The IHRO Continental Circus visited its spiritual home at Schleiz in Germany on the weekend of 12-14th June. Schleiz embodies all that IHRO stands for, Historic Racing on a truly magnificent historic circuit with a fantastic atmosphere and friendly organisation.

It was however, the end of an era, for when the starting flag fell on the 500cc race at 1400 on Sunday afternoon, it was the last ever push start for IHRO, and probably the last ever for any motorcycle event anywhere in the world!.

350cc practice on Friday and Saturday morning was dominated by Luke Notton on his Seeley 7R yet again, with an advantage of some 5 seconds over second place qualifier Yves Glauser with Peter Branton on a misfiring manx in third. In the 500 class, positions were reversed when Glauser on his phenomenally fast Seeley G50 managed to out qualify Notton who was having a ride on the Roger Winfield’s Paton normally ridden by Lea Gourlay who was absent for the weekend. Notton had to make a number of small changes to the Paton setup to try to make it more to his taste and spent the practice applying these changes and learning how to ride the more powerful and heavier machine. Peter Branton on his Seeley G50 was again third promising much for the weekend.

The 250 class was lead by Ela Heck on her Maico, determined to hang on to her 250 class record at Schleiz but under much pressure from Willi Siefel also Maico mounted. Mick Nash de Villiers was a distant third qualifier, his Bultaco not really coming to terms with the fast sweeping bends which make the Schleizer Dreieck such a joy but he was having better luck than neighbour Bernie Chequer who suffered machine problems throughout the weekend but the two did circulate together in practice while learning the circuit.

The 350 race on Saturday afternoon was, unsurprisingly dominated by Notton, whose commanding lead was likened by many of the local spectators to Jarnos Drapal who used to win a a similarly powerful way in the old days. Branton was third, but there was a real scrap between Thomas Wyss on his Ducati and Bernd Pollmann on his beautiful Aermacchi, with Wyss getting the advantage by 0.23 seconds. In the 250 class, Heck chased down and caught Siefel to win by 0.3 seconds.

The 500 race on Saturday showed that Notton had got the Paton working to his satisfaction as he lead from the start, Glauser challenged hard but had to retire with a mechanical problem, leaving Peter Branton on his Seeley G50 to take second place, third went to Osmo Partti who did not realise his position and had to be collected from the paddock for the podium ceremony. Bart Crauwels’ s challenge ended in a shower of sparks at the first corner when he changed down one too many times into the bend and the Paton high sided him, he hopes to be fit to return to the Manx Grand Prix in August. After a slow start, Jose Van Meurs, came through the field to catch and pass Tilmann Runck on the last lap.

The Sunday 350 race was a repeat of the Saturday when the first 3 places were the same, again dominated by Notton from Ives Glauser. This time however, Pollmann got the better of Wyss to finish fourth by just over a second. The 250 class was won by Heck, this time from Nash de Villiers who had managed to persuade his Bultaco to ‘play nicely’ and knocked some 5 seconds off his previous days best time.

Sunday ‘s 500 race was again a Notton benefit, with Ives Glauser relegated to using a slower engine following a mechanical problem in the Saturday race, there was no one to challenge the on-form Notton but Glauser did put on a magnificent show against the flying Paton. Partti was again third with Franz Glauser making the 4th place after Branton Struck mechanical trouble early on in the race. Best scraps of the race were between Van Meurs who again came through strongly at the end to catch and pass John Jones on his Seeley G50 to claim 8th place, and between Bob Rowe on his Manx, Jan Brouwer on his Seeley Goldstar and Rutger Stoop on his Hansen Honda who finished in that order for 10th to 13th places.

The Paton winners shirts went to Ela Heck in the 250cc class, Luke Notton in the 350 cc and 500 multicylinder class and to Osmo Partti in the 500cc single cylinder class, they were awarded to the winners on the podium by Roberto Pattoni who had come to Schleiz for the first time and was enchanted by the whole event, he will be back next year to give the winner of the Paton owner riders competition their winning ‘works’ ride for a weekend on one of his machines.

Mark Nijhoff won the A3R memorial trophy for fastest qualification by a Goldstar engined machine. Klaus Schreiner, the enthusiastic and affable Schleiz organiser, personally presented a ceramic local beer mug and something to fill it with, to the furthest travelled rider in the IHRO classes, Risto Salovaara from Finland, Risto did not have the best of weekends on the track so this was some compensation for him.

The annual award of the IHRO trophy for the rider displaying the most ‘IHRO Spirit’ for the year went to Mick Nash de Villiers for his cheerful and supportive manner at meetings.

We look forward to our return to Schleiz at the end of June in 2010.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 25th, 2009 at 1:20 pm and is filed under Results. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.