This afternoon 24MX Honda’s Klemen Gercar rode to a strong 6th place overall in Gaildorf in front of 16.000 fans. Home rider Max Nagl rode his CRF450R to the overall win, Australia’s Dean Ferris came second, German MX Masters champion Dennis Ullrich finished third.
The iconic Auf der Wacht track, about 80 km east of Stuttgart, has been a landmark event in international motocross racing sice 1976 and Gaildorf remains important venue on the European calendar. The sixth race of the highly competitive ADAC MX Masters series attracted an impressive line-up with riders from 14 countries.
MX3 World champion Gercar immediately felt at home on the fast, hard and undulating track. He started his weekend hungry with a third place in free practice and a 4th in his time practice group. Conditions in qualifying had been perfect with the Gaildorf soil providing plenty of grip. On Sunday morning the track was a lot muddier yet Klemen continued his strong run with a 4th time in warm-up.
Starting around 12th place Gercar got into the groove quickly. Lap times that matched the top five elevated the 24MX Honda rider to seventh. He passed Marcus Schiffer halfway through the moto and crossed the finish line three seconds behind Switzerland’s Jeremy Seewer.
The second moto started badly for Klemen. The 23-year old Slovenian found himself in 25th position after the first turn but in what was undoubtedly his strongest performance of the season Klemen cut through the pack with ease. Improving his speed and rhythm as the moto went along Gercar sealed his ADAC MX Masters debut with another 6th. His fastest lap time of the race on the ultimate lap spoke volumes about his fitness and commitment.
Klemen Gercar: “I’m really happy with how my weekend in Germany went! Already on Saturday I felt good on the bike and the speed showed. I was only half a second down on Ferris and less than one second from Nagl. The first half of my moto one was pretty good as well. Unfortunately I started making some mistakes in the second half, without them I might have got fifth. My start in the second race was just awful, but the riding went awesome! It was cool to get better and better during the moto and in terms of fitness it’s always a good sign to have your fastest lap time at the end of the race.”
ADAC MX MASTERS Gaildorf
Moto 1 – 1. Maximilian Nagl (GER, HON), 18 laps, 2. Dennis Ullrich (GER, KTM), +12.528, 3. Dean Ferris (AUS, HUS), +13.719, 4. Gregory Aranda (FRA, KAW), +22.508, 5. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, SUZ), +30.058, 6. Klemen Gercar (SLO, 24MX HONDA), +33.500, 7. Marcus Schiffer (GER, SUZ), +50.511, 8. Sébastien Pourcel (FRA, KTM), +53.402, 9. Boris Maillard (FRA, KAW), +53.695, 10. Petr Smitka (CZE, KTM), +58.734, 11. Günter Schmidinger (AUT, HON), +1:10.676, 12. Pascal Rauchenecker (AUT, KTM), +1:13.222, 13. Christian Brockel (GER, KTM), +1:13.472, 14. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, SUZ), +1:17.237, 15. Nikolaj Larsen (DEN, HON), +1:30.534, 16. Angus Heidecke (GER, KTM), +1:34.781, 17. Martin Michek (CZE, KTM), +1:37.449 18. Stefan Kjer Olsen (DEN, KAW), +1:38.257, 19. Filip Thuresson (SWE, HON), +1:42.084, 20. Mike Stender (GER, SUZ), +1:45.633, 21. Filip Neugebauer (CZE, KAW), +1:49.527, 22. Manuel Obermair (AUT, KTM), +1:52.248, 23. Nick Kouwenberg (NED, SUZ), +1:59.991, 24. Frantisek Smola (CZE, KTM), +2:05.319, 25. Kevin Wouts (BEL, KAW), +1 Rnd, 26. Lukas Neurauter (AUT, KTM), +1 Rnd., 27. Nicolai M Hansen (DEN, SUZ), +1 Rnd., 28. Nikolay Paschinskiy (UKR, KTM), +1 Rnd., 29. Matej Jaros (CRO, KAW), +1 Rnd., 30. Martin Finek (CZE, KTM), +1 Rnd., 31. Andreas Schmidinger (AUT, HON), +1 Rnd., 32. Maik Schaller (GER, KTM), +1 Rnd., 33. Manuel Engel (GER, HON), +1 Rnd., 34. Michal Barta (CZE, SUZ), +2 Rnd., 35. Stefan Hage (GER, HUS), +2 Rnd.
Moto 2 – 1. Dean Ferris (AUS, HUS), 18 laps, 2. Maximilian Nagl (GER, HON), +2.111, 3. Marcus Schiffer (GER, SUZ), +20.376, 4. Dennis Ullrich (GER, KTM), +22.717, 5. Gregory Aranda (FRA, KAW), +44.173, 6. Klemen Gercar (SLO, 24MX HONDA), +51.578, 7. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, SUZ), +52.639, 8. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, SUZ), +58.299, 9. Petr Smitka (CZE, KTM), +1:01.343, 10. Filip Neugebauer (CZE, KAW), +1:05.671, 11. Boris Maillard (FRA, KAW), +1:08.448, 12. Pascal Rauchenecker (AUT, KTM), +1:09.991, 13. Christian Brockel (GER, KTM), +1:10.248, 14. Martin Michek (CZE, KTM), +1:15.768, 15. Günter Schmidinger (AUT, HON), +1:17.245, 16. Angus Heidecke (GER, KTM), +1:24.361, 17. Stefan Kjer Olsen (DEN, KAW), +1:27.060, 18. Mike Stender (GER, SUZ), +1:30.971, 19. Martin Finek (CZE, KTM), +1:38.399, 20. Kevin Wouts (BEL, KAW), +2:03.938, 21. Manuel Obermair (AUT, KTM), +1 Rnd., 22. Nikolay Paschinskiy (UKR, KTM), +1 Rnd., 23. Nicolai M Hansen (DEN, SUZ), +1 Rnd., 24. Maik Schaller (GER, KTM), +1 Rnd., 25. Manuel Engel (GER, HON), +1 Rnd., 26. Stefan Hage (GER, HUS), +2 Rnd., 27. Andreas Schmidinger (AUT, HON), +2 Rnd., 28. Michal Barta (CZE, SUZ), +2 Rnd.
Gaildorf overall classification – 1. Nagl, Maximilian (GER, HON), 47 Pts, 2. Ferris, Dean (AUS, HUS), 45, 3. Ullrich, Dennis (GER, KTM), 40, 4. Schiffer, Marcus (GER, SUZ), 34, 5. Aranda, Gregory (FRA, KAW), 34, 6. Gercar, Klemen (SLO, 24MX HONDA), 30, 7. Seewer, Jeremy (SUI, SUZ), 30, 8. Smitka, Petr (CZE, KTM), 23, 9. Maillard, Boris (FRA, KAW), 22, 10. Coldenhoff, Glenn (NED, SUZ), 20, 11. Rauchenecker, Pascal (AUT, KTM), 18, 12. Brockel, Christian (GER, KTM), 16, 13. Schmidinger, Günter (AUT, HON), 16, 14. Pourcel, Sébastien (FRA, KTM), 13, 15. Neugebauer, Filip (CZE, KAW), 11, 16. Michek, Martin (CZE, KTM), 11, 17. Heidecke, Angus (GER, KTM), 10, 18. Kjer Olsen, Stefan (DEN, KAW), 7, 19. Larsen, Nikolaj (DEN, HON), 6, 20. Stender, Mike (GER, SUZ), 4, 21. Finek, Martin (CZE, KTM), 2, 22. Thuresson, Filip (SWE, HON), 2, 23. Wouts, Kevin (BEL, KAW),