MAnfred Zienecker took a double heat victory at the Dutch National Quad Masters Championships in Holten. Van Grinsven finished second, and Veldman took third place on a very challenging course.
In the first moto, Zienecker took the lead ahead of Veldman. After the first lap, Zienecker still held the lead, ahead of Veldman, van Grinsven, Eijk, and Maessen. Van Grinsven quickly overtook Veldman for second place, while Vlaeymans took sixth place from Verboven, also quickly overtaking Maessen. After three laps, the top three had a gap of about 16 seconds to Eijk, who was in fourth place. After five laps, Zienecker still held the lead, but van Grinsven was closing in.
On lap 6, after pushing for a few laps, Vlaeymans overtakes Eijk. Vlaeymans now holds 4th place, with a large gap to close to the top 3. A lap later, Eijk passes him with a flat tire, a waste of his good position. With 18 minutes remaining, van Lith takes 5th place from Verboven. On the final lap, Zienecker stalls, but luckily he quickly gets his bike going again and gains a sufficient lead to win the race by a narrow 2 seconds over van Grinsven. Veldman is in 3rd place, ahead of Vlaeymans and van Lith.
In the second heat, Zienecker again takes the best start, ahead of Veldman and Vlaeymans. After one lap, Zienecker takes the lead, ahead of Veldman, van Grinsven, Vlaeymans, and Phoelich. On lap two, van Grinsven takes over second place from Veldman. With 10 minutes remaining in the race, the top four remains unchanged, but the battle behind them is raging with Nouwen, Phoelich, Roks, and van Lith. On lap ten, Phoelich overtakes Nouwen, and Van Lith has already passed Roks. Van Lith then manages to overtake Nouwen but then has to let Roks pass him again. A constant battle for fifth place is thus brewing.
At the front, the battle for the lead seems not quite over with 2 laps to go, Zienecker has a lead of about 5 seconds over van Grinsven.
Zienecker, however, held on and eventually took victory in the second heat ahead of Grinsven, Veldman, Vlaeymans and Phoelich.
On Saturday, October 11th, the Dutch champion will be decided in Valkenswaard. Ziekecker currently has a 9-point lead over Van Grinsven, and with a total of 100 points up for grabs, anything is still possible in the exciting final this Saturday!
