By Satisfactory conditions all-round, was a pleasant sight for those taking in today’s IRRC Imatranajo Supersport qualifying contest.
Marek Cerveny, Petr Najman had runs at the top of the live timing standings, but it was event wildcard, 77 plate occupier Niko Lehtiranta who attained provisional pole, setting during Q1’s final proceedings, a lap time of 1:56.429 seconds, just below Pauli Pekkanen’s existing class lap-record of 1:55.856 seconds.
Amazingly, Lehtiranta’s increase of pace was so vigorous that he finished almost, one second quicker than second fastest, IRRC Supersport Championship leader Cerveny (1.57.428).
Only 0.012 of a second adrift of Cerveny’s speed was Imatranajo newcomer, Performance Racing Achterhoek’s Adam McLean (1.57.439).
Petr Najman (1.57.952) joined McLean in lapping sub 1:58 seconds whilst fifth, sixth speediest overall, respectively were Niko Tanskanen (1.59.252) and Ilja Caljouw (1.59.406), the Netherlands most recent solo TT Races participant.
Twice TT victor Gary Johnson (1.59.508) followed, Mauro Poncini (2.01.408) captured the eighth fastest time as Rico Vetter (2.02.019), Mikko Uski (2.02.555) completed the Supersport Q1 top-ten.
Eleventh to fifteenth quickest were Sebastian Frotscher, Romain Cleaz Savoyen, Thomas Wendel, Never Be Clever Racing’s Rhys Hardisty, Miika Viiperi.
Supersport Q1 Result:
1 – Niko Lehtiranta – 1.56.429
2 – Marek Cerveny – 1.57.428
3 – Adam McLean – 1.57.439
4 – Petr Najman – 1.57.952
5 – Niko Tanskanen – 1.59.252
6 – Ilja Caljouw – 1.59.406
7 – Gary Johnson – 1.59.508
8 – Mauro Poncini – 2.01.408
9 – Rico Vetter – 2.02.019
10 – Mikko Uski – 2.02.555
11 – Sebastian Frotscher – 2.03.511
12 – Romain Cleaz Savoyen – 2.03.535
13 – Thomas Wendel – 2.04.474
14 – Rhys Hardisty – 2.04.610
15 – Miika Viiperi – 2.05.850
16 – Peter Lionel – 2.06.364
17 – Erik Kjuus – 2.06.403
18 – Nicolas Therouin – 2.07.041
19 – Juho Kantola – 2.07.148
20 – Wesley Ankersmid – 2.07.259
21 – Karel Brandtner – 2.07.690
22 – Jyri Kuosa – 2.08.034
23 – Osvaldas Lazdauskas – 2.08.684
24 – Olli Konttinen – 2.09.490
25 – Erno Kivimaki – 2.09.731
26 – Mike Mace – 2.10.293
27 – Roman Bocek – 2.10.429
28 – Brian Fuidge – 2.11.914
29 – Sami Siimesto – 2.12.186
Photo credit: Thijs Van Der Horst
Words by Stevie Rial #dontletfearcontrolyou
