Report 2011

Final report dated 07 August 2011

Very briefly, it looked as if the weather would turn to good for the 16th ADAC Night Trial of the MSC Weser-Solling Fürstenhagen. During the driver presentation at shortly after 8 pm the clouds broke up and it stopped raining. But as soon as the eleven drivers from five countries had started their journey over the off-road obstacles, heavy showers started again. It became a fight against rain and mud and also one of the most exciting decisions in the 25 year history of the Night Trial. Only in the very last second and by a hair’s breadth did Night Trial debutant Maxime Warenghien beat reigning German champion Mirco Kammel from Bielefeld after four laps. Third place went to the Czech Martin Kroustek.

Before the start the 19-year-old Warenghien, who is one of the top pilots in the Junior World Championships, was still cautious: “I have no expectations and will simply give my best,” he said. But already through the first two sections in the area of the newly designed section below the club hut he made an impressive mark with his Spanish GasGas 300 and did not have to put his feet on the ground. Swiftly and under tight commands from his father, who acted as water carrier and course guide, Warenghien moved on to the other sections of the terrain.

Fierce resistance came from the German champion Mirco Kammel. The also 19-year-old from MSC Brake was sparing with forecasts before the night trial and left it at a simple: “Have fun and get a good result”. After driving over the first six sections of the terrain, Kammel had turned his fun into something serious and finished round one with a one-point lead over Warenghien. The high school student, who also drives a GasGas, was able to keep this advantage until the last lap.

It came to the highly exciting final. In view of the constantly changing conditions, Kammel had inspected the obstacles in each round extensively. He deliberately took the risk of exceeding the maximum driving time of two and a half hours and collecting penalty points. In a true sprint he drove the approximately 70 kilogram off-road machine through the last lap, intentionally omitting an extremely difficult section of large wheel loader tyres and collecting five penalty points for this. From the end of the last section of the terrain, his water carrier spurred into the finish area and was able to hand over Kammel’s scorecard a few seconds before the time limit expired. The duelists waited anxiously for the result. This could not have been more tight: With 42 penalty points, Warenghien was only one point ahead of Kammel in the end and thus ensured the first Belgian victory at the night trial in Fürstenhagen.

“Many thanks for the invitation and also for the great support from the spectators,” said the winner after the competition. “The sections were technically very demanding, and that suits me,” was the conclusion of the Walloon, who is aiming for a professional career in the trial.

Mirco Kammel was also beaming. Soaked by the rain and yet completely sweaty, he laughed at the finish area on his mud-covered two-stroke motorcycle: “If you ride faster, you have less time to put your feet on the ground,” he said to his almost perfect hussar ride over the last obstacles. “It went really well. I was amazed at how well most of the sections went despite the wet. I was able to keep the race open for a very long time. I hadn’t expected that.”

A special highlight was set by 22-year-old Christian Kregeloh from Schwelm. He was the only one to manage the greasy tyre section without the highest number of penalty points. With the imprint “I love dirt” on his T-shirt he received the honour for the excellent fourth place overall as the second best German, somewhat surprised.

Not happy with his own performance was the 33-year-old German record champion Carsten Stranghöner from Herford. He took 5th place: “This was a great event, but I am not satisfied with myself. My performance dropped too much in the second half and I have to admit that the narrow sections are not my cup of tea. The young competitors have a better handle on that.”

The organizers of the MSC Weser-Solling, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, were satisfied. “In view of the bad weather, we feared until shortly before the start that we would be left pretty much alone in the rain with the riders today. But suddenly there were 1,000 spectators. We are very happy about that. It underlines the fact that we have established the Night-Trial as a firm fixture in the sports calendar, which will also attract crowds even when the weather doesn’t cooperate,” said Andreas Hoffmeister, First Chairman of the MSC Weser-Solling.  Hoffmeister also thanked the numerous helpers and clubs who supported the Night Trial. 

Race director Dietrich Siemon also drew a positive conclusion: “The tension was great. It’s difficult to assess how wetness affects the track. We defused one section before the start to be on the safe side. The rest remained unchanged. The first lap already showed that this was the right decision. The track was fair and not too difficult. Forty times the drivers drove through the sections with zero penalty points.”

Result 16th International ADAC Night Trial of the MSC Weser-Solling e. V. on 06 August 2011: 1 Maxime Warenghien (B), 42 penalty points 2 Mirco Kammel (Bielefeld), 43 3 Martin Kroustek (CZ), 52 4 Christian Kregeloh (Schwelm), 61 5th place Carsten Stranghöner (Bielefeld), 65 6th Jan Peters (Dambeck), 66 7th Markus Schütte (Bielefeld), 71 8th Ewoud Lalkens (NL), 88 9th Stefan Griebenow (Uelzen), 91 10th Richard Rosenstatter (Austria), 102 11th Jan Brockmeyer (Melle), 103