“The Animal” Angelo Licciardi came out on top: The 21-year-old Belgian had already impressed with consistently fast lap times during practice. He carried that momentum into the first race and won ahead of pole-sitter Colin Velthuizen. The Dutch rider from NUTEC-RT Motorsports by SKM-Kawasaki finished second, 1.8 seconds behind. Behind him was Ruben Bijman on the fastest Yamaha in the IDM junior class field. The 15-year-old Dutchman prevailed after laps of position battles in a tight group of four.
By the second lap, Licciardi had already taken the lead of the 33-rider field. “I put a lot of pressure on to control the race from the front,” said the Kawasaki rider from Genk, describing the race. In the 13th lap, he capped it off by setting the fastest lap time of the first race with a time of 1:37.703. He cheered, “That was a perfect race.”
The Belgian backed up his commanding performance with these words: “I turned up the pressure in the final stages to pull away from the rider behind me. I wanted to build up a bigger lead going into the last lap,” said Licciardi, whose Ninja 400 is prepared by the Swiss Weber team.
Velthuizen, who finished second, was frustrated at the finish line: “We were held up by a lapped rider.” The fastest rider in practice lost the lead and had no chance against his teammate—who is seven years his senior—in the final stages. He wants to turn the tables in the second race. Knut Beinlich, manager of the team supported by Kawasaki Motors Germany, also believes his protégé is capable of success: “Colin is in good shape to win.”
Beinlich was delighted with the solid team performance of his trio of riders in the first race. His son Troy moved up to fifth place, right behind IDM leader Rick Dunnik (Yamaha). Beinlich Jr. had been forced to miss the first qualifying session due to his final exams. At least he was able to relegate defending champion Toni Erhard (KTM) to sixth place. Behind the Schwarzenberg native came Micky Winkler, the third rider from the NUTEC-RT Motorsports by SKM-Kawasaki team.