With ominous looking clouds looming, the last race of this year’s Bavaria Laakkonen Imatranajo road races, the second ten lap IRRC Superbike race commenced at just past 4:00 PM local time.
Penz 13’s Erno Kostamo got the perfect start, as he aimed to seal a hat-trick of 1000cc successes.
Looking at one around the Jarno Saarinen Circuit Imatra, Kostamo commanded the race throughout with Lukas Maurer, David Datzer providing the toughest opposition.
Dropping his pace, a touch during closing race laps, the Finnish front running hero began to have pressure a plenty from Swiss star Maurer, as the tenth, final lap dawned.
Although Kostamo went onto acquire a third successive Superbike triumph, Maurer who finished at the race’s finalisation, only 0.138 in arrears, had the honour of setting the fastest lap of the meeting, having lapped at 1 minute 50.979 seconds.
This lap time also makes him the new third fastest racer in history at Imatranajo.
Joining Maurer, Kostamo on the race rostrum was top 20 Senior TT finisher Datzer whilst positions fourth, fifth, sixth were occupied by Joey Den Besten, Sweden’s Markus Karlsson and event wildcard Ville Valtonen.
Vincent Lonbois, going through the pain the barrier, having sustained a broken thumb following an incident yesterday during qualifying, took a gritty seventh place finish ahead of Patrick Hoff.
Performance Racing Achterhoek’s Virgil Amber Bloemhard, Marcel Elsner completed the top ten finishers.
A quick note on 21 times TT winner Michael Dunlop, who’s maiden Imatra expedition ended in further disappointment, with the Supersport TT lap record holder retiring on lap three.
Words by Stevie Rial #dontletfearcontrolyou