Horice Road Races
For the second successive year, Michael Pearson Racing returned to the Fuchs Oil 300 Zatacek Gustava Havla at Horice in the Czech Republic at the weekend, with the former Irish Superbike Champion smashing the absolute lap record for the circuit during practice for the Superbike class. During race day, Pearson on a borrowed Truimph 675 Supersport machine, was leading the 8 lap race comfortably after lap four, when the race had to be stopped due to a very serious incident involving two riders on lap three, in the forest section of the tight and twisty Horice circuit. After a long delay, the meeting was abandoned due to the severity of the incident.
During practice, Michael rode a 675 Truimph machine which was on loan to him by owner Frantisek Loucka from the Czech Republic. From the word go, Pearson was at one with the machine and after first qualifying, set the second fastest lap for the class at 2m19.5s, only to be piped into pole position by Czech rider Jiri Broz on the Montaze Broz Racing Yamaha R6. Such was the battle for pole position that both Pearson and Broz unofficially broke the existing 600cc lap record.
In the Superbike practice sessions, it was clear from the start that this class was going to be a two rider battle between last years winner Czech rider Jiri Drazdak on the ex Nori Haga R1 Yamaha, and Michael Pearson on the D&GW Racing BMW. On lap three of practice, Pearson set a new unofficial absolute lap record for the circuit in a time of 2m17.841 seconds, and then went under that again on lap four at 2m17.541 seconds, leaving the BMW mounted rider a full three second faster than his nearest rival Drazdak to take pole position in Sundays race.
In Sundays Supersport 600 race, it was Broz who set the pace at the front with Pearson in third place at the end of lap one. By the end of lap two, Michael have opened up a three second lead, and at the end of lap four had upped his advantage to five seconds over Broz and Michal Chalupa. The race was stopped with four laps to go, and the result initially given to Pearson first and Broz second, but later this was revised and the race declared nil and void, which no-one under the circumstances had any complaints about.
Michael Pearson: "It was shaping up to be a very good weekend, but unfortunalty, the incident during the Supersport 600 race left us all feeling very numb and not wanting to race any more. This was the first time that I had ever put my leg over a Truimph, and at the end of the day, I was getting very used to her. She is a totally different set up to any other 600 that I have ridden, but the wee bike was ultra fast. The thing about the Truimph is that she is very good low down and it holds very well to the road...in fact, she would be an ideal machine for the likes of Skerries, Bush and those sort of road races. I was more than confident that I could have won that race, as my lap board was showing me making up a 1 second deficit at the end of lap one, to a five second plus lead at the end of lap four. I am very grateful to Frantisek Loucka for giving me the bike for Hoprice and for all his help in preparing the machine. Would I ride it again if given the chance....most definitely. In the Superbike practice, the D&GW Racing BMW was just brilliant in every way possible. In all honestly the only thing we did to her was change tyres and re-fuel her...she never missed a beat. I was surprised to see just how fast I was going during practice, but when a rider and his machine all come together like the BMW did at the weekend, then you can achieve these things. I would not have been beaten in the Superbike race had it been ran, That's just how confident I was with the bike and the set up. Hopefully, we will return to Horice next year".
Willis Marshall (PR) "It was a privilege to have been with Michael for a second year at Horice, and we where all confident that he could have won both the 600 and Superbike races. Unfortunately, it was with great saddens as to how the meeting ended, but the loss of life is more important than any race continuing. As a mark of respect, we as a Team, laid some flowers at the spot of the incident, hoping that the family and friends of the fatally injured rider will know that we all back home in Ireland are thinking of them at this very sad time."
Picture Courtsey of Pat Nolan