3-days of excellent mx-racing at the Westfalen-Halle
I was very honoured when I received the invitation to the Jubilee-Event "25-years of Supercross in Dortmund". For the first time, since 2004, I attended again this prestigious event in Germany. I must admit, quality of racing has improved, however quality of hospitality in the Press-Bureau has nearly vanished, compared to previous years, when Dortmund offered the highest standard in media support.
 Erika and Bernd Kroemer in Dortmund
Photo by: Holger Kroemer Friday-Night:
Rodriq Thain from France was the "Überflieger" on this night, won all the heats, until the referee made a major mistake in the final race. Florent Richier blocked his countryman in the start-bent and Thain crashed heavily. Ready for a re-start Thain climbed on his bike but had to learn that he will be excluded from the Final! Believe me, he was fuming. Same applies to Fabien Izoird and Canadian Doug Dehaan who were leading the pack before the aformentioned crash occurred. After the re-start it was Frenchman Cyrille Coulon who set the pace and only Mike Borwn and Florent Richier could follow his speed.
 Mike Brown (USA, Honda) / Photo by: Holger Kroemer Result:- Cyrille Coulon (FRA) Suzuki
- Florent Richier (FRA) Kawasaki
- Mike Brown (USA) Honda
- Gordon Crockard (IRL) Honda
- Travis Preston (USA) Kawasaki
Saturday-Night:
Saturdy night was the night of Frenchman Thain. His threat to refrain from ever racing again in Dortmund, was forgotten. Julian Vanni, his contrymen, was his biggest competitor and only a fatal crash in the last lap by Vanni was a victory delived on a silver-platter. Coulon the winner of the previous night also was hampered by a crash in the start bent and only finished 7th. Daniel Siegl from Germany however was the heroe of the crowd. After a stupid mistake in the “last chance qualifier”, the jury supplied him with a wild-card for the final. Siegl fought like a tiger, the crowd pushed him…pushed him too hard. Nevertheless his fight with US-Boy Travis Preston was the talk for many days after this event.
 Rodriq Thain (FRA, Suzuki) / Photo by: Holger Kroemer Result:- Rodriq Thain (FRA) Suzuki
- Florent Richier (FRA) Kawasaki
- Mike Brown (USA) Honda
- Julian Vanni (FRA) KTM
- Travis Preston (USA) Kawasaki
Sunday-Afternoon:
Who would become “König von Dortmund” that was the question, after all he would receive a Toyota Yaris motorcar out of the box! Coulon had to go via the “last chance qualifier”, but played no major role in the final. Richier had a bad start and could not move forward from his 7th position. Brown, trailing behind leader Vanni, knew that he was in the lead and made sure that Joaquim Rodrigues would stay in distance.
 Florent Richier (FRA, Kawasaki) / Photo by: Holger Kroemer Then it happened, Thain in 4th position crashed after the finish-table and lay unconcious on the track. Because 2 thirds of the race were over the referees stopped the race, thus giving the overall victory to Brown one point ahead of Richier.
Result:- Julian Vanni (FRA) KTM
- Mike Brown (USA) Honda
- Joaquim Rodrigues (POR) KTM
- Doug Dehaan (CAN) Honda
- Florent Richier (FRA) Kawasaki
Total points "König von Dortmund": - Mike Brown (USA) Honda, 52 points
- Florent Richier (FRA) Kawasaki, 51
- Cyrille Coulon (FRA) Suzuki, 42
- Julian Vanni (FRA) KTM, 38
- Travis Preston (USA) Kawasaki, 31
- Rodriq Thain (FRA) Suzuki, 25
- Doug Dehaan (CAN) Honda, 23
- Gordon Crockard (IRL) Honda, 19
- Fabien Izoird (FRA Kawasaki, 17
- Adrien Lopes (ESP, Honda ,17
In the SX 2 Class it was frenchman Marvin Musquin of the Sturm Racing-Team who demonstrated excellent sx-skills. He won the "Prinz of Dortmund" title ahead of Rinus van de Ven (Netherlands) and Germanys 13 year old superstar Ken Roczen.
 Ken Roczen (GER, Suzuki) / Photo by: Holger Kroemer Total points "Prin von Dortmund":- Marvin Musquin (FRA) Kawasaki, 75 points
- Rinus Van den Ven (NED) KTM, 56
- Ken Roczen (GER) Suzuki, 40
- Ashley Greedy (IRL) Honda, 35
- Nick Evennou (USA) Kawasaki, 33
- Filip Neugebauer (CZE) Kawasaki, 33
- Jack Brunell (GBR) TM, 26
- Tobin Kyle (USA) Kawasaki, 23
- Swian Zanoni (BRA) KTM, 23
- Robert Sturm (GER) Kawasaki, 18
 Robert Sturm (GER, Kawasaki) and Tobin Kyle (USA, Kawasaki)
Photo by: Holger Kroemer
Besides knotting some contacts to teams and riders, there is more to report from my trip to Germany. On the evening 22nd of January a met Mr. Jörg Bauer (Lufthansa) at the Frankfurt airport in order to discuss support to bring european riders to the annual Namibian Inter-Series. Mr. Bauer will do his utmost possible to help us. This is not a breakthrough yet, but a first step in the right direction. So please cross your fingers that something positiv comes out!
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