On 19.05. and 20.05.2018, the 300 curves of Gustav Havel took place in Horice, Czech Republic. The race can be considered the best-known and most demanding race in Czech road racing. Horice is considered one of the most difficult race tracks in Europe. The track with a height difference of 90 metres runs through the village and the forest. In some corners, the highest precision is required due to the lack of run-off areas; the driver should definitely not fall here.
Of course the Czech drivers in Horice are very powerful as they have often driven in low classes here and as they have a lot of knowledge about the track - that is home-field advantage. Many IRRC riders use the date in May to gain experience for the summer race.
Christian likes Horice very much and after his 2nd place last year he is one of the favourites in the super sport class. So the LSE team arrived in Horice on Thursday. Thanks again to the Road Racing Team Voith, who allowed us to use their Race Truck.
Two training sessions took place on Saturday. In the first training, we still had technical problems with the clutch and the throttle response of the engine. The clutch was already a problem during the race in Hengelo. Thus, a lot of fine-tuning was done in the lunch break in order to be able to drive a fast lap for the second training. Schmiddel managed this right at the beginning of the training and we on position 2 - straight after local hero Kamil Holan.
In the second half of the training, some riders improved and, after the end, Jochen Rotter and Thomas Walther were still on the first row of the grid ahead of Schmiddel. Schmiddel estimated, however, that it doesn't make sense to work on the qualifying time any more as the race is always different after all. Punctually after the end of the training, a strong thunderstorm set in; no more fast lap was possible in the following classes. If it had rained earlier, we would have had a serious problem with the qualifying time of training 1.
On Sunday noon, the race day started. Schmiddel came off well from the start and was on P3; but then Kamil Holan quickly passed all opponents from P4 and was no longer seen from then on. Schmiddel overtook Jochen Rotter later. He had already suspected that Jochen would not be able to keep his fast qualifying time throughout the entire race. In the middle of the race, there was a hot battle with P2 Thomas Walther. Schmiddel was on P2 for a lap, but the experienced Thomas Walther countered again and so the old order was established, whereby the two riders were really very close together. It was probably the most exciting battle in the whole race. There was always the danger of making a driving mistake - then Jochen Rotter would have benefited, as he was just behind the two rivals on P4. Kamil Holan and P1 were out of the question as he extended his lead to second and third place to almost 13 seconds. Thus, the order was fixed at the end of the race. P1 Kamil Holan, P2 Thomas Walther, P3 Christian Schmitz.
Of course, we celebrated Schmiddel's success. Unfortunately, the cool-down lap for the winners was cancelled because of a fall. But the following ceremony on the start/finishing straight is a great experience and a great honour for every driver. This is really an indescribable feeling for a racing driver and the reward for all the effort and time spent on motorsport.
For Schmiddel, but also for us as a team, the 3rd place and being on the podium again in Horice was a great result. If everything fits technically, Christian is always a candidate for a podium finish. In addition to speed, Schmiddel also shows consistency. We must also say on behalf of the sponsors that these results confirm our support for the last two years. We still remember well how some people in the racing circuit asked us in 2016/17 why we support a midfielder. We didn't have much experience in racing yet, but from our professional experience we have an good eye for people who really want to achieve something and really get weaving - and Schmiddel was such a person even then. Therefore, we are very happy that our gut feeling did not deceive us in this case
Of course, Schmiddel's success gives him power for the next races in the IRRC on 16 and 17 June 2018 in Terlicko in the Czech Republic. We are happy if the Schmiddel fans support us there again.
