Race report Race 2, Zandvoort, May 14th.

Last Sunday night the team met in pitbox #9 at Zandvoort. Together we unloaded all our stuff and, armed with a plan on how we wanted to set up the pitbox, we started with the preparations for the next day. Both bikes had been repaired after the unfortunate crashes at Assen and we were ready for our second race.

After a good night’s sleep, we gathered at 7:30 am on Monday for a team briefing to discuss finances and our strategy for the race. At first we decided we would wait until the fog cleared before we would go out on the track but as it turned out, Ine was ready and eager to go out for the first qualifying session of the day.

The morning went really well: the sun pushed through the fog and the girls took the bikes out for a couple of sessions and qualified for 11th and 12th position on the start grid.

After lunch, both bikes went out for some more practice sessions and to make sure race tactics and location / visibility of our pitboard were clear.

At 13:50 pm both CPF teams lined up at the startgrid: Bike #98 in 11th position and Bike #19 in 12th position.

After some team pictures at a sunny grid, made by Actiephoto, we started the engines. At 14:00 pm it was time for our second race and we were ready to hit the throttle.

The weather conditions were great and both bikes were doing laptimes of 2.06 - 2.09 minutes. Everything was going fine, until lap 9...

Suddenly there was a red flag and it appeared to be for CPF Bike #98. When we saw the ambulance go out on the track and time kept ticking away, we realized that this was a very bad crash.

Our team could do no more than wait for some news. We were all terribly worried and hoped for the best...

After an hour and a half the track was cleared, the rider on her way to the hospital and the race was about to continue.

We still had our CPF Bike #19 in the race and we had to decide if we wanted to continue or stop. It was not an easy decision to take, and we talked it through with the rest of the team. Some girls just didn't want to ride anymore because they were still in shock. Our thoughts were with the pilot involved in the crash obviously.

After a good talk with the remaining team members (some had left to the hospital already), we decided together to continue the race. And so we went for it!

Bike #19 was in the race again and hit the throttle. 

We had a little more than 1,5 hours to race and needed two pitstops and two pilot changes to make it to the finish.

We formed one techcrew with the remaining team members of both teams CPF #98 and CPF #19. Together as one!

Because of the bad visibillity of our pitboard, we decided to only show it when it was time to come in.  The pilots rode as hard as they could… gazzzz and our techcrew gave their very best at the pitstops.

We are very proud to announce that CPF bike #19 finished in 6th place!

After the race we took a picture and held up a sign 4 our pilot. This race we dedicate to you sweetie! Our thoughts are with you and your family
xxx

Additional news from the crash:
CPF# 98 had a very bad crash during last Monday’s race. Out of respect for the rider, her family and their privacy, we prefer to keep all information related to the incident as private and we do not have any additional information to share. However, we can tell you that the rider is out of danger but still badly injured.

We kindly ask all of you to respect their privacy. As a family of motorcyclists and a very close team we’re all with the rider and her family on this and we want to respect their privacy in this moment. We hope you can understand and do the same. 

Thank you.
The CPF Ladies team