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Mattigh<strong>of</strong>en/Brno October 8, 2011<br />
SEASON FINALE OF THE <strong>KTM</strong> X-<strong>BOW</strong> BATTLE IN BRNO:<br />
DOUBLE VICTORY FOR REINI KOFLER IN THE RAIN!<br />
The grand finale <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>KTM</strong> X-<strong>BOW</strong> BATTLE 2011 more than did justice to what was<br />
a really great season <strong>of</strong> racing. Even though victory in all three classes had already<br />
been decided in <strong>the</strong> ‘home game’ on <strong>the</strong> Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria, all<br />
drivers were highly motivated and <strong>the</strong> changeable autumn wea<strong>the</strong>r transformed <strong>the</strong><br />
two races on <strong>the</strong> “Masaryk-Ring: into real thrillers. Some <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> drivers and teams<br />
had decided not to compete in <strong>the</strong> final showdown but Raphael Sperrer, <strong>the</strong> most<br />
prominent absentee starter was still at <strong>the</strong> track to take care <strong>of</strong> his customers and to<br />
enjoy <strong>the</strong> final Friday night barbeque with his racing colleagues. Despite <strong>the</strong> fact that<br />
some <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> regulars not to race, 27-28 competitors showed up in <strong>the</strong> final results,<br />
which underlines <strong>the</strong> tremendous increase <strong>of</strong> interest and <strong>the</strong> positive experiences<br />
competitors have had in <strong>the</strong> second year <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>KTM</strong> X-<strong>BOW</strong> BATTLE series. Just as<br />
satisfied was ‘circus director’ Georg Silbermayr who was careful not to show too<br />
many <strong>of</strong> his cards concerning what might be in store for 2012. “First <strong>of</strong> all my thanks<br />
to all participants and <strong>the</strong>ir teams who have made this great season possible but also<br />
to my staff and to <strong>KTM</strong>. We can really be proud <strong>of</strong> this fantastic Brand Trophy and <strong>of</strong><br />
a great race series, which in <strong>the</strong> second year <strong>of</strong> its existence had around 30 regular<br />
starters and very many guest drivers. I think we can be confident that with <strong>the</strong> new<br />
regulations <strong>the</strong> success <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>KTM</strong> X-<strong>BOW</strong> BATTLE is going to continue. In 2012 we<br />
want to see about 40 regular starters. Because that’s too many on a racing circuit<br />
<strong>the</strong>re will be a kind <strong>of</strong> pre-qualification. And from 2013 we want to separate <strong>the</strong> ‘very<br />
fast’ – unlimited and ProAm starters - from those who are somewhat slower, e.g. <strong>the</strong><br />
rookies.” So it looks like dazzling prospects for success next season, which is<br />
expected to be again in conjunction with <strong>the</strong> Porsche Alpine Cup competition. “We<br />
really feel very, very comfortable in <strong>the</strong> company <strong>of</strong> this competition, <strong>the</strong> guys from<br />
<strong>the</strong> Porsche Alpine Cup do a great job, <strong>the</strong> racing circuits are beautiful and <strong>the</strong><br />
concept <strong>of</strong> having Friday and Saturday as race days followed by a free Sunday is<br />
also very popular with our starters. I don’t see any reason that we should do it any<br />
o<strong>the</strong>r way!” Georg Silbermayr promised more on <strong>the</strong> calendar and <strong>the</strong> regulations in<br />
December, and with a wink he adds: “Speaking <strong>of</strong> December, since we have our big<br />
end <strong>of</strong> season party on December 2 in <strong>the</strong> Vienna disco ‘Take Five’ maybe <strong>the</strong> teams<br />
