FIM Europe MAG 2 2015

FIM EUROPE FOR YOUNG TALENTS

FOCUS ON: EUROPEAN MOTOCROSS

TECHNOLOGY FOR ROAD SAFETY

Nr 2/2015 - March/April

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FIM EUROPE MAGChief Editor: Fiammetta La GuidaraPhotos: Dorna, Youthstream, R. Pairan, M. Zanzani

FIM EUROPEVia Giulio Romano, 1800196 - Rome Italy E-mail: [email protected]

FIM Europe MAG #2 March-April 2015The articles published in this magazine do not neces-sarily reflect the official position of FIM Europe. The content of this publication is based on the bestknowledge and information available at the time thearticles were written.The copyring of articles and photos even partially isforbidden unless permission has been requested fromFIM Europe in advance and reference is made to thesource (©FIM Europe)

Focus on: Motocross Interview to Eddie Herd

EMX Breaking Records

FIM Europe for Road Safety

FIM Europe Training Camp

FIM Europe Mag 2/2015

The FIM Europe ManagementCouncil, in the meeting held inFiumicino last April, gave life toa new aggregation tool: the FIMEurope Club. Through the organi-zation of Touring events, the Clubwants to do more about peopleco-operating in the FIM Europe,creating relationships, increasingcollaboration, increasing thelevel of trust in colleagues, moti-vating the group and creating co-hesion and integration.Addressed to all its officials andmembers, the FIM Europe Club infact will represent an excellentmoti va tional tool, creating op-portunities for brainstorming andproblem solving, through thecharme of its experiences on themotorcycle, the emotions thatwill be generated and shared, themulti-sensorial involvement, theclimate of interaction and ex-change with others. And, last butnot least, fun on the two wheels. All Officials and Honorary Mem-bers (present in FIM Europe Year-book) and all the Presidents andSecretaries General of the FMNsof the FIM Europe will be automa-tically members of the FIM Eu-rope Club.

The FIM Europe Club will organizetwo Touring events one on theroad and one off-road each year.So, it will split into two sections:“On The Road Experiences” and“Off Road Experiences”.Applications to organize the Ex-periences will be collected at theAnnual FIM Europe Congress inthe meeting of the General Se-cretaries.No membership fee envisagedand expenses of participation willbe borne by the participants inthe events. It is the responsibilityof the organizer of the Experien-

ces to research benefits or favo-rable conditions for all partici-pants. The organizer can count on thesupport of the Travel and Logi-stics Department and the Marke-ting and Communication De- part ment of the General Secreta-riat.For the term 2015-2018 the FIMEurope Club will be coordinatedby the FIM Europe Vice PresidentMartin de Graaff and the FIM Eu-rope Secretary General Alessan-dro Sambuco.

A new arrival inFIM Europe family:

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4 FIM Europe Mag 2/2015

On 6th and 7th March the FIMEurope Executive Board me -eting was held in Assen, TheNetherlands.

The primary objective of themeeting, as well as conside-ring matters of ordinary mana-gement and all the activitiesplanned for the start of the2015 sporting season, was thepreparation of the next Mana-gement Council Meeting to beheld in Fiumicino next April11th, immediately after the in-ternal audit to be held in Romeon Friday 10th.

Among the main topics discussedduring the two days of work:• relationship of full coopera-

tion with the FIM;• new European Champion-ships;• meetings of the Commissionsof the FIM Europe of late 2014and the new dates for themeetings in 2015;• projects in 2015;• situation of Promoters for2015;• organization of the 2015Congress in Malta;• creation of the StrategicPlan Working Group.In particular for the latterWorking Group it is assumedthat the following composi-tion, following the acceptanceby the candidates, has been

scheduled for 28.05 in Fiumi-cino:Chairman: Mr Roy Wetterstadt, NMFMembers: Mr Jos Driessen,FMB; Mr Manuel Marineiro, FMPMr Danijel Vastag, AMSS-MSSMs Ingrida Visockiene, LMSF

The FIM Europe President drWolfgang Srb, the SecretaryGeneral Alessandro Sambucoand the Legal Advisor RodolfoRomeo will also attend themeetings of the WorkingGroup.

Taking advantage of the oppor-tunity of being in Assen, ameeting was also held with the

ExecutiveBoardExecutiveBoardMeetinginAssenMeetinginAssen

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Director of the TT Circuit ofAssen Mr Peter Oosterbaanand the Manager of theEvents Department Mr JeroenSteenhuis to get to know thestructures that will host the2015 European Championshipevents for Minimoto and Mo-tocross.

«I am very happy with thepreparations of the 2015 sea-son as well as with the re-sults of the meeting of theExecutive Board in Assen»,stated Dr Wolfgang Srb, FIMEurope President. «FIM Europeis stronger than ever and hasa clear agenda for the future.The European Federationswork very hard to achieve

their goals, and the manage-ment of FIM Europe supportsthese activities in the bestpossible way. We are on theright way and united in ourdesire to manage the best sea-son ever!»

From the left Jeroen Steenhuis, Mana-ger Events Department Circuit Assen,Michal Sikora, FIM Europe Treasurer, DrWolfgang Srb, FIM Europe President,Martin de Graaff, President of FIM Eu-rope Sporting Council, Peter Ooster-baan, Director of the Circuit of Assen,Alessandro Sambuco, FIM Europe Secre-tary General

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Following the natural succes-sion of the management acti-vities planned during the yearfor the FIM Europe, this is aperiod full of commitments.

The annual meeting of theBoard of the Auditors for theusual internal auditing tookplace on 10th April at the pre-mises of the General Secreta-riat in Rome. The meeting was

preceded by the election ofthe Chairman Mr Laurent Del-broek (FMB).

The day, the 11th April, at theTiber Hotel in Fiumicino, also

ManagementactivitiesManagementactivities

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the Management Council Mee-ting was held. A long and chal-lenging meeting, given theamount of topics to be discus-sed but, at the same time, sa-tisfactory as held in a verypositive and constructive at-mosphere, where every mem-ber has offered his personalcontribution.Among the most significant is-sues covered topics from theagenda we can find political,sporting, non-sporting, organi-zational, financial, Marketing,Merchandising and Communi-cation issues. The preparation of the FIM Eu-rope Congress in Malta (2 – 5July 2015) is proceeding accor-ding to plans.The Members of the Manage-ment Council used the occa-sion to attend on Sunday, April12th, the European EnduroChampionship event held inRieti, located 80 km from

Rome. Fine weather in a won-derful natural frame and amassive participation of riderscoming from 17 Countries of-fered a great sporting event.

From the left, Silvio Manicardi, Jean-Marc Desnues, Silvia Monatti, Alessandro Sambuco, Martin de Graaff, Dr WolfgangSrb, FIM Europe President, Juhani Halme, Nina Birjukova, Michal Sikora, Laurent Delbroek, Rodolfo Romeo, MichelTurk, Paola Bianchetti

From the left Silvio Manicardi,Gianfranco d’Orazi, AlessandroSambuco, Dr Wolfgang Srb, RodolfoRomeo, Nina Birjukova, Martin deGraaff, Michal Sikora, Jean-MarcDesnues

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FF II MM EE uu rroo pp ee ffoo rrRR oo aa dd SS aaffeett yy

Mr John Chatterton-Ross, Director of Public Affairs in FIM Europe and in FIM

The themes of road inci-dentality, of industry re-sponses and initiatives,of the systems to im-prove Road Safety, of 2-wheeler behaviour andsafety have been ofprior importance for FIMEurope since its founda-tion and every year du-ring the FIM EuropeCongress a Road SafetyConference is organizedwith the aim to focus onthese important themes.

