GCC Mühlhausen '08
August 10th 2008
Victorious against sand and dust
After a perfect 'Le-Mans' start Kirssi and teammate Bert Meyer took an early lead, before Coulon made his way past the young rider from Saxony. At the front, Kirssi was pushing hard, and had edged out an advantage of around 10 seconds. A new part of the Mühlhausen track included an extreme section, built with trees, and it was here where Simo was able to put his newly acquired Enduro World Championship experience to great effect in front of big crowds of cheering spectators.
By half race distance, the 28-year-old Finn had increased his lead to about 40 seconds, but a few mistakes in the closing laps allowed his French rival to close the gap right up, although Simo was still able to cross the chequered flag with a six-seconds advantage to take the win.
"After the start I forced an early lead and then tried to increase the distance between myself and the chasing pack," said the 'Flying Finn'. "I rode as hard as I could and set the pace for my rivals to try and match, which worked well until the pit-stop, by which time I had a comfortable 40-second lead. Then I started to make a few mistakes and also lost time lapping some other riders. Before I knew it Cyrille was getting close, so I had to increase the pace again, and I was glad to see the chequered flag because by then I was exhausted! Many thanks to my team because the BMW G 450 X worked well and the settings were perfect - you can't win a race like this without the support of your team."
Berti Hauser, director of BMW Motorrad Motorsport, had been following the race-long battle with interest, and was delighted to see Simo chalk up yet another victory on the BMW G 450 X. "That was a really heart-stopping finale. Congratulations to Simo and to Cyrille Coulon as well - they both provided the spectators with fantastic racing from start to finish. Simo's victory is a just reward for the team, who improved the suspension setting again, and it's also a great birthday gift for Simo's brother Juho, who prepared the bike for him."
The head of the team, Wolfgang Fischer was delighted with Simo's performance at the Mühlhausen track: "Simo rode the perfect race and this is another important step towards securing the 2008 GCC championship," he said. "However, there are still two rounds left in this year's series so Simo will have to defeat Coulon in every race. This promises to be an incredibly exciting finale to the season for all enduro fans. After all, the Frenchman has shown his competitiveness and he always comes strong during the second half of a race, which was one of the reasons why it was such a close finish in Mühlhausen."
Unfortunately, Bert Meyer's race didn't go according to plan due to a technical problem. The talented young rider was running in third place but during the middle of the race his bike stopped suddenly and could not be restarted. He had to push it back to the pits and once there, the mechanics were able to start it, but by then a podium finish was out of the question. However, this didn't prevent the 21-year-old from remounting and finishing the race, showing his strength and determination on the G 450 X.
XCC Mühlhausen, XCProClass results:
1. Simo Kirssi, BMW Motorrad Motorsport, 22 laps
2. Cyrille Coulon, Yamaha, 22 laps
3. Ralf Scheidhauer, KTM, 22 laps
4. Marco Straubel, KTM, 21 laps
5. Andy Bolle, KTM, 21 laps
6. Bernd Eckenbach, BMW, 21 laps
7. Steffen Albrecht, Yamaha, 21 laps
8. Stefan Geyer, KTM, 21 laps
9. Arne Weidemann, Husaberg, 21 laps
10. Jörg haustein, KTM, 21 laps
GCC XCProClass points table:
1. Simo Kirssi, BMW Motorrad Motorsport, 115 points
2. Cyrille Coulon, Yamaha, 110
3. Bert Meyer, BMW Motorrad Motorsport, 94
4. Marco Straubel, KTM, 76
5. Falko Karbautzki,KTM, 76
6. Steffen Albrecht, Amaha, 75
7. Andy Boller, KTM, 71
8. Stefan Geyer, KTM, 68
9. Jörg Haustein, KTM 60
10. Gauthier Leclabart, Yamaha, 53