There have been several hard-fought Mains over the inaugural Spanish Flat Track Championship, but round six in Valencia was the most hotly contested, right down to the last lap. Four riders held the lead but the eventual winner was Pro Flat Track points-leader Ferran Cardus (Grau Suzuki) who eventually found a way past Franc Serra (Alonso Honda), his rival for the crown. Cardus got another of his frequent bad starts in the Pro Flat Track Final on the Valencia quarter mile and found himself eighth on the exit from turn two on lap one while early leaders Oliver Brindley (NoyesCamp Kawasaki), Nico Terrol (NicoGas Honda) and Serra broke clear of the pack. Early leader Brindley, down from Britain for the penultimate round of the Spanish series, ran wide letting Terol and Serra through and it took Serra until half distance to fight his way past Terol. By then, Cardus had charged up to third and needed only another lap to sweep past Terol and set out after his principal series rival.
Over the remaining laps, Cardus tried repeatedly to get a wheel inside but Serra had him covered. Then, with three laps to go, yellow flags were out briefly and Serra said after the race, "I let off slightly before I saw there was no danger and that cost me a few meters. It was a mistake on my part."
Cardus had already given up on trying to pry the Honda rider off the line from the inside and made his final push just after clearing the turn four yellow flag. He entered turn one outside Serra and, although he was unable to complete the pass, his drive out of turn two was better and allowed him to ride round the outside of Serra to take the lead at the start of the final lap.
Serra then ran wide at turn one in an attempt to fight back and it was Cardus´ race with Terol coming home third. With this win Cardus now leads Serra by 16 points with only one race remaining: Coníl de la Frontera (Cadiz) on November 5. Terol, trailing by 25 points, could tie Cardus if he won and Cardus failed to score, but Cardus would still prevail due to having the same number on wins and more second places.
Cardus, nephew of former World Roadracing 250 star Carlos Cardus, was elated. "The important thing when you get a bad start is not to settle into the rhythm of the guys you get stuck behind," said Cardus. "Brad Baker taught me a lot when he first came over in 2014 and he´s helped me improve my riding every time he´s come to Spain."
The winner of the Spanish Pro Flat Track Championship will be invited by AMA Pro Racing to take part in the 2017 Daytona TT and provided with a machine for the all new .6 mile TT track at Daytona Speedway.
Sastre clinches Rookies title and Cano extends lead over Navarro in Master
Seventeen-year-old Ferran Sastre´s perfect season on the NoyesCamp Kawasaki continued as he won for the sixth time in the Rookie class and scored his fifth overall victory in the combined Rookies/Master final. Guillermo Cano (ESR) pushed Sastre for most of the race but was content to come home second, increasing his lead to 16 points over Vicent Navarro (Grau Suzuki) who was third overall ahead of Ferran Más (NoyesCamp Kawasaki).
LATEST NEWS: Former AMA P Grand National Champion (GN1) Brad Baker will return to Spain for the final round. Baker won the opening two races of the Spanish series and finished his AMA P season with a convincing win at Santa Rosa 10 seconds clear of the title battle between eventual champion Bryan Smith and 2016 Champion Jared Mees.
The races from Valencia were streamed live but can be seen in a shortened, edited program (in Spanish) as of 8:00 PM Sunday, October 9, Spanish time via this link.