Mr John Chatterton-Ross, Director of PublicAffairs in FIM Europeand in FIM, was recentlyinterviewed by RACC -

Royal Automobile Clubof Catalunya on the the-mes of Road Safety.

«This covers the majorissues facing road sa-fety for riders», statesMr John ChattertonRoss. «The need for fairenforcement of the traf-fic rules on all roadusers. The importanceof the road infrastruc-ture, as this is often notsafe for riders, beingdesigned for cars. Howemerging technologiescan help improve sa-fety. FIM Europe stres-ses the urgent need fornew technology being

developed by car manu-factuers to be madecompatible with theneeds of other roadusers, especially motor-cycle riders. It needsmanufacturers who arein both the car and mo-torcycle industries (forexample Honda andBMW) to take the leadon this».

All these matters aredealt with in Mr Chatter-ton-Ross’s interview,with the invite to spreadto the world of motorcy-cling safety the techono-logy which we is alreadyin car industry.

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FFIIMM EEuurrooppee ggiivveess ffuull ll ssuuppppoorr tt ttoo““RRiiddee QQuuiieett !!”” ccaammppaaiiggnnffoorr OOff ff --RRooaadd

On the occasion of the start of2015 Motocross World Cham-pionship, its promoter You-thstream and FIM have launcheda new campaign entitled “RideQuiet!” in order to create awa-reness of the need to reducesound levels.

A video clip has also been pro-duced, with the participation ofseveral top riders, to encourageoff-road riding and help to pre-serve it for future generationsto enjoy.

The message of "Ride Quiet!"

campaign is to ensure that off-road sport does not antagonisethe local community, whichmight lead to the closing of cir-cuits.

«FIM Europe gives full supportto this important campaign»,stated Dr Wolfgang Srb, FIM Eu-rope President. «In fact, wehave to assume responsibility:FIM Europe is the biggest Con-tinental Union of FIM; compris -ing 47 National MotorcycleFederations and organizing ap-proximately 75% of all FIM acti-

vities. The riders are wellaware of the fact that extremesound can create discomfortand problems for people livingclose to circuits and racetracks.

«Measures to reduce the soundhave already been taken, inclose cooperation with Federa-tions, manufacturers, teamsand riders as well as with ourpromotion partner Youth -stream», Dr Srb added. «'RideQuiet' has to be on top of theagenda, today and also tomor-row».

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A modern administration must re-search constantly means to im-prove its own procedures forincreasing efficiency and forgranting a better supply of theoffered services.

Definitely with this purpose, onthe 24th and 25th February, a FIMEurope delegation, made up ofthe Secretary General AlessandroSambuco and the AdministrationDepartment manager Silvia Mo-natti, has visited SVEMO head-quarters in Norrköping (Sweden).

The main topic of the meetinghas been the presentation by theSVEMO staff, directed by theirSecretary General Per Westling,of the "SVEMO Race Administra-tion System". In fact, alreadyfrom 2009, the Swedish Federa-tion has progressively developedand improved this administrationsystem based on a software endo-wed with a user interface adap-ted for smartphones and enablingeach kind of economic transac-tion, including licences and ca-lendar inscriptions (the softwareis already at disposal for theFMNs interested, contacting forfurther information Mr StefanLang: [email protected]).

Even if it will be necessary a fea-sibility study and to adapt it to

the specific FIM Europe exigen-cies, this system could supportthe optimization of several acti-vities, among them the followingones:

- each kind of economic transac-tion with FMNs (rider licencesand calendar inscription fees,sanctions, circuit and official li-cences, credit notes for Commis-sion meetings, subsidies, etc);

- calendar inscriptions;

- supplementary regulations;

- Jury President reports;

- results.

At the end of the visit which hasshown, among the other things, aSVEMO perfectly organised andendowed with an enviable atmo-sphere among its whole staff, aswell as projected to a continuousimprovement, the FIM Europe Se-cretary General Alessandro Sam-

buco declared: «I definitely be-lieve on the necessity to researchan interconnection among allExecutive Staffs of the FMNs af-filiated to FIM Europe, lettingthe ones with the best admini-strative practices represent adriving puller for the others.

«With this aim, my specific taskfor the next months will be tosupport any occasion of meetingamong the colleagues SecretariesGeneral, in order to researchsuch best practices and to spreadthem», added Alessandro Sam-buco. «This will grant an amazingimpulse to the effectiveness andefficiency of the Administrationsand will favour a constructiveand, why not, pleasant atmo-sphere of cooperation, amongwho share not only a mission butalso and mostly a passion: Motor-cycling».

The handshake between FIM Europe Secretary General Alessandro Sambuco and SVEMO SecretaryGeneral Per Westling

Norrköping (Sweden) - A moment of the SVEMO Race Administration System presentation

V i s i t t o S V E M O f o r o n eo f t h e b e s t p r a c t i c e s

V i s i t t o S V E M O f o r o n eo f t h e b e s t p r a c t i c e s

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The General Assembly of MACEC(Motorcycle Association of Cen-tral European Countries) was heldon 7th March 2015 in Kaunas (Li-thuania). It had particular character as itwas 10th jubilee meeting in thehistory of MACEC. FIM Europe President Dr WolfgangSrb addressed a letter to all par-ticipants of the Congress. Hestressed the important role of re-

gional asso-ciations ford e v e l o p -ment ofmotorcyclesports andtourism inEurope.During theMACEC Ge-neral As-s e m b l y

meeting the results of 2014MACEC Cup in the disciplines spe - edway, motocross, enduro, ex-treme enduro and trial wereapproved. The MACEC Cup calen-dar for 2015 was approved. Theparticipants highly evaluated thecooperation of their federationsduring the 2014 FIM Europe Gene-ral Assembly in Cracow and 2014FIM General Assembly in Jerez dela Frontera. They decided to ad-dress FIM Europe to take into ac-

count the regional associations inthe process of applying for FIMgrants.During the meeting the electionsfor MACEC President and VicePresidents were held. AndrzejGrodzki (PZM) was electedMACEC President. The title of Ho-norary MACEC Vice President wasconferred to Serghiy Lyatosinsky(FMU) who has performed the du-ties of MACEC Vice Presidentsince the beginning of the asso-ciation. Aleksandra Knyszewska(PZM) was appointed MACEC Se-cretary General.

The special thanks were exten-ded to Virginijus Visockis, LMSFPresident, for the very good orga-nization of the Congress andwarm atmosphere. The next meeting of the MACECGeneral Assembly will be held inMarch 2016 in Brest (Belarus).

MACEC celebrates 10th anniversary

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The General Assembly of MACEC (Motorcycle Association of CentralEuropean Countries) in Kaunas (Lithuania)


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MACEC celebrates 10th anniversary

Green Education Strategyby FIM Europe Environment Commission

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On 31st March 2015 HonoraryFIM Vice President Colin Moramwas honoured for his fifty yearsof service to motorcycle sportin the ACU South Midland cen-tre. The meeting included a talkabout the work of FIM Europeand FIM by John Chatterton-Ross. «I was delighted to be asked tojoin this presentation to Colinwho I have known since I wasfirst involved in FIM worktwenty five years ago», addedJohn Chatterton-Ross, FIM Eu-rope Director of Public Affairs. «He is a motorcyclist who hasserved at the very highest le-vels of our sport. He still keepsworking today. I also passed toall at the meeting the best wi-shes and congratulations of FIMEurope President Dr WolfgangSrb».Mr Moram was presented witha carriage clock inscribed tomark the occasion.

