BRITS BLITZ BRNO – HINTERREITER WINS 2004 TITLE
22 August 2004 - BMW Motorrad GB

While Roberto Panichi (Italy) and Stephane Mertens (Belgium) decided to turn the penultimate round of the BMW Motorrad International BoxerCup into a private battle for first place, the young Great Britain team focused determinedly on winning the YoungStar Championship.

In cloudy but dry conditions the three Brits, Richard Cooper, and teenagers Barry Burrell and Calvin Hogan started from third, 14th and 15th respectively. Cooper got off the line well and was immediately embroiled in a battle for fourth place. Behind him, Barry Burrell and Calvin Hogan started to inch their way through the field. Hogan, in particular, put in a storming ride and was just behind Cooper when he was badly baulked by a back-marker and lost four places. Meanwhile, Burrell continued the hard fight to improve on his qualifying position.

Up front, Panichi and Mertens were asking no quarter – and neither were prepared to give it. The race looked as if it would go down to the wire, or in this case, the finishing line. Suddenly, on the last lap, Mertens’ R1100 S started to suffer from gremlins in the gearbox. This left the hard-riding Belgian vulnerable to attack and Brian Parriott (USA) went straight for the throat. He took second place on the last corner and left the head-shaking Belgium to cross the line in third. Austria’s Thomas Hinterreiter finished sixth and wrapped up the championship with one round to go.

Richard Cooper took the flag in seventh overall and was the first YoungStar contender to cross the line. This extended his lead in the integrated Championship and is now 11 points ahead of French rider Guillaume Dietrich. Calvin Hogan’s storming ride secured him 10th place while the unlucky Burrell had to be content with 12th.

BMW Motorrad Great Britain Team Manager Mark Fisher was delighted: “What a team!” he said. “They were magnificent today and now Richard only has to keep things together in the last round to win the Championship and claim the car that already has his name on it [a Mini Cooper is the prize for winning the YoungStar Championship]. Calvin and Barry also rode superbly and I couldn’t have asked for more from any of them.”

Hinterreiter’s championship win came after a string of six podium finishes from seven races, that included two race wins on his R1100 S. The Austrian will be presented with his prize – a BMW M3 Coupe – at the final round in Spain.

The final round of the series – and the last-ever BoxerCup race – will take place at Valencia in Spain on 30 October 2004.

Footnote
The 2004 BoxerCup is Richard Cooper’s third year in a series that is staged alongside the elite MotoGP championship (excluding the opening round at the Daytona 200). Richard’s impressive riding ability, while still a teenager, helped him secure a race win in his debut year at Spa. He then repeated the feat at the UK round of the 2003 series at Oulton Park. Last year Richard finished sixth overall – ahead of many world-class riders.

Barry Burrell had his first taste of international racing when he joined the BoxerCup series last year and showed his youthful ability by taking the race lead at the Oulton Park and Assen rounds. Impressively, he also set the lap record at Assen. Barry is a contender in the BMW YoungStar championship for the “best rider in the series under the age of 21”. The winner will be presented with a Mini Cooper at the end of the series.

ACU Academy graduate, Calvin Hogan is the GB team’s new recruit and is excited about testing his precocious racing talent on the international stage.

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