From the back of the pack to the very front. Victory for Dirk Geiger in the first race of the EURO MOTO Supersport at Assen. There was no disputing this heroic feat. But Daniel Blin’s three-second penalty left a bitter aftertaste.
Despite starting from pole position, Dirk Geiger (Apreco-Yamaha) had to start from the pit lane because he is using his third engine. Daniel Blin (Automarket AF Racing Team) was set back three places for exceeding the speed limit. The same applied to Luca Göttlicher (LJ Racing).
As a result, Lennox Lehmann (Apreco-Yamaha), Marvin Siebdrath (MCA Honda), and Luca de Vleeschauwer (SWPN Yamaha) occupied the front row of the grid. The podium spots were handed to them on a silver platter, but none of them took them.
Lehmann took the lead at the start. Blin and Göttlicher pushed hard. Göttlicher even came out of the first lap in the lead. A driving error on the third lap dropped him back to fourth place. Two battling pairs emerged. At the front, Lehmann and Blin were locked in a battle. Close behind them, Göttlicher and Luca de Vleeschauwer were locked in a battle of their own.
It felt as if Blin was closing in on the Yamaha rider. The Dresden native was determined to avoid that at all costs. The memory of the EURO MOTO event in Oschersleben was still too fresh—that’s when the Pole had squeezed past him at the very last second in a very bold move. Today, Lehmann didn’t want to let the joy of his first win of the season slip away again.
Things got even more interesting in the eighth of 13 laps. Geiger had plowed through the field from the pit lane and was already in fifth place. He was the only one posting 1:41 lap times, and that took its toll over time. On the ninth lap, Luca de Vleeschauwer faltered and could no longer keep up the pace. Behind him, Freddie Heinrich—the only Kawasaki rider on course for a top-6 finish—crashed out of the race.
By this point, Geiger was already on course for a podium finish, and the battle at the front was fierce. Lehmann made a gear-shifting error. Blin darted past the Saxon. Suddenly, Blin found himself off the track, and Lehmann was back in the lead. Then came the decisive moment: While in the lead, Lehmann lost control and buried his first potential victory of the season in the gravel.
What happened in the final meters to the finish line was pure thrills. Geiger had charged through the pack on his Yamaha R9 and battled Blin and Göttlicher for the win in razor-thin maneuvers. In the end, Blin crossed the finish line first, just eleven thousandths of a second ahead of Geiger and Göttlicher. The official results told a different story. Because Blin had veered into the run-off area of the Ruskenhoek curve while battling Lehmann and hadn’t delayed for a second before returning to the track—as required by the rules—he was handed a 3-second time penalty. The race distance wasn’t long enough to warrant a long-lap penalty.
Geiger was declared the winner of the race. As a result, he took the lead in the overall standings from Blin. Göttlicher finished second on his MV Agusta and took third place on the podium. The Polish rider lodged a protest against the decision.
EURO MOTO Supersport, Race 1
1. Dirk GEIGER (GER/Yamaha)
2. Luca GÖTTLICHER (GER/MV Agusta)
3. Daniel BLIN (POL/Ducati)
4. Luca DE VLEESCHAUWER (NED/Yamaha)
5. Filip FEIGL (CZE/Yamaha)
6. Marvin SIEBDRATH (NED/Honda)
7. Filip NOVOTNÝ (CZE/Ducati)
8. Julius AHRENKIEL-FRELLSEN (DNK/Honda)
9. Jorke ERWIG (GER/Ducati)
10. Max STAUFFER (AUS/Yamaha
11. Julius Caesar RÖRIG (GER/Honda)
12. Peter FEIGL (CZE/Honda)
13. Juho KANTOLA (FIN/Ducati)