ONDŘEJ VOSTATEK FINISHED IN THE ETC ELITE TEN TWICE!

1. 8. 2018

The FIM CEV Repsol races were held in Motorland in Aragon between 28 and 29 July, where the Czech rider Ondřej Vostatek achieved two excellent results in the European Talent Cup category. The competition was tough, yet Ondřej managed to take ninth place in both races and scored 14 points.

Since Thursday's first training sessions, Ondřej had struggled with the settings of his motorcycle, which did not suit him as he wished. Despite the hard work of the whole team, Ondra couldn't increase the speed and was not only left to fight the physically demanding conditions of a 60°C track temperature, but also a mental battle. The ETC category qualification of both A and B groups was newly at the same time, and testimony to the riders' equality was the fact that 20 of a possible 47 riders finished within one second of each other. The first qualification session was in the morning and it became clear that conditions for setting a good time would be far greater in the second afternoon qualification session with much higher temperatures.

Ongoing problems with the optimal settings made it impossible for Ondra to record a good time in the first qualification, and the situation did not look very optimistic. New changes in the motorcycle settings were made for the second qualification session, which Ondra was finally satisfied with. Under more difficult conditions, he managed to improve his time by 1.5 seconds and took 10th place. His total time after the two qualification sessions saw him earn a 14th place start on the grid, which due to close riders' times meant his chance for a good result was pretty high.

Ondřej had an excellent start in the first race and moved several places forward. All of the riders were riding together. A leading group of 11 riders, including Ondra, pulled away after three laps, with Ondra fighting for 8th place. The riders' positions in the leading group were constantly changing throughout the race. The whole leading group came to the finish line together and our rider Ondřej Vostatek finished in 9th place, 2.3 seconds behind the winner.

Ondřej had an excellent start in the second race as well, moving one position forward. All of the riders stayed together at the beginning, but a leading group of 13 riders split away to fight for the victory after a few laps. Ondřej was somewhere around 11th place. After five laps, the leading group split into two, and our rider began dropping off the leading group with two other riders. However, two laps before the end of the race the riders in the second group, which included Ondra, worked together to erase the four-second gap and join the leading group. Ondřej was in 9th position and was ready to fight to move further forward in the final lap. However, a collision between two riders just in the front of him saw the race end prematurely under a red flag. Unfortunately, the big finale of the race did not happen, but Ondřej still finished in a great 9th position with a one-second deficit to the winner.

After the race Ondřej Vostatek said "I was having a bad time during the training sessions and the first qualification. I could not move forward and, even though I was trying hard, my times were not coming down as I imagined. We were looking for the right settings, but it was just not happening. But in the second qualification session, we finally succeeded! It is a pity that it did not happen during the first qualification, where there were much better conditions for a better time. Otherwise the race was perfect and I enjoyed it very much. We were all posting similar times, and a lot of riders were close to success. It is a pity that the second race was prematurely ended. I felt I could have achieved a better finish place. But I was at the front among the best riders and I am satisfied with my results after all the problems we had. It was really hard, so I have to thank everyone, especially the guys from the team, my family, Lukáš Pešek for the training that helped me a lot, the fans and, of course, our partners Compos Distribution, Psi Hubík, Shark and Riders Management. Thanks a lot!"

"We plan to visit the Grand Prix in Brno on Thursday and Friday and say hello to our friends. And maybe we'll meet there." added Ondra Vostatek.

CZ EN

OUR SPONSORS

Compos PSI Autoklub ČR Olymp

MATERIAL PARTNERS

nika