From the left,Terry Golds andJohn Coles, re-spectively Secre-tary andChairman of theACU centre,Colin Moram andJohn Chatter-ton-Ross, FIMEurope Directorof Public Affairs

On March 22nd in Warsaw, Po-land, during FIM CIE Seminar,the Green Education Strategywas presented.

Mr Peter Gregory from FIM andEnvironmental Stewards from12 FIM Europe Federationswere present. The Green Education Strategyis a project that includes seve-ral activities: online check-list,brand book and Facebook page.

The intention of the Commis-sion is to educate, promote,advise Environmental Ste-wards, Organizers and Federa-tions. The brandbook will beavailable on the website of FIMEurope.

All environmental matters, in-cluding Manuals and Rules forEnvironmental Stewards, canbe found in FIM Europe web-site, in the “Social” area.

FIM Europe Environment Com-mission launched online-checklist system, which will be te-sted during 2015 sea-son.

Since nowadays a bigrole is played by so-cial media, Environ-ment Commissioncreated its Facebookpageto be constantlyin touch with Envi-ronmental Stewardsand to assist, help,

solve issues and share expe-rience, pictures, new ideas, in-novations or suggestionsdirectly from the race-tracks.

The presentation was followedby discussion and positive feed-back from the participants.

Colin Moram honoured for lifetime of service

to ACU’s South Midland centre


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The weekend of 14-15 March,has seen youngsters from acrossEurope head to the TrainingCamp for the Honda 150 Euro-pean Championship, where theymet their 2015 rivals for thefirst time, spent time getting toknow the Honda CRF150Rs andreceived expert guidance at thiscrucial point in their formativecareers.Also this year, and for the thirdtime, the FIM Europe has colla-borated with Honda for the eva-luation and training of theyoung riders of the MX 150 4S.The Training Camp saw the par-ticipation of 33 young riders co-ming from 15 differentCountries.Across the two days the riderswere able to get to grips withthe four-stroke CRF150R with

track time alongside seriescoach Gordon Crockard andHonda World Supersport riderKyle Smith. The two trainerstook the riders round the trackin small groups to help them im-prove their riding style, laptime and bike position. Team HRC sporting managerJean-Michel Bayle and TeamHRC MXGP rider Gautier Paulinalso joined Crockard and Smithon the track to help guide andadvise the youngsters. Spanishmotocross rider Jorge Zaragozawas also present on the Satur-day to share his experiencewith the riders.To ensure that the riders recei-ved a complete training pac-kage, a fitness assessment andsports psychology session wasgiven by the FIM Europe: ac-companied by the FIM Europe

President Wolfgang Srb and co-ordinated by the Secretary Ge-neral Alessandro Sambuco, thestaff consisted of the TrainersFabrizio Bernardini and MarcoInfusino from Italy and theSports Psychologist Anders Wa-hlström from Sweden.The physical assessment sawthe riders engaged in two tests: - the first test was on strengthand keeping the correct posi-tion on the bike and wanted toassess the endurance of thequadriceps femoris in keepingthe correct position of bent legson the bike. The rider was re-quested to assume this positionwith a vertical controller ap-plied to the torso. The time inkeeping the position has beenmeasured, until the controllersignaled that the torso startedto oscillate, or moved forward;

HHoonnddaa 115500 EEuurrooppeeaann CChhaammpp ii oonnsshh iipp TTrraa ii nn ii nngg CCaammpp ii nn AA llbbaa iiddaa

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- the second test was to assessthe core stability of the rider orhis ability to manage the imba-lance in the “Planck position”.A bad management of the imba-lance could adversely affect theperformance of the rider.After the assessment the riderswere provided with a trainingplan with the exercises whichhad been demonstrated by theTrainer and tested by the ridersthmselves.Also from the psychological sidesome tests have been proposedto the young riders with the aimto evaluate their competitivebehaviour. During the week-endthe Sports Psychologist carriedout also some meetings with theparents of the riders to givethem explanations and tools toprevent dropout from the chil-dren's physical, mental and so-cial development perspective.

These youngsters rode theirCRF150Rs together the follo-wing month at the first Euro-

pean round of the MXGP WorldChampionship in Trentino, Italy.The winner of the 2015 Honda

From the left Dr Wolfgang Srb, FIM Europe President, Davy Dousselaere, HondaEurope Off Road Manager, Motorsports Division, and Alessandro Sambuco, FIM Eu-rope Secretary General

HHoonnddaa 115500 EEuurrooppeeaann CChhaammpp ii oonnsshh iipp TTrraa ii nn ii nngg CCaammpp ii nn AA llbbaa iiddaa


150 European Championshipwill receive a Honda-supportedride aboard a Honda CRF250R inthe EMX250 championship in2016, providing a unique and va-luable springboard to their care-ers.«Compliments to Honda for ar-ranging such a great opportunityfor young riders to attend thetraining camp in Albaida», com-mented Dr Wolfgang Srb, FIM Eu-rope President. «Our part wasthe fitness assessment and thesports psychology session. Toge-ther with the riding skills Hondagot a clear picture of the perfor-mance and abilities of the va-rious participants. I was alsohappy about the fact that manyparents were present and thatthe Sports Psychologist couldshare his experience with them.All in all, a very good weekendand an excellent job carried outby the FIM Europe staff».The Honda 150 European Moto-cross Championship is designed to

provide young riders between theages of 11 and 14 with four-stroke experience and preparethem for riding in Europeanchampionships and World cham-pionships. The winner of thechampionship will receive a 2016Honda supported ride in the Eu-ropean 250 championship. Thefirst round will be at the first Eu-ropean event in the MXGP calen-dar at Pietramurata, Italy, on the18th and 19th of April. Last weekend saw youth ridersfrom throughout Europe, and as

far afield as the United States,descend on Albaida, Spain for theHonda 150 -FIM Europe trainingcamp. While the primary purposeof the training camp was to allowthe riders to familiarise themsel-ves with the four-strokeCRF150R, undergo physical asses-sment and benefit from the tute-lage from stars from the HondaRacing Family, a selection processwas also in place to decide whowould join the pre-selected ri-ders at the start gates in Pietra-murata for the first round.

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FIM Europe President Dr Wolfgang Srb

To ensure that the riders receiveda complete training package, afitness assessment and sportspsychology session was given bythe FIM Europe: accompanied bythe FIM Europe President Wol-fgang Srb and coordinated by theSecretary General AlessandroSambuco, the staff consisted ofthe Trainers Fabrizio Bernardiniand Marco Infusino from Italy andthe Sports Psychologist AndersWahlström from Sweden.Throughout the weekend, seriescoach Gordon Crockard andHonda Europe’s Off-Road mana-ger Davy Dousselaere observedthe 13 riders who had not beenpre-selected and assessed thembased on their riding potential,riding position and style, generalattitude and fitness. The younghopefuls were also watched clo-sely by Team HRC MXGP riderGautier Paulin and Team HRCSporting Manager Jean-MichelBayle who were on hand to offerguidance to the riders and assistCrockard and Dousselaere in ma-king their selection.A video of the event in Albaida,with an interview to FIM EuropePresident Dr Wolfgang Srb, wasrealized. The video looks at the new aspi-ring racers and how the Honda

Racing Family come together toencourage the next generation.Although there were only six pla-ces available in the champion-ship, the other seven riders stillhave a chance to ride at one ofthe rounds. Three of the riderswere chosen as reserves, to becalled upon if someone is unableto attend an event or suffers aninjury. Throughout the year,there is also the possibility to becalled up as a wildcard rider foran event.The six riders who were selec-ted are:Marc Antolin (ESP)Andrea Bonifacio (ITA)Luis Outeiro (PRT)Alex Pettersson (SWE)

