Mix together wet, damp conditions and a hugely competitive IRRC Supersport field and you have the components for truly top draw two wheel racing.
The absolute epitome of this took place at Frohburg in 2018 as recently crowned IRRC Supersport Champion Matthieu Lagrive, Laurent Hoffmann, local favourite Thomas Walther battled it out for class spoils.
My race report from September of 2018 on a truly classic middleweight class encounter, reads as follows:
Ending his 2018 IRRC campaign in the best possible fashion, Laurent Hoffmann emerged on top out of a classic three rider duel for Supersport honours, this afternoon at Frohburg.
In spite of the treacherous wet all round course conditions, former series champion Hoffmann known for his wet weather prowess alongside 2018 series winner Matthieu Lagrive and Thomas Walther, provided the knowledgeable crowd at Frohburger Dreieck with pulsating competition.
Nothing separated the three of them throughout but it was Delaur Road Racing Belgium’s Hoffmann who held a minor advantage prior to a drama filled ninth and final lap.
With Team Schleizer Dreieck’s Walther dropping back, it seemed as though Hoffmann had the race victory all wrapped up.
Ultimately though it didn’t end as clear cut as many would have expected, as Wepol Racing’s Lagrive after a scintillating final lap almost reeled in Hoffmann, with just 0.036 of a second covering them at the chequered flag.
Photo by Robby Repsol
Long term race winning contender Walther had to settle for third, whilst the tight battle for fourth was won by Lukas Maurer, edging out Kamil Holan by just over 0.2 of a second.
John Ross Billega banked a very creditable sixth place finish, Performance Racing Achterhoek’s Ilja Caljouw was seventh, as Benjamin Beume, Miroslav Sloboda and Kai Zentner finalised the top ten finishers.
Full race results are as follows:
1 Laurent Hoffmann
2 Matthieu Lagrive
3 Thomas Walther
4 Lukas Maurer
5 Kamil Holan
6 John Ross Billega
7 Ilja Caljouw
8 Benjamin Beume
9 Miroslav Sloboda
10 Kai Zentner
11 Stefan Wauter
12 Anssi Koski
13 Krystian Paluch
14 Andrea Majola
15 Christian Steinhauser
16 Quentin Limousin
17 Wayne Bourgeois
18 Francesco Curinga
19 Nicolas Robert
20 Lubos Konak
Words by Stevie Rial