Euro Challenge Round 2 – Special Report on the South African competitors

Round Two of the 2005 Rotax Euro Challenge was held in England on 26, 27, 28 and 29 May. This time the format was changed slightly. Nobody was allowed on to the Race Circuit before free practice on Thursday morning. At previous Rounds there was access from Monday of Race Week.

This gave the southern hemisphere drivers a big disadvantage, because the British Racing Conditions do take some adapting to, and the track shape was also unusual. In the final analysis it was not the South African’s best showing in international competition.

However there were undoubted highlights. Cristiano Morgado has taken a strangle-hold on the RM-1 class being unbeaten in both Finals for the second Round in succession. He was head and shoulders better than the rest in all the preliminaries. James Tumulty of Ireland gave him a good run in the Pre-Final and Karlina Stala, the lady from Latvia took the lead off him briefly in the Final. But the 2004 World Champion was never in serious trouble in this class at any stage of the race meeting.

The same could not be said for his showing in Max Senior. Handling problems were always apparent, though a good drive to 8th place in the Pre-Final raised hopes. However a frightening crash on the 6th lap of the Final left Morgado unscathed, but out of the race.

Current World Champion Wesleigh Orr was not much better off. He also had problems galore all weekend but managed finishes downfield in 25th place in the pre-final and 20th in the A Final, this after failing to even make the start in one of the Heats.

In the Junior Class, Arnold Neveling was unable to build on the platform he created when winning his first 3 races in France in Round One. He looked to be progressing when finishing 10th in the Pre-Final but finished the A Final a lap down in 26th place after a 6th lap problem. Matthew Symonds completed only 1 lap in the Pre-Final and 2 in the Final, but will hopefully have gained something from the overall experience of his first Race Meeting in the UK.

The fifth South African competitor was RM-1 Masters Champion Wayne Riddell. He showed glimpses of form but after a 12th place in the pre-Final, a lap 16 incident dropped him back to 14th in the Final.

Results