David Robson (GBR)Jana Sanchez (ESP)The three reserves are: 1st reserve: Jonas Bjerrum (DEN)2nd reserve: Romain Delbrassine(BEL)3rd reserve: Lorenzo Bernini (ITA)Final entry listMarc Antolin (ESP)Jack Bintcliffe (GBR)Alexandre Bours (FRA)Alexis Collingnon (FRA)Max Erlandsson (SWE)Raffaele Giuzio (ITA)Tatu Junnola (FIN)Viking Lindstrom (SWE)Yago Martinez (ESP)Archie Osmaston (GBR)Alex Petterson (SWE)David Robson (GBR)Jana Sanchez (ESP)Slade Tressler (USA)Emil Weckman (FIN)Timothe Berry (FRA)Andrea Bonifacio (ITA)Mack Bouwense (NLD)Tim Edberg (SWE)Hakon Fredrikson (NOR)Carl Joergensen (SWE)Albin Larsen (SWE)Leandro Luedi (SUI)Hardy W. Munoz (CHI)Luis Outeiro (PRT)Matthew Pocock (GBR)Frederico Rocha (PRT)Bennet Schaefer (GER)Henry Vesilind (EST)Rick Wenneckes (NLD)

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European Motocross Championship: Record breaking entries

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For the European MotocrossChampionships, record-brea-king numbers of entries wasregistered by the promoterYouthstream already onemoth before the startingevent of the ason in Pietramu-rata (Italy). With the entries for the Euro-pean Championship EMX250and EMX125 round of Pietra-murata, Italy now officiallyclosed, Youthstream, the pro-moter of the European Series,has just announced that bothclasses are full. With a 100-

rider limit, the EMX250 classhas exceeded this number. Allriders entered after the 100thentry was accepted will bereserve riders. Should one ofthe first 100 entries withdrawfor any reason, the reserve ri-ders will then automaticallybe entered.Meanwhile the EMX125 hasimpressively received 95 en-tries, which along with themaxed out EMX250 class andextraordinary depth of talentin both classes, only atteststhat the European Champion-

ship is the ultimate develop-ment series for any aspiringprofessional motocross rider.Full grid also for the HondaEMX 150 class, which will takeits start in Pietramurata, too,but the entry list will be defi-ned by Honda in the nextdays. With the European Champion-ship becoming a fundamentalseries for any aspiring moto-cross rider, Youthstream sta-ted to be proud of thestepping-stone that has beencreated with entries in the

European Motocross Championship: Record breaking entries

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FIM Motocross World Cham -pionship also reflecting thesuccess of the project. The huge number of the en-tries is confirmation that theEuropean Championship is thebest amateur series in theworld. «I am very happy about thebiggest number of entries inthe history of the EuropeanMotocross Championship,being the stepping stone tothe FIM Motocross WorldChampionship», comments DrWolfgang Srb, FIM Europe Pre-

sident. «The outstand ing in-terest of Federations, teamsand riders shows that theconcept of combined raceweekends works very well. «This is one of the most fruit-ful cooperations betweenFIM, FIM Europe and a promo-tional partner», added DrWolfgang Srb. «I am veryhappy that young riders cancompete on the same wee-kend, on the same track, withthe same rules and regula-tions and officials. There isno better way to get ready

for the FIM Motocross WorldChampionship. The riders arethe winners, and so is thesport».These results confirm the im-portance of the EuropeanChampionship and the hugeinterest of the Federations,teams and riders in this se-ries, which is the best way toprepare and move up to theWorld Championships MX2and MXGP. We have made astatistic of the representedCountries.

The statistics of the partecipation of the various Federationsto EMX 125 and 150 series

On 21st and 22nd March the 2ndWorkshop on Weight Trainingorganised in collaboration withthe European Weightlifting Fe-deration (EWF) was held at theHotel Paradies -Graz (AUT). Even in this second Workshopthe 12 Trainers, coming from 7Countries (Cyprus, Finland,Germany, Italy, Poland, Serbia,Sweden), had at their disposalthe experience of the Irishpresenter Colin Buckley, EWF Executive

Board Member in charge of theEuropean Coaching Frame-work. Not only theoretical informa-tion, concerning mainly postu-ral analysis, functionalmovements, anatomical adap-tations, overreaching and over-training, but also group workfocused on particular aspectsas designing a warm•up pro-gram to be used before therace and how to design sample gym programs.

At the end of the Workshopwas discussed with the Teacherand with the Trainers the pro-ject to the study of FIM Europeto create a European Registerof Trainers that, once appro-ved and once found the re-sources, make it possible tothe same Trainers to take ad-vantage of annual updates and to be involved in variousactivities related to FIM EuropeAcademy (Workshops, Training Camps and Seminars).


From the left, Alessandro Sambuco, Stefan Josipovic, Kristina Josipovic, Tomi Konttinen, Espen Blikstad, Marcin Wojcik, Marco Infu sino,Colin Buckley, Marinos Portantaris, Martin Janzon, Martin Spittank, Mandy Jenker, Mario Berger, Danijel Vastag, Wolfgang Srb

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Closing the Wor-kshop Mr ColinBuckley, on behalfof the Presidentand the Board ofthe European Wei-ghtlifting Federa-tion, has honoredthe FIM EuropePresident DrWolfg ang Srb withthe highest honorof the EWF: theGold Sporting Col-lar for SportingMerit. The honor wasawarded to Dr Srbfor his devotedsupport of Euro-pean and WorldSport. «It is of utmostimportance thatyoung riders getthe best possibleeducation, carried

out by first class trainers.When you set a solid basis atthe youth level you have some-thing to step up from in theyears to come, via NationalChampionships and Continen-tal Championships to the ulti-mate target, the FIM WorldChampion•ships – a dream forevery young rider», stated DrWolfgang Srb, attending theWorkshop. «I am very pleased with theresults of the weekend», DrSrb added. «The trainers, in-cluding two female trainersfrom Germany and Serbia, aretop professionals and willcarry out a great job. Educa-tion is the key to success; FIMEurope will continue to workhard in this important area tooffer the best choices for theFederations and officials».

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Dr Wolfgang Srb, FIM Eu-rope President receivesthe Gold Sporting Collarfor Sporting Merit fromMr Colin Buckley, on be-half of the President andthe Board of the Euro-pean Weightlifting Fede-ration

NNeeww WWoorrkksshhoopp oonn WWeeiigghhtt TTrraaiinniinngg iinn GGrraazz

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FIM Europe has signed a threeyears contract with ITP for thesupport of the European Quad-cross Championship. ITP is one of the brands of theglobal operating company TheCarlstar Group (formerly CarlisleTransportation Products). The Eu-ropean headquarter of The Car-lstar Group is based in Arnhem,the Netherlands. The Company is wellknown as apremier manufacturer of a com-prehensive line of performanceproducts for original equipmentand aftermarket customers witha strong family of brands inclu-ding Carlisle® belts, tires and

wheels, Ultimax® powersportsbelts, ITP® tires and wheels, aswell as Cragar®, Black Rock® andUnique® wheels. Made in USA,ITP tires and wheels are realizedpursuing Advanced Traction Te-

chnology, and are wellknown al-ready in many Countries and spe-cialized in Quads and UTVs. In Europe the use of quads is verypopular. The races of the Euro-pean Quadcross Championship in

FIM Europe President Dr Wolfgang Srb (onthe right) and FIM Europe Secretary GeneralAlessandro Sambuco signing the contract ofpartnership for ITP EMX Quad in Geneve

Title sponsor for Title sponsor for European European Quadcross Quadcross Championship Championship

Title sponsor for Title sponsor for European European Quadcross Quadcross Championship Championship


6 different Countries are a goodopportunity for both parties toreach two goals: more interest inthis very spectacular champion-ship and, for ITP, spreading thebrand in the European market. «In the Olympic Sportcentrum Pa-pendal the promotional materialswere showed. ITP developed aspecial logo for this EMX Quadcompetition, which is visible onthe website», stated Ilse Smit,Exhibition & Events Coordinatorof ITP. «Both parties are satisfied aboutthis contract: the negotiationsstarted after the end of the lastseason and in a short time ITPand FIM Europe found an agree-ment», added Martin de Graaff,FIM Europe Sporting Council Pre-sident.

