Luca Nierychlo takes the lead in the DM85
The fourth round of the German Youth Motocross Championship 85cc took place last Sunday in Gräfentonna, Thuringia. Luca also arrived second in the point standings with the aim of taking the lead in the DM85. Since Oliver Jüngling is out due to a broken thigh, there was a high probability that there would be a new front runner.
As is often the case, the 85cc class was divided into two groups of 25 riders each, so that the best 20 riders in each semi-final would fight for points in the final in the late afternoon.
In qualifying in the morning, Luca was able to find his flow straight away and also set the best time in group one. Pole position for the semi-finals of Group 1.
After the lunch break we went on the sighting lap on the very heavily watered and therefore extremely slippery hard surface track. A good eye for new lines and feeling with the throttle hand were now required. The driver of the AK Bouw-Hutten Metaal Junior Team was able to bring his 85 Gas Gas through the first corner as the front runner and led the field, followed by Simon Hahn and Florian Hellmuth.
After just a few laps, Luca was able to pull away from his pursuers, held on to the lead until the finish and won the Group 1 semi-final with a lead of around 12 seconds over Simon Hahn. Tim Schröter rounded out the top three of the first group.
Things couldn’t have been more exciting for the finale, as the top five riders on the starting grid all shone throughout the day with high intensity and almost identical lap times.
At the start, Neo Nindelt was able to secure the holeshot, followed by Simon Hahn, Raphael Hellmuth, Luca Nierychlo and Luca Frank. Unfortunately, Hahn fell during the race and was unable to continue fighting for a podium place. Luca moved up to third place and tried to reduce the gap to second place, but when the lapping started it was difficult for the leading group not to lose time. As a result, the gaps in the top five always remained pretty much the same and the ranking no longer changed at the finish.
Luca was able to secure another podium place with third place in the final. As in the last DM race in Lugau, Raphael Hellmuth came second and Neo Nindelt was able to take his first win of the season.
The ADAC Hessen-Thuringia sponsored driver has now moved up to first place in the championship and is heading into the second half of the German championship season as the leader.
Luca in conversation: “I’m super happy with my performance over the entire weekend because I had a lot of fun on the bike and had great races with the other guys. But I’m particularly happy about taking the lead in the championship, because I didn’t expect that at all at the beginning of the season.”