On 5th of October the final round of the Austrian MX championship took place in Kirchschlag. In both classes, MX2 and MX-Open, the champions MICHAEL KRATZER and GÜNTER SCHMIDINGER were crowned already one race before. Good for Schmidinger as he had to sit out Kirchschlag due a hand injury.
MX2: Tyrolean MANUEL PERKHOFER took the holeshot in moto1, followed by teenage sensation MICHAEL SANDNER and Michael Kratzer. Perkhofer led about half of the race until the champion Kratzer took control and took the victory. Sandner´s bike stopped after 4 laps, so did Slovenian ALJOSA MOLNAR´s. Perkhofer had to deal with technical problems too, but somehow brought home an 8th place. Czech LUKAS KOMPRDA took a solid 2nd place right in front of ALEXANDER BANZIRSCH.
Slovenian Molnar had to ride with his second bike in moto 2. But this didn´t seem to affect him too much, as he showed up with a victory. In the end he got serious pressure from Kratzer but he responded on all the attacks from the champion. Perkhofer, this time without bike problems, rode to his first ever podium in this class with a 3rd.
MX Open: The champion was decided but the battle for 2nd was on! PASCAL RAUCHENECKER had to defend a 5 points lead over LUKAS NEURAUTER. The Cofain Racing guys immediately took control as the trio with MANUEL OBERMAIR, Neurauter and Rauchenecker pulled away from the rest of the field. Neurauter passed Obermair, but a few laps later Obermair responded, took back the lead and rode to a phenomenal moto win. Rauchenecker passed Neurauter and made a big step in direction 2nd place overall. PHILIPP RINGHOFER rode to a lonely 4th place, followed by Slovenian TONI MULEC who had worked his ass off after being last after the gate.
In moto number 2, the final heat of thee season, we had the same picture like in the first one: Cofain Cup for the podium positions. The pace these guys were running was amazing, 4th place rider Toni Mulec who had worked his way up from 6th place, had already half a lap gap when they passed the half way mark of the moto. Obermair, who switched from a 250 2-stroke to a 350 4-stroke in the summer, seemed had found new motivation with the new bike, passed his team colleagues and checked out. Another impressive moto win looked to put him back as a serious title contender for 2015. Neurauter came home in 2nd, Rauchenecker took a safe 3rd to secure the vice title. Toni Mulec finally put everything together after a very difficult season and found his happy ending of the season with a solid 4th place finish. Ringhofer´s 5th place meant that he lost 4th overall to the outstanding Obermair.
Text: Peter Reitbauer