Le Mans; BMW Boxer Cup Report
Added on Monday, May 17th, 2004 by Carole Nash Editor
Le Mans; BMW Boxer Cup Report
Young Brits earn valuable points in sunny France.
Britain’s young riders earned valuable championship points in the second round of the international BMW Motorrad BoxerCup (which supports the prestigious MotoGP championship) at a sunny Le Mans circuit in France. Richard Cooper (21) finished eighth, Barry Burrell (17) was 12th and Calvin Hogan (19) crossed the line in 15th.
Cooper, from Nottingham, qualified for the Le Mans race in tenth position and started the race from the third row of the grid. The BMW Motorrad Team Great Britain rider had a good start and kept up with the lead pack of ten riders. During the race, Stéphane Mertens crashed and Sébastien Legrelle ran off the track ahead of Cooper. Cooper crossed the line in eighth position.
2004 is Barry Burrell’s second year of competing in the international BoxerCup series. The 17-year-old made an impressive start to the season (at Daytona) when he finished ninth and took an early lead in the YoungStar championship (for the “best rider under the age of 21″).
On race day at Le Mans Burrell, who found himself stricken by a mysterious illness, visited the track medics who diagnosed that he had picked up a virus. Luckily for Burrell they decided that he would be fit enough to race.
Burrell from County Durham started the BoxerCup race from the fourth row of the grid in 16th position. He had a good start and somehow managed to battle his way through the field to finish in 12th position. Completely exhausted, and still sick after the race, Burrell collapsed. Thankfully, he is now on the way to recovery.
Le Mans was Calvin Hogan’s second ever BoxerCup race. The young 19-year-old from Kent qualified in 18th position and started from the fifth row of the grid. He had a good start but dropped back to 19th in the early stages. He then started a determined recovery, fighting his way back through the field to finish 15th.
Austrian rider, Thomas Hinterreiter won the second round of the BMW Motorrad BoxerCup 2004 series. German rider, Markus Barth was second and American Brian Parriott was third.
The BMW Motorrad BoxerCup 2004 continues in Europe where it will be a support race at six more of the MotoGP rounds. The next round is at Mugello in Italy on 5 June. The winner of the series will drive home in a BMW M3 Coupe.