should plan to also plan to have a free day on December 3…”<br />
Race 1, October 7, 2011<br />
Pole-Position for Reini K<strong>of</strong>ler: The <strong>KTM</strong> test driver was unbeatable at midday on a<br />
rainy Friday. It was not even possible for Marko Klein, <strong>the</strong> season’s dominator to be
faster. K<strong>of</strong>ler had a comfortable 1.5 seconds lead on <strong>the</strong> Class 3 “Unlimited”<br />
champion. Ra<strong>the</strong>r surprisingly, Pavel Heinik earned third place on <strong>the</strong> grid with his<br />
heavily modified auto, also in Class 3. The Czech driver had really prepared for his<br />
home race and had a very strong performance. The same could be said for his<br />
countryman Martin Novotny, who in <strong>the</strong> Class 2 (ProAm) was second fastest just<br />
0.167 seconds behind last year’s champion Klaus Angerh<strong>of</strong>er, while Gerhardt<br />
Trenker was third fastest. Among <strong>the</strong> ‘Rookies’ it was ano<strong>the</strong>r pole position for a<br />
Czech driver: Ondrej Bach was an unbelievable 20 thousandths <strong>of</strong> a second in front<br />
<strong>of</strong> Sehdi Sarmini, who himself was only 27 thousandths <strong>of</strong> a second in front <strong>of</strong> Artur<br />
Chwist <strong>of</strong> Poland! The start <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> race was very strange. Everything went smoothly<br />
at <strong>the</strong> front where Marko Klein overtook Reini K<strong>of</strong>ler to take <strong>the</strong> lead but by <strong>the</strong> time<br />
<strong>the</strong> back <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> field crossed <strong>the</strong> start/finish line <strong>the</strong>re was chaos. Class 3 competitor<br />
Ernst Kirchmayr who started in 19 th place had to swerve to avoid a driver who was<br />
suddenly slower. He spun out in <strong>the</strong> process and ran into his teammate Viktor Mach.<br />
While Mach was put out <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> race, Kirchmayr tried to drive on before he had to pull<br />
his X-<strong>BOW</strong> over because <strong>the</strong> front wheel had been torn <strong>of</strong>f. Meanwhile at <strong>the</strong> front <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong> pack <strong>the</strong> fight between K<strong>of</strong>ler and Klein continued lap after lap until finally <strong>the</strong><br />
<strong>KTM</strong> test driver managed to edge ahead. Third place went to Jim Gebhardt who<br />
fought a many lap duel with Sebastian Grunert and at <strong>the</strong> end <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> race also had to<br />
battle with Pavel Heinik. Grunert was angry with himself after <strong>the</strong> race because he<br />
made a mistake in <strong>the</strong> very hard fight with Gebhardt and Heinik and slipped back in<br />
<strong>the</strong> field. Martin Novotny, winner <strong>of</strong> Class 2 crossed <strong>the</strong> finish line in a strong seventh<br />
place managing to convert his strong performance in qualifying into a great race<br />
performance. The same went for Class 3 drivers Quirin Müller and Jakub Rejlek. The<br />
German and <strong>the</strong> Czech were on <strong>the</strong> start with two completely series X-<strong>BOW</strong> R<br />
models and added to this, both were driving in <strong>the</strong>ir first “BATTLE” races. “Bernie<br />
Silverstone” aka Georg Silbermayr completed <strong>the</strong> top ten. Gerhardt Trenker and<br />
Klaus Angerh<strong>of</strong>er, who took second and third place in Class 2, were next followed by<br />
Sehdi Sarmini as winner <strong>of</strong> Class 1. He was able to finish way in front <strong>of</strong> Belgium’s<br />
Rudy Lemmens, <strong>the</strong> new champion <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> ‘Rookies’, while Lemmings had a<br />
significant advantage over Artur Chwist, who took third place in Class 1 after Pole<br />
sitter Ondrej Bach had a DNF.
