By In complete contrast to the earlier Supersport race, the opening IRRC Hengelo – Superbike Race burst featured sparing moments of drama.
Thijs Peeters, ineligible to score IRRC Championship points, as he is an event wildcard entrant, underlined his pre-race favourite status with a commanding run to P1 honours, finishing 16.266 seconds in front of race-long top chaser, Adam McLean.
McLean astride ZX10-R Kawasaki apparatus, at one stage got to within 0.1 of Peeters lead, before the Netherlands competitor galloped away into the distance.
On the ninth, final lap, Northwest 200 rostrum finisher, Ulster Grand Prix winner McLean had a major moment, nearly ending his race exploration.
Whilst McLean regained composure, kept it clean to bank second and 25 IRRC SBK Championship points, a keenly fought duel for P3 finalised with Laurent Hoffmann (Hoffmann by MRP BMW) grabbing the final spot on the podium over Darryl Tweed (Never Be Clever Racing Yamaha).
Nico Muller, Fedrik Matthys placed fifth, sixth with Mike Parmentier seventh, after attaining a twenty seconds’ jump-start penalty.
Florian Astner, Pontus Roestlinger, Anssi Koski swooped eighth, ninth, tenth place finishes.
Wally Jacobs, growing in experience TT Races pilot David Brook took eleventh, twelfth whilst finishers thirteen to twentieth, were:
Christoph Kreller (KRC Racing Crew BMW), Jakub Sprojcar (TTRace Yamaha), Lasse Karki (Team Vuokrakontti BMW), Emil Krchnavy (KRS Racing by ZD-Motorsport Kawasaki).
Patrick Van Der Eecken (Pure Capital BMW), Morgan Baplu (Vodden En Been Racing Team BMW), Rene MIkvy (ZD-Motorsport Aprilia) and Michal Podrabsky (M&D Racing Team BMW).
Photo credit: Thijs Van Der Horst
Words by Stevie Rial #dontletfearcontrolyou
