Barry Baltus back into the Top10 in Valencia
18/09/2016Ajo Academy rider places tenth in latest round of RFME Spanish Championship.
Barry Baltus and the Ajo Academy concluded a weekend of work at the Comunitat Valenciana Circuit with 6 further points added to their total. The young Belgian rider finished in tenth place in the penultimate round of the RFME Spanish Championship, gaining further experience and returning amongst the Top10 after fighting with other riders in the last laps.
On Saturday, Baltus had a first qualifying session in which he never stopped improving. On his last lap he achieved a time of 1:45.785 to put him twelfth, less than a second off the best time of the session. In the afternoon, in QP2, he again lowered his best lap to 1:45.770, going seventh quickest in the session and earning a start from thirteenth on the grid.
Come raceday, the Ajo Academy rider made a good start, slotting into ninth by the end of the opening lap and challenging for the Top5. However, the leading group escaped and Barry Baltus continued in eleventh place for much of the remainder of the contest. In the final part of the race, when he had moved back into tenth, he was involved in a battle with several other riders, dropping back to eleventh with two laps to go. Finally, after the sanction of another rider, Baltus could step into the tenth position.
Barry Baltus currently has 60 points in the overall standings, lying sixth. The seventh and final event of the season for the PreMoto3 class will be held at the Circuito de Navarra on October 23rd.
Results PreMoto3 Race
1. Sergio Garcia (BeOn) 24:43.391
2. Julian Giral (BeOn) +0.416
3. Andreas Perez (BeOn) +0.564
4. Riccardo Rossi (RMU Moto) +0.587
5. David Salvador (Mir Racing) +0.638
10. Barry Baltus (Ajo Academy) +14.013
PreMoto3 Championship Standing 2016
1. Sergio Garcia (BeOn) 175 points
2. Alex Toledo (Mir Racing) 106 points
3. Julian Giral (BeOn) 81 points
4. Andreas Perez (BeOn) 67 points
5. Adrian Carrasco (Mir Racing) 62 points
6. Barry Baltus (Ajo Academy) 60 points
7 BARRY BALTUS
“This weekend I have gradually had a better feeling as the sessions went by. We have improved with every practice and progressed with the setup of the bike. On the first few laps I was able to ride with the leading group, but after a few mistakes under braking the others escaped and I ended up riding alone. On the last laps we had five riders fighting for tenth, and that helped me improve my times. I’m a little disappointed with the race, as this result does not reflect all the effort we’ve done with the team during this weekend. In any case, we will take the positives away from it: We have learned a lot from this experience and in Navarra we will be back stronger in order to return to the top positions.”