There are people who would mutter darkly under their breath if they have to travel further than two gear shifts away to pursue their hobby. Not motocrossers though. They are cut from sturdier cloth. Take Dovydas Karka, for instance. The Lithuanian is but a tender 14 years of age, but he has already clocked up the kind of travelling kilometres that would make Christopher Columbus envious. All in the cause of pursuing his sport, you understand. This is motocross, the sport where you go out in all kinds of weather, from scalding heat to Antarctic cold, and proceed to hurl yourself at the scenery, most of it fairly unyielding, on a high-power motorcycle, all the while traversing some of the roughest terrain imaginable at speeds that have mothers invoking all the supernatural powers they can call upon. After a tough race weekend, the reverse trip happens, often in the form of a hightail charge throughout the night to deposit a bleary-eyed young man on the school steps in time to catch a bit of academic stimulation the next day. Yes, you need dedication to do motocross at this level.
The first round of the 2013 ADAC MX Masters series brought the good and the great of the motocross world to Fürstlich Drehna, situated to the South of Berlin. The ADAC series is the leading international motocross championship series in Europe. The series is well-organized, competitive, and as a result draws entries from competitors across Europe. Dovydas participates in the ADAC Junior Cup on his 85cc machine, but do not let the nomenclature or the capacity fool you. This is a wildly competitive series, so much so that close on 100 riders enter for the event in this class, Of those, only 40 qualify for the final races on the Sunday.
As a top protagonist, Dovydas should normally have nothing to fear from the qualifying sessions, but he knows motocross as a sport where everything can on occasion go wrong, and the butterflies, nay vultures, were fluttering in his stomach as he lined up for the qualifying session. One does not travel 2000 km savouring the thought that you may have to return home without having qualified. One need not have feared, however. The young Lithuanian set to his task like an apex predator in search of a meaty snack, and he posted the third quickest qualifying time, easily making the qualifying cut.
Before going into the description of the races, an explanatory word or two may be in order. The track at Drehna consists of sand. Deep, power-gobbling, energy-sapping, soul-destroying sand. It sucks your bike in like a black hole, and Dovydas, one of the bigger riders in the class, was at a distinct disadvantage as gravity and the deep sandy waves conspired against him. Many of his opposition are filled with pure helium by comparison, leaving them far better equipped to scurry across the heavy ground like sand rabbits. Dovydas has never been one to bemoan the cards that he has been dealt, however. He simply gets on with the job.
Dovydas started the first race off in sixth position. To make matters even more difficult for him, the track was rendered muddy by some heavy precipitation, and it took him a few laps to get into his rhythm. He kept the plot upright, however, and a few laps into the race, he moved into fourth position. He knows as well as anyone that on a heavy track such as this, disaster lurks around every corner. He kept his mind firmly set on riding out the race without disaster, therefore, and indeed so he did, claiming fourth position for the race.
An overall podium finish beckoned, but Dovydas made his job far more difficult when he only just crept into the top 10 at the start of race two. This left him with a mountain to climb, for as you may well understand, the battle near the front is far more fierce than the clashes further down the field. In the rarefied air near the front of the pack you encounter some of the best riders int he world in this category, and though they may be young, they have all the fighting spirit of steel-bearded mercenaries. The Lithuanian nevertheless made quick progress, and by lap four , he was back in fourth position. Spaniard Jorge Prado Garcia came by, and Dovydas latched onto the former 65cc world champion. Together they scythed through the field, and as the race neared its sell-by date, they found themselves near the front of the field. Dovydas made a last-ditch lunge, but the young Spaniard was just a tad too far out of reach, and in the end, the Lithuanian finished third, some three seconds adrift of the winner and a mere half a second behind Finnish rider Kim Savaste in second place.
Once all the points were tallied up, Dovydas was called to the second step of the podium. Second overall was a good reward for his efforts on the day, and seeing as this was the first round of the championship series, this is also his current championship standing. The young man was pretty chuffed after a tough weekend. ” The track was rough and difficult for me,” he said. “I am a bit too heavy on the bike in these kind of conditions, but I am happy with the result. I am looking forward to the races on hard pack tracks like Aichwald, and I will keep working hard to get the best possible result in this series.”