Race 2 October 8, 2011<br />
The second qualifying ended up being in similarly difficult wet conditions as <strong>the</strong> first.<br />
Reini K<strong>of</strong>ler was on pole, behind him Marko Klein and Jim Gebhardt. It went much<br />
better for Ernst Kirchmayr, who drove his repaired X-<strong>BOW</strong> into sixth place behind <strong>the</strong><br />
two Class 2 starters Klaus Angerh<strong>of</strong>er and Martin Novotny. Sehdi Sarmini had tanked<br />
up on self confidence following his strong performance in <strong>the</strong> first race and grabbed<br />
<strong>the</strong> ‘Rookies” pole for <strong>the</strong> second race by a wafer thin margin in front <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
astonishingly fast Piotr Maslanka who, with his teammate Artur Chwist who was third,<br />
stole <strong>the</strong> show in what turned out to be an internal Polish championship. Everyone<br />
was beginning to remember <strong>the</strong> wea<strong>the</strong>r chaos at <strong>the</strong> Red Bull Ring where it began<br />
to rain just as <strong>the</strong> cars were lining up for <strong>the</strong> second race – and it turned out exactly<br />
<strong>the</strong> same at <strong>the</strong> last race <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> season in Brno. Just as <strong>the</strong> pit lights turned from red<br />
to green <strong>the</strong> heavens opened and <strong>the</strong> resulting deluge put parts <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> circuit<br />
completely underwater. That <strong>the</strong>re were no serious race incidents ei<strong>the</strong>r in <strong>the</strong> first<br />
lap or after was down to how pr<strong>of</strong>essional <strong>the</strong> drivers reacted, as well as <strong>the</strong>ir skills<br />
and calm approach. At <strong>the</strong> same time <strong>the</strong> field split up into spectacular fighting<br />
groups where no one was prepared to yield a millimeter. Right at <strong>the</strong> front Reini<br />
K<strong>of</strong>ler and Marko Klein fought a wheel on wheel duel throughout <strong>the</strong> entire race, from<br />
which K<strong>of</strong>ler was finally able to emerge <strong>the</strong> winner by just 0.049 seconds. The <strong>KTM</strong><br />
test pilot dedicated his double victory to <strong>the</strong> memory <strong>of</strong> development engineer Robert<br />
Prielinger who died in a fatal accident <strong>the</strong> week before. “My thanks go to <strong>KTM</strong> and<br />
<strong>the</strong> entire development team. We have made some big advances this season and<br />
<strong>the</strong> double victory this weekend at <strong>the</strong> end <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> season shows we have been<br />
working in <strong>the</strong> right direction, even if I have to say that Marko was a very strong<br />
opponent. We want to dedicate <strong>the</strong>se victories to our colleague Robert who was<br />
taken from us much sooner that he should have been.” Jim Gebhardt was again third<br />
in front <strong>of</strong> a somewhat disappointed Pavel Heinik, who before <strong>the</strong> race had hoped to<br />
finish in third place. Ernst Kirchmayr and Sebastien Grunert delivered a spectacular<br />
duel for fifth place, which in <strong>the</strong> end was snapped by <strong>the</strong> Plus-City boss. Meanwhile<br />
Grunert spun out and <strong>of</strong>f <strong>the</strong> track in <strong>the</strong> final attack and crossed <strong>the</strong> line in 13 th<br />
place. Martin Novotny finished in a great sixth as <strong>the</strong> dominant winner <strong>of</strong> Class 2,<br />
whereas behind him <strong>the</strong>re was ano<strong>the</strong>r two-way battle between <strong>the</strong> former Red Bull<br />
Racing rookie Quirin Müller and <strong>the</strong> Czech Jakub Rejlek, which Müller managed to<br />
take by a blink <strong>of</strong> an eye. Place nine went to Jürgen Pipp, “Bernie Silverstone” had to<br />
again be satisfied with tenth place, just in front <strong>of</strong> Klaus Angerh<strong>of</strong>er and Gerhardt<br />
Trenker, who took second and third place in Class 2. A bit fur<strong>the</strong>r back in <strong>the</strong> field<br />
was Rudy Lemmens who, with his victory in Class 1 underlined his championship<br />
quality and stole <strong>the</strong> advantage from Sehdi Sarmini and <strong>the</strong> very strong performance<br />
<strong>of</strong> Piotr Maslanka who took <strong>the</strong> minor places.
