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The fourth race of the CEV Spanish Motorcycle Championship took place last weekend at the Grand Prix circuit of Motorland Aragon. Taking part were our two young drivers, Joshua Bauer (12) – Class Challenge 80, as well as Paul Fröde (13) – PreMoto3. Most days, the weather conditions were perfect for the drivers at the excellent facility near Zaragoza. On Saturday the drivers had to contend with strong gusts of wind, and temperatures that were stuck fast at more than 30 degrees Celsius.
Class Challenge80/Moto4 - Joshua Bauer
Following his victory in the previous race at Alcarras, expectations of Joshua were high – he had invested a huge amount of time preparing himself for the race in Aragon. However by the end of 2nd qualifying, things were not going so smoothly for the young racer from Vogtland. For one thing the motorbike was still throwing up problems, the competition was really hotting up and he simply couldn’t get a rhythm going. A starting position of 17th out of 34 drivers didn’t give the best prospects for a podium finish. However a change in fortune arrived during the warm-up on Sunday morning. A considerably improved motorcycle and a highly-motivated driver eventually brought about the expected lap-times – resulting in a 2nd place finish in the warm-up, also as the best driver in his class.
When it came to the race itself, disaster struck – Joshua was the first driver to line up on the starting grid, so had to wait a long time for all the other drivers to find their grid boxes. Shortly before the lights turned green, his motorbike switched off. The consequence – he had to start afresh from the back of the grid, and in this demanding race still managed to bring home a 5th placed finish.
Overall ranking CEV Challenge80 – 4th
Class PreMoto3 – Paul Fröde
Paul Fröde also had to fight his way out of trouble at the beginning of the event at the Aragon circuit. The course was completely new territory for Paul, so his race was quite similar to that of his team colleague. Second qualifying saw his turnaround in fortune he had hoped for, a solid 17th place start out of 34 drivers following two difficult days. In the warm-up Paul was again even faster than in qualifying, so the team had high expectations for the race too. Unfortunately Paul’s race was over by the third lap. A plunge from his Highsider meant a sudden end to the race for our young driver from Sachsenring.
The assessment of LZ Team Boss, Dirk Reissmann:
“Every beginning is difficult, and that applies just as much to our drivers in the Spanish Championship. It’s never easy to find the right balance again after a victory, especially for a driver as young as Joshua. It’s great that he had the desire to bring home another victory in this tough series, but every course has its own stipulations. He’ll be back on the podium again, he’s a born racer. Things turned around for Paul from the 2nd qualifying onwards, before that he found it very difficult to find enough speed. I think we’ve gone through a little slump and are now back on the route to the top. The lap times are fine and the fighting spirit is back, but the early lap times as well as the start need a bit of improvement, then Paul will be raking in the points too.”