ITP EMX Quad Calendar

11/12 April Castelneau de Levis(FRA) 2/3 May Gazzana di Preseglie (ITA) 16/17 May Randers (DEN) 6/7 June Stelpe (LAT)

1/2 August Kivioli (EST) 8/9 August Kegums (LAT)

ITP EMX Quad of European Nations

10/11 October Schwedt (Ger)

Ilse Smit and Martin de Graaff with the new ITP logo for the European QuadcrossChampionship. Below, the first overall podium of the season, with Edgars Mengelis,from Latvia, winner in front of Italian Andrea Cesari and French Yoann Gillouin

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24

Get the best overview of the trackor the road is crucial in riding. Butare we sure to see really well? Tocompose a perfect view manyaspects are involved, which areoften not taken into account, butwhich are especially important insports but also in everyday riding.

We spoke with Prof. Raffaele San-giuolo, ophtalmic surgeon who alsohas considerable experience of ra-cing, although on four wheels: hebegan racing at the end of the Six-ties in Tourism and in the lasttwenty years he has participated innumerous endurance races, whichalso highlight any visual deficienciesbecause in these cases you have toface extreme conditions, racing atnight and at critical times such assunrise and sunset.

«I have always taken care ofophthalmology and especially bino-cularity, ie the simultaneous fun-ction of the two eyes. I also taughtat the University of Perugia, where Iwas professor for several years, until1989», says Prof. Sangiuolo. «In2012 I was called by the President ofthe Automobile Club of Italy AngeloSticchi Damiani in the medical com-mission of ACI and later as a consul-tant of the FIA, where I had the taskof preparing the protocol of visualassessment.

«I have always maintained that it isnot enough to read the lines, thereare many other factors. The first isthe field of view, which narrowswhen increasing speed», continuesProf. Sangiuolo. «Another factor isstereoscopy, ie the sense of depth:having the exact perception of di-stance at a speed of 300 km/h is cri-tical. And then also the contrast

sensitivity: for example, at night oron cloudy days. And then the reco-very time from glare: at night thehuman eye can remain half-blindthree or four seconds, which is along span if you are racing at 300km/h».

The team of prof. Sangiuolo is ableto evaluate all of these factors si-multaneously.

«For each factor we give a relativevalue, then sum them and give a vi-sual index. At the moment this doesnot ‘enable’ the pilots, which be-longs only to the sports doctor, butthese protocols can be used for aquality certification of the visualindex».

Prof. Sangiuolo and the University ofSalerno have designed a special de-vice that allows to make full evalua-tion of all the parameters with aneconomically attractive solution.

«Initially our equipment costed hun-dreds of thousands of euro. Insteadwe are developing a single device

that will not cost more than €15,000, so all federations might af-ford it. I presented this work at theFIM, and is also useful for controlsof doping and blood alcohol, basingon visual evoked potentials».

Prof. Sangiuolo’s cooperation withFIM Europe regards especially theactivities addressed to Over 60.

«There are many aspects to consi-der, such as the tears, retinal vascu-lar and crystalline aspects», heexplains. «There exist also therapeu-tic possibilities, in addition to sur-gery: cataracts, for example, onwhich you can intervene with multi-focal crystalline, so as to see well farobjects and right after focus on in-strumentation. This is for sports, butalso for everyday life. There aremany improvements for several pro-blems: for example, for those whohave a better vision in one eye, youmay want to consider laser surgeryor orthoptic exercises».

Fiammetta La Guidara

Better performances Better performances in sporting and everyday lifein sporting and everyday lifeRiding a motorcycle there are several aspects involved, which are sometimes underesteemated. One of these is the perfect vision of what surrounds us

Alessandro Sambuco, Secretary General ofFIM Europe, with Prof Raffaele Sangiuolo

Michel Turk, Vice President of FIMEurope, joined the 10th edition ofEVER Monaco, which was heldfrom March 31st to April 2nd at theGrimaldi Forum, in Monaco. Theevent, which featured scientificlectures, round table sessions,and international meetings onEcological Vehiclesand RenewableEnergies (EVER), also hosted anexhibition of the main manufactu-rers of 2 and 4 wheeled vehiclesusingrenewable energies.

The goal of EVER 2015 was to in-creaseawareness about the deve-lopment of renewable energiesand improved energy efficiency.

Many leaders around the world ha-vespurred their countries into asustainabledevelopment policy,particularly in relation to “cleanmobility”, and are targeting car-bon neutrality by the middle ofthe century. In China, there arealready more than 150 millionelectric-powered motorcycles re -gistered.

For FIM Europe, as the shift toelectric power and renewalenergy is increasing worldwide,and renewable technologies im-proving fast, this global move-ment toward ecologicallysus tainable mobility presents anopportunity to create in the closefuture new “clean” motorcyclechampionships, in addition to theexisting championships.

During the EVER 2015, the Grou-pement Européen de la Moto Elec-

trique/European Group of ElectricMotorcycle (GEME) was founded.Through this organized efforts ofGEME, the FIM Europe can helpbuild a better environment for fu-ture generations and be a leadingpartner in clean motorcyclesports, so that governments willno longer stop our sportand closetracks or hinder the entry of mo-torcycle world championships be-cause of noise and/or airpollution.

His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco with FIM-Europe Vice President Michel Turk

FIM-Europe FIM-Europe represented inrepresented inEVER ConferenceEVER Conferencein Monacoin Monaco

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Full agenda for the FIM EuropeMotocross Commission: the mem-bers, in fact, have to care aboutmany specialties. Apart from theEuropean Motocross Series thereare the Motocross of Nationsevents Quad, Sidecarcross, Snow-cross, Supercross and, from thisyear on, Hill Climb Motocross,which had never been attemptedas a championship, not even at aworld level.

We have met Mr Eddie Herd,Chairman of FIM Europe Moto-cross Commission, in Arco diTrento for the first event of Mo-tocross European Championship.

And we have asked him to makea point on the several disciplinesthey are working on.

Motocross European Champion-ship is in constant growth. Whatis the secret of its success?

«I think the secret of this growthis that we've built a structureover the years between You-thstream and FIM and FIM Eu-rope. We have a pyramid: at thetop there are MXGP and MX2 forthe younger riders - and belowthat we have the EuropeanChampionship, starting from the65cc, for the really young guys,85cc, 125 2 strokes, which is a

very cheap championship, andthen 250 which prepares for MX2.We also have a new championshipstarted last year, EMX300 forolder riders on 2stroke machineskeeping the sport as cheap aspossible and the EMX150 4strokechampionship developed byHonda in conjunction with You-thstream. If you look back overthe last few years and see the de-velopment of many of the riderswho are here today in MX2 andeven in MXGP, you can see fromwhere they started: Max Nagl,who is second in the world cham-pionship with a factory Hu-sqvarna, was European Champion


Focus on: Motocross Commission Eddie Herd, Chairman of FIM Europe Motocross Commission,makes a point on all the specialties Confirmations and new events for a thrilling sporting season!

