GCC Schweinfurt '08

The sixth and penultimate round of the German Cross Country championship, held on 21 September at Schweinfurt, has been an important event for BMW Motorrad Motorsport in terms of their title ambitions.

BMW factory rider Simo Kirssi guided his BMW 450 X to a dominant win in the XCPro class. Teammate Bert Meyer finished runner-up after two hours of racing under difficult conditions, partly due to heavy downpours.

The BMW pair came to the track in northern Bavaria with the goal to steal as many points as possible from Frenchman Cyrille Coulon, who trailed Kirssi by five points going into the event. The bottomline for the team was to attack the difficult terrain and to get into a strong position for the upcoming GCC finale.

Consequently Kirssi and Meyer powered their 450 thumpers to the front right from the word go. Unfortunately Simo briefly went down in the third corner, but the Finn had regained the lead already by lap two. The 2004 champ and odds-on favourite to claim this yearŽs title would never be headed again. Kirssi simply ran away from the field despite heavy rain starting to fall midway into the proceedings. But it made no difference to the quiet-yet-determined BMW rider, who was already two minutes in front. Kirssi even lapped Coulon near the end.

Behind the winner, a battle for second place ensued between Meyer and his arch rival Steffen Albrecht. Meyer ultimately prevailed and now sits in a decent position to finish championship runner-up. (The final round will be held at Schefflenz on 4 October)

The BMW dominance was underlined by XCSport 2 class winner Juho Kirssi. Simo's brother and mechanic competed "just for fun" aboard another BMW 450 X.

Simo Kirssi: "Well, the race was ok. I've been highly motivated and that made me go down in that third corner. Unnecessarily, really. The rest was fine. The track has been really demanding, kind of what I like. Halfway into the race I started to play it safe; almost like in practice. It was a fun race and I certainly enjoyed it. The bike worked extremely and we now have the suspension figured out perfectly."

Bert Meyer: "This has been a really good race. We had a nice going right from the start. I've been battling with Steffen all the way and managed to distance him a bit towards the end. My bike worked very well."


XCPro class:

1. Simo Kirssi (FIN), BMW Motorrad Motorsport, 26 laps
2. Bert Meyer (GER), BMW Motorrad Motorsport, 26
3. Steffen Albrecht (GER), Yamaha, 26
4. Angus Heidecke (GER), Kawasaki, 26
5. Joakim Ljunggren (SWE), Husaberg, 26
6. Erik Mueller, (GER), Kawasaki, 26
7. Cyrille Coulon (FRA), Yamaha, 25
8. Thomas Guenther (GER), Husaberg, 25
9. Falko Karbautzki (GER), KTM, 25
10. Nils Hagen (GER), KTM, 23