turned. I felt that the track was easier to ride this way. 22 teams and at the end of the practice session we were placed 20th.
During the first rounds of the first heat with 22 teams on the track, there happens all the time all kind of trouble but we were able to pull the first 2 laps clean of it. We finished overall at the 18th spot and 4th for the veteran class.
The start of the 2nd heat didn't work out so good and dead last we followed the pack. We passed some teams during the race and other teams passed us sometimes to finish again 18th overall and 3rd in the veteran class. Last position gave us also 3rd overall in the veteran class but we noticed this only later in the evening driving back to Riga. I hadn't noticed that a team in front of us withdrew from the race. But most important was that we finished both heats in Aizpute, that hasn't happened before!
I dropped Mikael off at the Riga airport 3 hours after the race because he had to be at his work 7:00 AM the next day :-(. After that I continued alone through Riga for my hotel located at the Via Baltica route. Monday morning I continued to Tallinn and washed the bike at the workshop of an Estonian sidecar team. The next day I also spend in their workshop and prepared the bike for the coming race. I picked up Mikael again from the evening ferry and we drove to Põlva for our next race.
Also in Põlva 22 teams on the spot and again a 20th position after the training. Our transponder malfunctioned and it was replaced at the pit during the first lap. Maybe someone tested it later manually but the result was that we had with 4 seconds the fastest lap time and as number 1 on the list. It was funny because of the first surprised reactions even everyone realized that it must be an error.
We finished the first heat at the 16th position. In the third corner I tried to pass a team turning very tight, too tight, and the hack's corner got jammed in the inner berm. We did loose many places and further it was an uneventful race for us.
The start of the 2nd heat wasn't good, the clutch lever got stuck and I had to fix it before we could continue from half a lap behind. At the end we could see the team in front of us but at that time I hadn't the energy any more to close the gap. Põlva is a heavy sand track with lots of deep ruts and bumps. The saying goes that after Põlva it's only getting easier. This time we finished as last at the 18th position. Again we still achieved a new milestone; we finished in both heats and that for the first time in 5 years!
Directly after the race we drove back to Tallinn to be in time for the last evening ferry. Our start of the season hasn't been as good before, always technical problems during the first races. This is an 100% improvement compared with the other years. We don't go to Lithuania because due to Mikael's work schedule it's not possible.
Coming weekend we will spend with setting the carburettor and some other settings.
Regards,
Stephan
Results Aipute Mylaps (BV=sidecars) http://www.mylaps.com/en/events/889260
Results Põlva Mylaps (KV=sidecars) http://www.mylaps.com/en/events/890778
Trip Google Maps http://goo.gl/maps/8IBc5
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