Bradl victory keeps family tradition alive

For 125cc rider Stefan Bradl, a maiden Grand Prix victory at Brno last weekend had double significance. Triumph at the Czech Republic added the teenager´s name to the list of lower cylinder category competitors breaking their duck in 2008, and also meant that he joined the family Grand Prix winners club.

Bradl´s father Helmut is a former 250cc World Championship runner-up, and had particular success in the 1991 season –including a victory at Brno with a quarter-litre Honda machine. His progeny´s maiden win makes it two generations of the family to have experienced Grand Prix success, a fact that was not lost on the younger Bradl.

`I´m really happy that now we have two guys in the family who have won a Grand Prix; It´s really been a great day,´ said the Grizzly Gas Kiefer Racing rider after his memorable moment on the podium.

`I started very well, and after I got to the front I was able to control the gap. The weekend had been really hard for me because of a technical problem, but we resolved this in the Sunday warmup.´

Watching on in the Aprilia team´s garage was another German with a World Championship pedigree. Ralf Waldmann –the rider who competed during the intervening years between the respective Bradl victories- now occupies the spot of Team Chief for Grizzly Gas Kiefer Racing, and was understandably overjoyed with a first victory for the fledgling outfit.

`It´s so good to see Stefan on the top of the podium. His father also won here, and I got some very good results at Brno too. Now he´s in the club! The bike had a good performance level here, and Stefan rode a great race; he saw Mike di Meglio getting closer to him at the end and pushed just a little bit more.´

Bradl is making his full-time return to the 125cc series this year, having nearly walked away from the sport at the beginning of 2007. He currently lies third in the 125cc World Championship classification.