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in the 85 cc ten or so years ago,the phenomenal Jeffrey Herlingsand then there is Gautier Paulin,Tim Gajser, Jordi Tixier, and somany others who were Europeanchampions and have now movedinto the world championship withoutstanding success. You cantrace the history of the riders inthe 125 and 250cc champion-ships, because most of them fini-shed in the first positions in the65 and/or 85cc. So the Europeanseries is a stepping stone to theworld championship and if you

are talented it's the best way togo. Before it was all down to na-tional championships, but the ri-ders were accustomed to ridingonly on their tracks and whenthey started racing in the Euro-pean tracks there was a big gap.No other continent in the worldcan boast of this set-up. There isan incredible increase in thenumber of riders competing inthe European championships,especially EMX125 and EMX250,which could not be foreseen eventwo years ago and proves the suc-

cess of what is being done . Allthese talented young riders co-ming through the various Euro-pean championships whichen sures the future of the worldchampionship for many years tocome. The success of the Euro-pean motocross championships isoutstanding but we will go on de-veloping it into even more suc-cess. We do not stand still. If youdo that you effectively go back-wards. That is something we willnot do».

Any difficulties in making thisdreamy situation happen?

"Not at all. This is the vision anddream of Giuseppe Luongo, Pre-sident of Youthstream, over theyears, with the support of all theYouthstream staff. None of whatwe have achieved in the last fewyears could have been done wi-thout Giuseppe Luongo and hispromotion company, Youth -stream».

«Riders have to pay an entry feebut they get much more thanthey can even realize. They haveall the backing of media, with thepress interviews to the winners,they have the backing of TVaround the world, with coverageall over the world, they also

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learn to be in front of the media,because if they want to attractsponsor, they have to be able totalk to journalists. Apart from thefact that, they can race on thesame tracks as the top riders inthe world, and being here theycan see their techniques, seewhat they do on jumps, corners,at the start, etc and learn fromthem. It's not like sitting at homeand watching them on television,they gain much more informa-tion. The only difference with topriders is the distance of theraces, which in European racesare shorter. Also penalties are thesame: if they misbehave orignore flags or the rules, they arepenalised the same as the GPstars. This teaches them the ruleswhen they are young».

Another big event is the Moto-cross of European Nations...

«Yes. At the end of the year, al-ways with Youthstream as promo-ter we have Motocross ofEuropean Nations, combined withthe Women Motocross of Euro-pean Nations, which is new and itwas born two years ago, when wemodified the rules to focus muchmore on the youths. In fact be-

fore the European Nations was amirror image of the FIM event,and there was no point in it, sowe modified it, to focus on 85,125 and 250 up to 21 years old.The Women’s event was comple-tely new, and it's a very intere-sting competition, on 250motorcycles, and supported bythe top riders in the Women’sworld championship».

Some news in European Snow-cross, too.

«European Snowcross is for riderswho are the same age as worldchampionship riders but only spe-cified modifications to the snow-mobiles are allowed. It's amachine you can buy in the shopand do limited modifications toit, but they are very fast all thesame. It's a pro-stock class whichworks well. Last year we had justone event but this year we hadthree, two in Norway and one inRussia, which means the cham-pionship is growing».

There is another European of Na-tions event: it's for Sidecar-cross...

«Sidecross European of Nationshas been going on for about 15

years and it is held together withQuadcross of European Nations,which started about 7 years ago.It's open to team from all Fede-rations, with three riders andpassengers. The competition isvery much supported from thevarious European nations and it'svery fierce. Most of the top worldsidecar riders compete in the Eu-ropean Sidecarcross of Nations.This year we'll go to Schwedt,last year we were in Holland, twoyears go in Italy. Next year wewill go to France. We have thenext three years already schedu-led, which is good for the organi-zation.

“Then we have the European Su-percross championship held inthe Autumn of each year, promo-ted by Off Road Pro-Racing,which is very professionally orga-nised.”

Last but not least, a completelynew event for the MotocrossCommission: the Motocross HillClimb.

«This year will be the first timeever for the European series: it isnot existing in the world either.They have it in America, but it isnot a world championship. MrIvar Gynnild, the member of mycommission from Norway who isa specialist Hillclimb expert, hasworked very hard on technicaland sporting rules, etc., and isworking with different Federa-tions to get some sort of coope-ration. For instance, Hillclimbingis popular in France, in Estonia,in Norway and in a couple ofother Countries, but they havedifferent rules, so we are workingvery hard towards harmonization.It took three years, but now, atthe beginning of August, in Ki-violi, Estonia, we shall have thefirst event, combined with WorldChampionship Sidecarcross andEuropean Quadcross. It'll be anevening event, and it's an intere-sting new event for FIM-Europe».

Fiammetta La Guidara


Eddie Herd, FIM Europe Motocross Commission Chairman, with Dr Wolfgang Srb, FIM Europe President

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Finland hosted the last event ofthe Snowmobile Enduro EuropeanCup of the season. In middle of Finland, in Karstula,the weather circumstances weresurprisingly good: at the begin-ning of the week, in fact, it loo-ked like the warm weather wouldaffect the stages. But on Satur-day the weather was pretty goodwith 0° Celsius and onSunday luckily the rainthat was expected cameout as snow.On Saturday 63 ridersfrom three differentCountries (Finland,Estonia, Sweden) com-peted in four differentspecial stages for a totalof 140 kilometres. After some retirementson Sunday it was 50 ri-ders who fought for thechampionships at threestages for a total of 110kilometres. In the end itwas 42 riders who ma-naged to cross the finishline.Heli Takkinen from Fin-land won the Women se-ries, Niki Nummijoki

the Junior, Jukka Järvenpää wasfastest at the Senior AC class,Lauri Pellonpää at Senior LC andJukka Nyberg got the gold medalat Veterans class.«I think it was en excellent race,weather conditions on Saturdaywere a bit wet but track was stillok», commented Jury presidentof the event Robert Svensson.

«On Sunday we got some snow,which made the course even bet-ter. Riders have been very sati-sfied as well. The organizer isvery experienced and they havedone a brilliant job. So I want tothank the Finnish federation, theclub and everyone involved withthe race».

Snowmobile Enduro European Cup Snowmobile Enduro European Cup Champions crowned in FinlandChampions crowned in Finland

SPORTNEWS

Free ridersFree ridersFree ridersFree riders

Three unsuspectable motorcyclists do off-road in Sardinia: the President of Lithuanian Federation, the FIM Europe Secretary General and a Paris-Dakar rider...

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Looking from the "outside",sometimes Federations areconsidered purely as institu-tions, which are made up ofpeople who work for a parti-cular sport, but are not ne-cessarily "involved" into it, ormore simply, do not practiceit. Which sometimes may betrue, but it is not very fre-quent in FIM Europe. Proba-bly because motorcyclingrequires a special passion,and you can hardly deal withit if you are not keen on PTW. FIM Europe and the affiliatedFederations are made up of

riders, too, who do not only"work" for motorcycling, buthave designed their life-stylearound it.So, no surprise if the Presi-dent of the Lithuanian Fede-ration Virginijus Visockis andthe Secretary General of FIMEurope Alessandro Sambucomet for an off-road ride inSardinia with an exceptionalguide: the Dakar rally riderMaurizio Sanna. It all happened in February:even if the weather was coldand wet, passion cannot be

held in check long and assoon as they all had a freeweekend, the riding day wasfixed in Sardinia. Three guysand their bikes: anyone hadcome across this group in theSardinian gravel roads, wouldhave never said that it wasthree authentic characters inthe "political" and sportworld of PTW. In a long day ride, they cove-red ... kms.To get to know them better,we have asked them somequestions.

