Over forty times a race winner during the 2010’s at Frohburger Dreieck, Didier Grams illustrated again his prowess this afternoon at his nation’s most famous roads circuit, securing pole position for tomorrow’s eagerly awaited ten lap IRRC Superbike races.
G&G Motorsport backed Grams, best lap time from this afternoon’s second qualifying session (1.34.918), proved just enough to edge out Czech roads legend, lead Wepol Road Racing challenger Marek Cerveny (1.35.064), in the battle for qualifying honours.
Photo by Robby Repsol
Not too far behind the turn of speed produced by Grams, Cerveny was further IRRC royalty in the form of 2018 Superbike series victor, leading non S1000RR BMW mounted competitor Danny Webb (1.35.178).
Finland’s leading IRRC exponent Erno Kostamo (1.36.101) finished fourth fastest, just under a second off the pace shown by YZF R1M Yamaha mounted Webb.
Placing’s fifth, sixth respectively on today’s combined Superbike qualifying times sheet were banked by the ultra-closely matched duo of David Datzer (1.36.128) and lead Mountain Course newcomer from TT 2019, Lukas Maurer (1.36.174).
Rounding out today’s ten fastest premier class exponents were Czech Roads Superbike Champion Ales Nechvatal (1.37.169), twice IRRC Supersport Champ Laurent Hoffmann (1.37.553), Performance Racing Achterhoek’s Virgil Amber Bloemhard (1.37.710) and 2012 Newcomers A Manx GP winner Kamil Holan (1.38.219).
Recently crowned 2019 IRRC Superbike Champion Davey Todd, 11th quickest in Q1 (First Qualifying), endured an ultra-challenging second qualifying session, registering just two-timed laps.
Despite his Q2 troubles, Todd’s best lap time from Q1 (1.39.038) means he still qualifies overall a respectable 13th fastest.
IRRC Frohburg – Superbike combined qualifying result is as follows:
1 Didier Grams 1.34.918
2 Marek Cerveny 1.35.064
3 Danny Webb 1.35.178
4 Erno Kostamo 1.36.101
5 David Datzer 1.36.128
6 Lukas Maurer 1.36.174
7 Ales Nechvatal 1.37.169
8 Laurent Hoffmann 1.37.553
9 Virgil Amber Bloemhard 1.37.710
10 Kamil Holan 1.38.219
11 Pavel Tomecek 1.38.670
12 Marko Ratto 1.38.774
13 Davey Todd 1.39.038
14 Markus Karlsson 1.39.434
15 Tomas Borovka 1.39.570
16 Marcel Elsner 1.40.175
17 Dominik Haslinger 1.40.397
18 Josef Luksik 1.40.722
19 Aki Valkila 1.41.570
20 Vassilios Takos 1.41.901
21 Yannik Jacops 1.42.498
22 Rob Van Eijs 1.44.123
23 Foti Psomadakis 1.45.983
24 Mike Ceuppens 1.46.430
25 Marek Hlozek 1.46.538
26 Vladislav Nezdara 1.46.569
27 Jurgen Plattner 1.47.798
28 Kurt Haek 1.49.677
Words by Stevie Rial