The second race of 2005 The dragrace at the small airfield in Hoscovice in the Czech republic was held under a clear blue sky under hot conditions. Like last year Knebl Drag Promotion did a great job, and made us all feel very welcome. Some riders did a test run on friday evening, while others were still in a trafic jam, arriving late at night, like Koch and Brusch. Next morning heads were counted, eleven riders showed up, so again a hard battle, to qualify for an eight field. On saturday evening there was already a lot of damage. Wolla and Heinze were hit the hardest.

On sunday morning a fourth round of qualifying was held, Frank Heitmann came out on top with a 8.61 followed by Axel Seifert with 8.7 sec. At noon a riders presentation was held, and the national anthem was played. Then it got real hot. It was hard to concentrate on racing with lots of bikinis flashing about while baking in the hot sun in the line up. First round saw an instant upset, Roman Sixta went to the semi finals while Heitmann was unable to leave the startline. Then Otto Bauer and Mike Brüsch both redlighted, BrÜsch being the first offender. Axel had an easy job outing Merse, he used nine seconds flat to do it. Last pair was dutch boys only: Harry van Schie against Herman Jolink. Both riders left side by side, but after Harry shifted gear, the engine stopped, while Herman raced to a new personal best on his little red Ducati: 8.933 sec. giving him lanechoice over Axel in the next round.

After checking the engines it was time for the semis. Otto Bauer realised the highest top speed of the weekend with an earsplitting 251 kmh, while beating Roman Sixta. Then Herman Jolink caused a huge upset by beating the champion! With a better reaction, giving him a slight advance Herman clocked 8.818. Axel managed to come along side, Herman: "I saw him riding beside me, so I got flatter on the bike, I was not riding perfecty level, but I didn't lean, to stay out of the wind." Axel clocked 8.822, both riders did 240kmh, and "the Hermanator" realized another personal best along the way! (and even breaking the "Supertwin Topgas Ducati" record held by Gunther Retsch, who realized it with a turbo and injection, while Herman uses 4 carburators only). With all Harleys eliminated...

....Herman and Otto had barely time to fuel up their bikes before the call came for the finals. Otto Bauer did 8.80 in the semifinals, so had lanechoise. His homemade machine is so powerfull, that Otto is capable of making a huge roling burnout, putting rubber on the track all the way till the 60 foot mark.

After doing so, Herman started to heat up the 7 inch rear tire, then both riders met at the startline. Jolink had the best reaction again, Otto had trust in capturing Herman with his great topspeed, but his bike lacked power at the top end of the track resulting in the picture below!

Otto took his loss very sportsmanlike, having already had a rich carreer as a former speedway champion. Herman screamed allmost louder then his bike at the prize giving ceremony, before collecting all his prizes. He is now the leader in the championship, 110 points ahead of Axel, but that could all change on our next race in Luckau. We would like to thank the Czech people for the meal and also the beer. It's funny ,the guy who doesn't drink, won most of it!

Pictures above by M-Art (team van Schie) and team Dragons MC.

More pictures are online on dragster.cz

Report of the first race here