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Maurizio Sanna Dakar Rally RiderMaurizio Sanna was the "guide":he is the one of the group whoknows better Sardinian off-roadtracks, because he has beenthere to train countless times. What emotions gives you off-road?«Off-road gives me a lot of emo-tions, ranging from the incrediblefeeling of total well-being to thesatisfaction of being able to over-come one's own limitations. Off-road unleashes adrenaline,releases endorphins. It 's my pas-sion».In many years of competition,what was your best race andwhy?«Undoubtedly the Dakar in 2004for several reasons: first of allbecause it is a difficult race fromthe technical and physical pointof view and then because I wasable to finish it in the best way:always alert and fit. Getting tothe Pink Lake is always an inde-scribable feeling but in that raceit was even more. Worthy to beremembered as the best race».Has there never been a reallyhard time in which you regrettedhaving started that race?«The really hard time was when Ihad to overcome a dune that theroad book described with the"consistency of water." The sandwas so thin that it constantly see-med to sink into a pool of water.It took many hours and hard workpushing and digging to get overit. At that moment I was regret-ting I did that race and I wonde-red "who made me do this?" butthen the satisfaction to succeedand reach the bivouac repaid mefor all the efforts».

What do youlike most ofthe races inthe desert?«The type ofsoil, the lan-dscape andespecially thereal magicmoments thatyou live inthose extreme

conditions where you often arelonely. In the desert, you musthave the ability to count alwayson yourself and this puts you tothe test constantly».As a kid did you have a favoriterider? «Roger De Coster, a strong crossrider of the 70s. Fantastic guideand great character».You've got to know so many riderswho, like you,have chosenthe off-road: doyou think youhave all somecommon cha-racteristics?«In my opinionthe main fea-ture that unitesus - off-road ri-ders - is defini-tely the greatpassion for theuse of the bikeon particularlyi n a c ce s s i b l elands and the-refore the con-stant need to overcome one'sown limitations, feeling strongemotions in the spirit of the com-petition».After racing in Dakar you startedto deal with road-safety. Why?«Because I think it is right tomake my experience in Dakar andother races available for thosewho want to start with the bike,to train for a race or simply tohave fun».What does Maurizio Sanna dotoday?«In addition to a business sellingmotorcycles and related assi-stance with my brother, I run bu-

siness with my partner GabriellaFornaro (who is a passionate offroad rider, too). We deal with theorganization of off road motorcy-cle tours in Sardinia but also onthe sands of Tunisia and Morocco.Guided tours with twins, off-roadand rally school with specific na-vigation and road book teaching,since I am Level II Federal In-structor».What bike do you have?«A Yamaha WR 450F for "serious"off-road and the Super TenereXTZ 1200 for soft off-road. Andthen all the motorcycles of my la-test 20 racing years!»What are your future goals?«As for the races, my next goal isto participate in the next Dakarin South America in 2016 butabove all to carry on in the bestway my project of off road tour,training and school, both to makeavailable all my experience toeverybody and because it is whatI love doing the most ... ridingbikes and teaching it to others».

Virginijus Visockis LMSF PresidentVirginijus Visockis is the Presidentof Lithuanian Federation, is ri-ding motorcycles since he was 14and he particularly keen on off-road.Why off-road?«Riding off-road now is the bestway to relax after hard works».Did you ever race? «When I was a child I was very

Maurizio Sanna,Dakar Rally Rider

Virginijus Visockis, President of Lithua-nian Federation


agile and I wanted to realize my-self, so I tried a lot of differentsports, like rowing and canoe,horse riding, martial arts, swim-ming... But I was mostly attrac-ted by machinery, so when I was14 I subscribed to motorcyclesport club and I had very goodcoach, who prepared me for Li-thuanian motocross champion-ships and other races. When I was17 I became Lithuanian championin youth class. And I was candi-date to sport masters category».What is your motorcycle at themoment?«Right now I don’t have a motor-cycle, because I am installing thefirst Technical Sports School inLithuania in which young motor-cycle sportsman will be prepared:

last year I mademy personal inve-stment and bought17 different bikes -minimoto, quads,enduro and moto-cross - for childrenand teenagers whowill start their firsttrainings in thenew School. Besi-des, I'm dedicating

a lot of time and care to Lithua-nia Motorcycles Federation. Myown motorcycle will wait for me.Right now if I want to ride I justrent a bike».How often do you ride?«Right now I don’t have a lot oftime to ride, so it was amazing tohave wonderful time with myfriends in Sardinia. I will defini-tely come back over there!»How important are motorcyclesin your life?«Motorcycle sport is all my life, itis my work and my hobbies com-bined. All my family loves thissport, and I am very happy thatmy wife is supporting me in thisroad and is working with me inMotorcycle Sports Federation,where she is Secretary General.

After my career as motocrossrider carrier, in my life I had avery short break from motorcy-cles when my son born. When hewas 3, I started training him andone year later he started his firstraces. With my son Regimantas,we have been living 10 years incompetition and trainingsrhythm: he participated to Li-thuanian and European MotocrossChampionships where we reachedvery high goals. Regimantas ismultiple Lithuanian champion.Now, my main job is to establishand create as many Sports Cen-tres as possible, where youngpeople can start training andstart reaching their goals».Is there anything you would liketo do by bike but you haven'tdone yet? «I think every rider's dream isDakar Rally. I'd like to take partto this rally, too. But now I haveto finish to build the School foryoung riders in Lithuania. Afterthat I will think about Dakar».I suppose that being a motorcy-clist is greatly helpful for the Pre-sident of a Federation… What isyour feeling about it?«I was elected as Lithuanian Mo-torcycle Federation president in2008, so this is the second term Iam running this office, and I amhappy that Lithuanian MotorcycleSport representatives trust me

Alessandro Sambuco,FIM Europe SecretaryGeneral


and we can create motorcycle hi-story together. In my opinion, un-derstanding the specifics of thissport is much simpler for peoplewho spend a lot of time in thissport. I am living and breathingwith sport and I love it».What about motorcycling in Li-thuania? What is the trend?«Right now we are developingthe disciplines of Motocross, Su-permoto, Vintage Motocross, En-duro, Cross Country, Road Racing,Scooters, Motoball, Mototou-rism. We are trying to developTrial, too. The most recent pro-ject in Lithuania is “ArenacrossBaltic Cup” competition, whichwe started to develop in 2014,and it was very good: spectators

loved watching motocross battlesin arena.«The biggest problem is the lackof young riders, and this is whywe are creating the TechnicalSports School in Lithuania. «I believe that we will succes-sfully reach the goal of growingup new generation of riders. Wehave a bad situation with super-bikes track, too, because the in-frastructure is old and needsinvestment.«In my opinion, my goal is tounite people who shares thesame ideas of development andwho loves this sports. We canreach the best results only withteamwork».

