The IHRO continental circus completed its 2009 series of races at the magnificent and welcoming Gedinne road circuit in the wonderful Ardennes region of Belgium. The track was, as ever beautifully prepared by the efforts of the CRMB stalwarts and by riders from all parts of Europe who had arrived early for the event.

This meeting goes from strength to strength each year and is definitely one of the highlights of any road rider’s year with its technically challenging and rewarding layout. This year’s event was a direct clash with the Manx Grand Prix, as a result many of the IHRO regulars were getting wet in the Irish sea as Gedinne was basking in sunshine.

The 250/350 class was the first to practice and it was the usual suspect who headed the qualifying table with Luke Notton the fastest some 13 seconds up on Nigel Palmer who was less than a second ahead of Martin Hudson with Ives Glauser a similar distance behind, Mick Nash de Villiers was top of the 250 qualifying.

The 500 practice was headed by Glauser 4 seconds ahead of second man Palmer who was a second up on Ton Groot.

The 250/350 race was first with Notton confirming his practice time by winning by 15 seconds from second place Glauser, Palmer was 2.5 seconds adrift in third place, these three were one minute 20 seconds ahead of Roel Weijers in fifth place with Hudson having a lonely ride in between them. Then came the battle of the race with Jos Sassen, 250 class winner Nash de Villiers and Eberhard Laible separated by just over a second after a race long scrap when each had taken a turn in leading the group, Sassen and his Ducati having proved to have the edge at the flag.

The 500 race was an example of domination by Glauser after he had scrapped hard with Palmer in the early laps, he finally saw his chance to get past and proceeded to pull away on the 5th lap, to open up a 4 second lead at the flag, Peter Branton was a lonely third some 9 seconds down. There were two other good scraps during the race, Martin Stoop managed to hold off Alan Windsor’s attentions to claim 7th place by 0.3 seconds and Jan Brouwer riding a Ducati after his Seeley Goldstar had broken at a previous meeting, managed to beat Jan Koning by 0.01 seconds to take 9th place on the line. Brouwer looked really comfortable on the bike which seemed to suit his riding style.

The Sunday had a repeat set of practice and races and it was in the morning practice sessions that it soon became obvious that the circuit had been as demanding on the machines as on the riders with a much reduced entry in all classes as machine breakages were reported overnight. First 350 class race winner Notton was out, his usually ultra reliable Seeley 7R succumbing to timing gear dental problems, Martin Hudson continued with this season’s ill fortunes and also reported an engine failure. Palmer headed the practice leader board from Glauser with Branton in third place, Nash de Villiers was of course the 250 class leader.

The 500 class was similarly affected, with Glauser not starting after an engine problem and Roger Jennings going round the paddock sadly showing people the metallic contents of his G50′s sump instead of riding. Palmer lead the practice ahead of Jarno Jonker on the Beck’s BMW who had arrived overnight after competing in the Dutch National championship races in Germany on the Saturday. Jonker, Ton Groot on his Tickle Manx and Peter Branton were all within 0.8 of a second with Osmo Partti, now recovered from the broken ribs he sustained at Mo I Rana in Norway, qualifying 5th.

The 350 race was won easily by Glauser after Palmer, who had been challenging hard in the early laps, pitted to make adjustments which were unsuccessful as he retired the next lap, leaving Glauser to cruise round to a 41 second victory. Roel Weijers, Laible and Nash de Villiers had a close ride for second place with Weijers getting the result by 0.8 seconds from Laible both these riders recorded their first IHRO podium places of the year.

The 500 race was stopped after one lap following an incident at the first chicane but the restart was a Palmer benefit, despite being pushed hard in the early stages by a determined Jonker on the beautiful sounding BMW, he pulled away to win by 10 seconds at the flag from Jonker, Peter Cook, whose G50 had refused to start for the first run was allowed to make the restart and he took full advantage of this to finish third and also record his first IHRO podium place. Stoop again held off Windsor’s attentions to finish fourth. Brouwer had a problem restarting the Ducati for the second start and was then running in fifth place until the machine expired and he pushed in to claim the honour of being the final finisher for this year’s racing.

The Paton Transferry Polo Shirt awards were won by Nigel Palmer in the 500 single cylinder class, Martin Stoop in the 500 multicylinder class, Ives Glauser in the 350 class and Mick Nash de Villiers in the 250 class.

The Fourth Place award of CAT sunglasses went to Jos Sassen in the 350 class and Martin Stoop in the 500 class.

Gedinne was the last of the IHRO races in this current format, for 2010 the new classes of IHRO 1 for single cylinder machines and IHRO 2 for multi cylinder machines will be introduced and it is hoped that there will be renewed interest in these new classes.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 at 2:14 pm and is filed under IHRO News, Results. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.