After an exciting season opener, the ADAC Northern Europe Cup is busy gearing up for the second race meeting of the season, which takes place this weekend (19th - 21st May) during the endurance world championships in the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben. The 30 or so riders entered in the ADAC NEC this year will be fighting for double points at Oschersleben, as two races will be held on Sunday.
The second ADAC NEC meeting of the season will kick off with a 25-minute practice session at 9:35 am on Friday prior to the first 30-minute quali of the weekend later in the afternoon at 1:55 pm. The ADAC NEC will stage a second qualifying on Saturday, which will decide grid slots in conjunction with the results from the first race against the clock. Positions on the grid will remain the same for both races.
The first race covering 17 laps of the 3.696-kilometre circuit gets under way at 10:35 am on Sunday. The second race over the same distance is scheduled to start at 3:30 pm on Sunday afternoon.
Standard class: Can the champion defend the top spot?
In the season opener at Assen, Dirk Geiger (14, GER) continued exactly where he left off at the end of the 2016 season - at the top of the Standard class. The ADAC Sports Foundation protégé won the opening round, but his rivals were not far behind, so Geiger now intends to make sure that he is well prepared for this second race weekend at the Oschersleben Motorsport Arena.
Geiger: "I know the circuit really well and have always been very quick here. We struggled with one or two problems last year, and I'm obviously hoping they don't crop up again this year. I particularly like the first sector and the triple apex turn at Oschersleben. Overall, the circuit has plenty of variety, which I think is great." He has a clear goal for the second and third races of the season: "I intend to win!"
But Geiger will not have an easy time of it, since his rivals were only a few tenths of a second down on the 14-year-old at Assen - the main one among them being Kiefer Racing team-mate Toni Erhard (16, GER), who finished second in the Netherlands. Philipp Freitag (19, GER) also made a successful start with a podium and intends to continue in the same vein this weekend. Rick Dunnik (15, NED) in P4 and Luca de Vleeschauwer (14, NED) in P5 in the run-up to this second round of racing in 2017 will also be looking to attack.
Ernst Dubbink is the man to beat in the GP class
The start of the race was action-packed, but Ernst Dubbink (28, NED) quietly bided his time until the end and finally secured the first win of 2017 in the GP class. Dubbink: "Assen is my home track, so winning here is obviously always quite special. Oschersleben is also a very interesting circuit with great turns, some of which are much slower than at Assen, so you need more speed when accelerating out of the corners."
However, his fellow competitors will not make things easy for Dubbink, especially the two title favourites, Tim Georgi (16, GER) and Walid Khan Soppe (17, NED), who retired during the opener. "Still, I hope I can secure another podium at Oschersleben. That would be a great result," concluded Dubbink, who leads the overall standings by 25 points.
Kevin Orgis (17, GER) placed second with a solid start to the season, followed by Sasha de Vits (15, BEL). Soppe, Orgis and de Vits are also contesting the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup and as a result, have the experience gained from one more race before this second ADAC NEC meeting gets under way. Jan-Ole Jähnig (16, GER) is in fourth place in the GP category after the first race weekend and Ruben Bijman (13, NED) fifth.