Jeremy Knuiman wins French title in Le Touquet
Jeremy Knuiman wins the French sand race title, for riders up to 21 years old, under the flag of the Stirlings Racing Team during the Le Touquet beach race. Last Saturday the 3-hour race was on the program, after weeks of preparations by people and materials, Jeremy was ready.
The start was at exactly 14:00 PM and Jeremy was off to a good start, the KTM machine ran at over 160 km per hour on the first straight and he was able to keep up with the front runners. He was able to enter the U turn as 11th, which is an ideal position to start the race. He was able to counter this position well and even took over P3 for 9 rounds. In the 4th round the 1st pit stop took place which went well and he finished the race. could resume in 13th place.
In the subsequent laps he was able to make up many places again and was back in the top 10. Unfortunately in lap 7 he had to deal with a faltering engine because the exhaust nozzle came loose from the cylinder.
He entered the pit lane unprepared and the complete exhaust system was replaced. At that time it could not be noticed that the mounting of the exhaust nozzle was broken from the inside. After a pit stop of more than 8 minutes he resumed the race in 36th place, unfortunately it came exhaust nozzle came loose from the cylinder again, meaning he had to pit again the next lap. The exhaust system was replaced again and the exhaust nozzle was secured to the cylinder with iron wire.
This again took a very long time and after more than 10 minutes he was able to continue on his way. Jeremy remained very calm during these pit stops and entered the last hour of the race in good spirits. From position 65, he made up many positions every lap to eventually cross the finish line in 25th. This was enough to become the 1st rider in the overall ranking under 21 years of age, and he also finished 5th in the overall ranking of the French sand championship.
Damien's race was scheduled for Sunday morning at 09:00 am, the hour and a half race started under cold and wet weather conditions. Damien was able to start the race from 12th place and started a great catch-up race, making up places every lap, despite an innocent crash it did not bother him to continue.
After 30 minutes of the race he was the 1st 125cc rider and already in 4th place overall, after 45 minutes of the race the pit crew was ready for his 1st pit stop, unfortunately Damien did not get through, it was feared for a moment that he would run out of gas, soon it became clear that mechanical problems were the cause and that he had failed. Damien was understandably very disappointed with his outburst.
Afterwards, Cor Euser's words were “ups and downs are part of the sport, never give up, Jeremy and Damien have shown that they belong to the top”. For Damien, this is what it is, on to the next challenge. Jeremy and Damien would like to thank everyone who helped to organize the material and pit stops during the last French sand competition. HVG engineering (Harm van Galen), Johan Bollen, WLM Design, Patrick Verkoost, Natasja Haesendonckx, Fam. Hoevers, and of course mechanic Poit.
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