‘Letti’ had already excelled during the inaugural “Rocket Ride” event opener last Thursday. The German factory rider and his BMW G 450 X easily qualified for the final by finishing in the top three in both the quarter and semi finals. Lettenbichler then mastered the tricky three-storey uphill battle with speed and finesse to clinch a superb second place finish in the superfinal.
The ‘Prologue’ on the Saturday turned out to be a rather relaxed affair for both Lettenbichler and his team-mate Gerhard Forster. The focus of this race is primarily to secure a front position on the grid for Sunday’s main event – the Hare Scramble – which is known to be the world’s toughest one-day Extreme Enduro. Out of 1,500 participants that took place, Lettenbichler captured 13th and Forster 19th place, successfully making it onto the front row for Sunday’s battle of endurance.
The highly anticipated Hare Scramble traditionally starts on Sunday at 12 noon. The gruelling race to the top of the ‘iron mountain’ saw Lettenbichler claim an early lead, but the 34-year-old was taken out by another rider at the first downhill section and – to make matters worse – the two bikes then got tangled up. Suddenly chasing the pack had become the new order of the day for Letti!
However, this didn’t take long and Letti was soon back inside the top three, eventually climbing up to second place with a fine move in a slippery forest section. In the following tricky rock section, Lettenbichler was passed by some of the trials pros, but that proved to be a tactical move. While Lettenbichler paced himself nicely, his rivals dropped like flies due to the sweltering heat.
“The excellent traction of my bike paid off,” Lettenbichler said later. “What a brutal affair though – there were rocks everywhere and lots of new sections this year. There were no lines to keep riding, and all you could do was drag and tow the bike.”
In the end, after two hours, 25 minutes and 17 seconds, Lettenbichler finished third, behind Poland’s Taddy Blazusiak and Britain’s Graham Jarvis. However, Letti had special reason to be satisfied with his result, as his BMW G 450 X was by far the best four-stroke performer among a sea of lightweight two-strokes.
Meanwhile Gerhard Forster did his own thing, coming home in ninth position and achieving his goal of a top ten result.
BMW Motorrad South Africa’s Jade Gutzeit, who enjoyed the support of BMW Motorsport at Erzberg, managed to score a fine 15th place. Interestingly, out of 500 riders that qualified for the Hare Scramble, only 21 made it to the mountaintop.
Erzberg Hare Scramble results
1. Tadeusz Blazusiak (POL), 1:41,46
2. Graham Jarvis (GBR), 2:22,05
3. Andreas Lettenbichler (GER), 2:25,17, BMW Motorrad Motorsport
4. Ben Hemingway (GBR), 3:27,48
5. Cory Graffunder (CAN), 3:37,50
6. Rory Mead (NZL), 3:38,02
7. Dan Hemingway (GBR), 3:54,24
8. Chris Birch (NZL), 3:55,01
9. Gerhard Forster (GER), 3:58,21, BMW Motorrad Motorsport
10. Kyle Redmond (USA), 4:08,49
BMW / Verena Kössner
MR/LF