The Results:<br />
Race 1, October 7, 2011:<br />
01. Reini K<strong>of</strong>ler (Class 3), 26:23,261 minutes (12 Laps)<br />
02. Marko Klein (Class 3), + 1,925 seconds<br />
03. Jim Gebhardt (Class 3), + 49,738<br />
04. Pavel Heinik (Class 3), + 50,012<br />
05. Sebastian Grunert (Class 3), + 50,863<br />
06. Jürgen Pipp (Class 3), + 1:12,501 minutes<br />
07. Martin Novotny (Class 2), + 1:12,859<br />
08. Quirin Müller (Class 3), + 1:19,999<br />
09. Jakub Rejlek (Class 3), + 1:23,596<br />
10. “Bernie Silverstone” (Class 3), + 1:43,649<br />
11. Gerhardt Trenker (Class 2), + 1:43,750<br />
12. Klaus Angerh<strong>of</strong>er (Class 2), + 2:02,452<br />
13. Sehdi Sarmini (Class 1), + 1<br />
14. Gerd Lukas (Class 3), + 1<br />
15. Eyke Angermayr (Class 3), + 1<br />
16. Rudy Lemmens (Class 1), + 1<br />
17. Martin Jansa (Class 3) + 1<br />
18. Artur Chwist (Class 1) + 1<br />
19. Robert Lattermann (Class 1) + 1<br />
20. “EYE TEE” (Class 1) + 1<br />
21. Hubert Schmalnauer (Class 2) + 1<br />
22. Bernd Kaindlsdorfer (Class 1), + 1<br />
23. Piotr Maslanka (Class 1), + 1<br />
24. Ondrej Bach (Class 1), DNF<br />
25. Viktor Mach (Class 1), DNF<br />
26. Uwe Schmidt (Class 3), DNF<br />
27. Ernst Kirchmayr (Class 3), DNF
Race 2, October 8, 2011:<br />
01. Reini K<strong>of</strong>ler (Class 3), 25:33,440 minutes 11 seconds<br />
02. Marko Klein (Class 3), + 0,049 seconds<br />
03. Jim Gebhardt (Class 3), + 29,148<br />
04. Pavel Heinik (Class 3), + 39,226<br />
05. Ernst Kirchmayr (Class 3), + 1:21,574<br />
06. Martin Novotny (Class 2), + 1:24,061<br />
07. Quirin Müller (Class 3), + 1:26,360<br />
08. Jakub Rejlek (Class 3), + 1:26,463<br />
09. Jürgen Pipp (Class 3), + 1:32,571 minutes<br />
10. “Bernie Silverstone” (Class 3), + 1:33,714<br />
11. Klaus Angerh<strong>of</strong>er (Class 2), + 1:34,413<br />
12. Gerhardt Trenker (Class 2), + 1:34,850<br />
13. Sebastian Grunert (Class 3), + 2:14,799<br />
14. Martin Jansa (Class 3) + 2:24,534<br />
15. Gerd Lukas (Class 3), + 1<br />
16. Rudy Lemmens (Class 1), + 1<br />
17. Sehdi Sarmini (Class 1), + 1<br />
18. Eyke Angermayr (Class 3), + 1<br />
19. Piotr Maslanka (Class 1), + 1<br />
20. Ondrej Bach (Class 1), + 1<br />
21. Artur Chwist (Class 1) + 1<br />
22. Jakub Havrlant (Class 2), + 1<br />
23. “EYE TEE”“ (Class 1) + 1<br />
24. Bernd Kaindlsdorfer (Class 1), + 1<br />
25. Robert Lattermann (Class 1) + 1<br />
26. Hubert Schmalnauer (Class 2) + 1<br />
27. Viktor Mach (Class 1), + 1<br />
28. Uwe Schmidt (Class 3), DNF
Best in Class:<br />
Class 1:<br />
Race 1, October 7, 2011:<br />
01. Sehdi Sarmini<br />
02. Rudy Lemmens<br />
03. Artur Chwist<br />
Race 2, October 8, 2011:<br />
01. Rudy Lemmens<br />
02. Sehdi Sarmini<br />
03. Piotr Maslanka<br />
Class 2:<br />
Race 1, October 7, 2011:<br />
01. Martin Novotny<br />
02. Gerhardt Trenker<br />
03. Klaus Angerh<strong>of</strong>er<br />
Race 2, October 8, 2011:<br />
01. Martin Novotny<br />
02. Klaus Angerh<strong>of</strong>er<br />
03. Gerhardt Trenker<br />
Class 3:<br />
Race 1, October 7, 2011:<br />
01. Reini K<strong>of</strong>ler<br />
02. Marko Klein<br />
03. Jim Gebhardt<br />
Race 2, October 8, 2011:<br />
01. Reini K<strong>of</strong>ler<br />
02. Marko Klein<br />
03. Jim Gebhardt