It is said that the sun shines on the righteous, I am not exactly certain how IHRO riders fit in that characterisation, but the sun did certainly shine on all the IHRO sessions over the 3 days.

Friday consisted of a free practice session for each class and in IHRO1 it was Peter Branton on his Seeley G50 who set the early pace with Ives Glauser just over half a second behind. Third spot, some 3 seconds in arrears of Glauser was Eberhard Laible who had just taken delivery of his refreshed 450 Aermacchi motor and was showing how well it could go. Fastest 350 was Bernd Pollmann on his Aermacchi, just ahead of fastest 250 Andre Siemon on his Maico who was just ahead of Australian rider Neil May who was coming to terms with the circuit very well.

The IHRO2 practice saw the debut of Mick Nash-de-Villiers as a Paton ‘works’ rider after he won the Paton Transferry Owner Rider competition from last year. Mick had a bit of trepidation about the opportunity but was determined to make the most of it and he soon showed that he was able to master the machine and impressed the Paton crew with his balanced approach to learning the new machine. The Transferry rider Marc Dall’Aglio was fastest in this session just ahead of Peter Branton and Jarno Jonker on the Becks BMW.

Saturday’s IHRO1 timed practice showed Ives Glauser in a determined mood setting pole position time nearly a second faster than Branton and fastest 350 Luke Notton on his Seeley 7R which was now fully run in and well on the pace being less than 2 seconds behind the 500 of Glauser. James Walker on Dennis Gaskins Aermacchi was second 350, just under half a second faster than Siemon on his very fast Maico 250 with May loitering with intent just behind them.

The IHRO2 timed session confirmed Dall’Aglio on pole ahead of Jonker with Notton on his 7R in third place !! Hans de Witt on his fabulous sounding Konig was learning the track, but making some really lovely music which could be heard right round the circuit, being so near to Berlin, the Konig was one of the centres of attention in the paddock together with Paton display of 6 machines.

The first race on Saturday afternoon was the 6 lap IHRO1 sprint race which was headed by a fantastic scrap between pole sitter Glauser and Branton, they fought it out for the entire race, with the result going to Glauser by just over half a second, Notton was a stirring third overall and first 350 well ahead of 3rd place 500 Franz Glauser. Walker was 2nd 350, just ahead 250 winner Siemon. Perhaps the best midfield scrap, although there were many of them during the race, was between Bernd Pollmann and Manfred Vogl on their Aermacchis, they swopped places relentlessly and it was Vogl by just 0.07 of a second at the line.

The IHRO2 8 lap sprint race was next up, won convincingly by Jonker with Branton in second place nearly 7 seconds behind the howling Bavarian twin, Notton came third in this class ass well on his Seeley 7R with Boy Beck on another BMW a distant 4th. It was left to ‘works’ Paton rider Nash de Villiers to uphold the honour of the team as all the other bikes went out for one reason or another, he started from the back row of the grid instead of his earned 5th place as he wanted to ensure that he was able to get off the line cleanly without audio distractions from machines around him and ended up finishing 5th.

For the 12 lap IHRO1 Gold race on Sunday, Branton was in a determined mood and lead for most of the race, the huge grandstand crowd roaring their approval of the fine battle, but it was Glauser by just over 2 seconds at the chequered flag with Notton again in third overall to win the 350cc class. Walker held off Olivier Schleifer on his beautifully prepared Manx to grab second 350 with Pollmann in third. 250 class winner was again Siemon with Thomas Schulze on his Maico second and Ela Heck, also Maico mounted in third. Ben Mensink on his Manx fought all race with Jose van Meurs on her Seeley BSA and Tim Portass on his Ducati and only just over a second separated the three at the line.

The IHRO2 Gold race was held over 18 laps, and here pole sitter Dall’Aglio lead the entire race on the track, but had been docked 20 seconds for jumping the start, despite that penalty he still finished second to Glauser with Jonker a distant third. Branton and Notton has a really good race with the honours going to Branton at the flag. Hans de Witt was delighted that he had finished every practice and race on his very fast, but often fragile, Konig and was very pleased with his first visit to Schleiz.

Schleiz is the ‘spiritual home’ of IHRO and it is fitting that it is here every year that the annual trophies are awarded.
The Classic Racer Magazine Endeavour Award was won by Luke Notton for his dedication to the sport and fantastic efforts in getting his 7R onto the podium in all of his races on Saturday despite being on a 350cc machine.
The A3R trophy was won by Jan Brouwer for setting the fastest practice time on a Goldstar engined machine.
The IHRO trophy was awarded to Hans de Witt for his support of IHRO over a long period of time and for just being an all-round ‘good guy’.
The IHRO Continental Circus moves onto Chimay in Belgium in mid-July, and then with a second visit to Germany, to a new event at Oschersleben at the beginning of August.

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