Alessandro Sambuco, FIM Europe Secretary GeneralWhich was your first motorcycle?«Speaking of off-road my firstmotorcycle was a 50cc motocrossBenelli bought in 1974 in Rome instore Luciano Conti, formerChampion of Motocross and RoadRacing».Why did you start off-road?«I’ve always had a passion foroff-road and from the age of 14 Itried to do it with what was avai-lable, that is bicycles and mo-peds. Of course it was not "the"true off-road but rather the riskof getting hurt jumping and thro-wing myself down steep descents

From the left, Virginious Visockis, Alessandro Sambuco and Maurizio Sanna


and climbs or venturing on daringclimbs with means which wewdefinitely not suitable .But the passion is inde-pendent from every-thing. The real strokeof lightning was muchlater, in 1982, when Istarted coaching theson of Luciano Conti,Marco who raced in mo-tocross and enduro.When I saw him doingthings which to me see-med incredible, aboveall in enduro, I was cu-rious to see if every-thing was feasible orbelonged to a selectedrange of “elected” ri-ders. It was so that in1983, at age 24 - latein life to start a sports

career - I applied for my first li-cense with the Motoclub Romaand started to ride. Well I disco-vered I could do those ‘incredi-ble’ things but doing them as truechampions was different! Until1991 I raced both in and Enduroin Motorally».What are your best souvenirs ofthose years? «In the enduro events I discove-red such lovely places, whichhave a special place in my heartand in one of these I even deci-ded to live.«But the best thing that Endurohas given me is the challenge toyourself, the desire to improveyourself always, referring only toyour resources».We know that you use your mo-torcycle rarely because of yourjob, but if you had the timewhere would you like to go?«After organizing schools Moto-rally Schools in Sardinia for fiveyears I must say that in my ima-gination the off-road is there. Inthis occasion, in Sardinia I wasback to Enduro after about 20years. I hope to soon have somemore opportunities to enjoy na-ture, while respecting it, and thetwo wheels on the trails».How important are motorcyclesin your life?«I am a lucky man: I’ve been ona motorcycle since I was 12. Upto now it’s my passion, my sportand my job. Recently in FIM Eu-rope I’ve been planning a workprogram dedicated to over 60 ri-ders, "extending the riding age",to give them all the tools and

knowledge that is possible, tocontinue ride a bike for manyyears without problems. I ampreparing my future, always ainon two wheels!»Would you buy again an off roadmotorcycle?«Certainly, if I ever see the op-portunity to practice off-roadwith some regularity».What do you think of the real waragainst enduro riders throughsteel cables positioned in the offroad trails just at the neckheight? Is there anything off roadriders can do to be toleratedblackberries?«They have to do what all citi-zens and all car-drivers have todo: be civil and respectful of therules and the environment. Un-fortunately, even among us, as inevery civil societies, there areuncivilized people. So as thievesexist but not everybody is a thief,the same goes for us. But in anycase nobody is allowed to takethe law into one’s own hands ». Do you think electric enduro mo-torcycles might help to raise to-lerance?«It can help but I do not thinkthat it will solve the problem».I suppose that being a motorcy-clist is greatly helpful for the Se-cretary general of a ContinentalFederation. What is your feelingabout it?«Being a biker certainly helps meto understand better the world inwhich I work, but above all it al-lows me to do everything with aprecious value added: passion!»

(FLG)

36FIM Europe Mag 2/2015

After a 2014 season full of twists,the riders of the European ClassicSeries met again at the track ofPaul Ricard in Castellet for theopening round of the 2015 sea-son. After the qualification ses-sions we found the title holders,the Belgian riders Richard Hubinand Grégory Fastré in pole po-stion, followed by the EnglishTeam Sweatshop Phase One, withHugh Brasher, Stéphane Mertensand Ian Simpson and the ItaliansGiorgio Cantalupo and CristianoAscanio from team Taurus.

When the French flag announcedthe start of the four-hour race,team Taurus signed for the hole-shot and took the lead after thefirst lap, staying in that positionfor 10 laps. Unfortunately, theyoung Italian rider was too eager,causing the GSX 1100 R to blowup its engine and leaving the

team with no other option thanto abandon in the 24th lap. Thesame path was set out for the Ka-wasaki number 2 from TeamHampe, with Christian Haquin,Nicolas De Dieuleveult and BrunoLanglois. The Suzuki of TeamMonex Europe (Nick Edgeley andKasey Wyatt) wasn't even able toleave the stands due to mechani-cal troubles.

Team 85 Classic had to face somereal misfortune: a crash in thefirst laps caused the Kawasakirider to return to the box to re-pair the machine and then he stillhad to abandon after 42 laps. TheBSA Rob North P&M from TeamHercberg Carthago (Andreas Kal-mar, George Hogton-Rusling andGary Thwaites) also had somemechanical issues which madethe rider return to the box via thesafety lane after which they also

had to abandon. While most ofthe riders returned to their boxesafter 45 minutes for the manda-tory pit stop, some teams forgotabout this rule and got a 30 se-conds Stop & Go penalty, for in-stance the German team TTRacing Black Forest (Bruno Arznerand Stefan Merkens), who wereat that time in the top three.

In the front, the European cham-pions had some clutch troubleswith their Suzuki Morena and sha-red the leadership with the MotoGuzzi from Team Moto Bel’ (Chri-stophe Charles-Artigues and Lau-rent Sleurs) and Team SweatshopPhase One.

As for the Classic 1000, the Kawa-saki Segoni Special from the Ita-lian team Scuderia OfficineToscane (Emiliano Bellucci andOreste Zaccarelli), which started

European Vintage Endurance ChampionshipEuropean Vintage Endurance ChampionshipThe start in Paul RicardThe start in Paul Ricard

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37

at the end of the start grid, clim-bed its way up to the 8th positionafter 4 laps when mechanicaltroubles occurred and they wereforced back to the 22th position.They then made a beautiful come-back and finished 8th in the gene-ral ranking, followed by the AMLRacing Team from Pierre d’Imble-val and Richard Weber and theGerman team Autohaus Sellmannwith Erich Sellmann, Gerhard Lud-wig and Sebastian Basse. In the750 TT category, the Germans ofthe Team Capelli Belli (EckhardStruck, Manfred Sieg and RobertBohmhauer) finished 23rd in thegeneral ranking as the only repre-sentatives in their class with theirDucati Verlicchi TT1.

In the top 5 we saw Armor ClassicBike (Yannick Le Gaudu and Yan-nick Mizera) and Roadrunner Team(Henk van der Mark and Dirk

Brand) ride a very regular race fi-nishing respectively 3rd and 4th inthe general ranking. The 5th placewas for the Swiss riders of the Bol-liger Classic Endurance Team(Marcel Kellenberger and AndyStierli) after a very nice battlewith the Italians of Braghi Corse(Duilio Damiani and GiancarloRossi), who made a mistake in thelast fifteen minutes of the race.

Also note the very nice comebackof Segale Classic (Walo Bertschin-ger and Dario Tosolini), who star-ted in the 21st position butclimbed its way up to a 6th placeand the Belgian team Real DholdaFriends (Gian Mertens and Willy deNeef) who started last, got a Stop& Go, and still finished 12th. Thesame goes for RPM 83 –GWCRT –Sun Moto who almost got in thetop 10. The only female team (Pa-tricia Audebert and Karine Sliz),

finished 14th in the general ran-king.

After this first successful round, theteams and riders look forward tomeet again at the track of Spa-Fran-corchamps on July 3rd, 4th and 5th.

General ranking1. Team Force; 2. Sweatshop PhaseOne; 3. Armor Classic Bike; 4. Roa-drunner Team; 5. Bolliger Classic En-durance; 6. Team Segale Classic; 7.Neate Racing; 8. Scuderia Officine To-scane (Classic 1000); 9.Red Fox Ride4 Fun; 10. Moto Bel'; 11. GWCRT -RPM 83 - Sun Moto; 12. Real DholdaFriends; 13. Team Classic Suzuki; 14.RPM 83 - GWCRT; 15. Baloo RacingTeam; 16. AML Racing; 17. Projekt 34;18. Poweracing - Japauto Club; 19. CB750 Club; 20. Autohaus Sellmann(Classic 1000); 21. Team SCERT; 22.Team Vision Plus; 23. Capelli Belli;24. DD Moto Team; 25. NockiTeam; 26. Racer Garage; 27. Eos-Neate Racing 2.


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FIM Europe Mag 2/2015 38

Documents

FIM Europe MAG 2 2015