Three brothers, six wheels, one race – the borst family hasn’t had that for a long time. The motorsport enthusiasts brother daniel (29 years old), marcel (30) and nicolas (33) from burkardroth started together at the enduro-championship of the MMC schweinfurt at the "schwarze pfutze" near rottershausen. Their results show how closely joy and sorrow lie together in the race.
Around 250 enduro riders competed in 17 different classes over two days. The competition was based on the age and gender of the participants (from children to seniors, men and women), but also on the age of the machines and the size of the engines. In addition to ascents and descents with different gradients and grades, different obstacles await the participants. Among them can be, for example, tree trunks and stone fields, but also tires.
Unlike motocross, enduro racing was not about the fastest times, but about who could complete as many laps as possible in a given time period (two or three hours, depending on the class). A lap lasted between eleven and 13 minutes, a whole race two to three hours. Whereby a time overrun of 59 seconds was allowed. Anything over that would result in points or time penalties.
This and the nature of the track were the conditions that the bruder borst had to face. They started in the so called "jedermann" class, where there were no restrictions. The field of participants was correspondingly coarse – 104 riders.
"It was the first time in more than ten years that the three of us started together in one class", nicolas borst makes clear the importance of the race for him and his brother. "The track was extremely soggy and muddy due to days of rain. The course was very demanding, but doable", remembers the oldest of the borst brothers.
The three of them handled the course in very different ways. Marcel, the middle one, rode a sovereign race without any major mistakes. The reward: 7th place among the 104 participants. "Daniel was a bit unlucky at the beginning and got stuck in traffic for a few minutes, after some riders in front of him couldn’t manage the driveways right away and thus blocked the track", reports nicolas borst. Nevertheless it was enough for him to 29. Place. The oldest of the brothers performed the worst. Actually nicolas did well in the beginning and was in the top 20. "In the middle of the race I crashed, but was able to continue pretty quickly and sorted myself right behind daniel. Despite the anger over the fall, the ambition was even greater when I saw my brother right in front of me."
But when the 33-year-old tried to attack again on the last lap, he overdid it. He crashed again, this time with harder consequences. His motorcycle got wedged between two tree trunks. "I spent a few minutes to get my enduro free again and lost some places. At the finish I learned that I had been given a time penalty because I had exceeded the time limit by two minutes." in the end only a disappointing 72nd place was achieved. Despite the difference in success, all three brothers thought the race was great, also because they had stayed in one piece.
Daniel borst started again on the second day of the competition, this time in a race of three hours. In dry conditions he held on to second place in his class until shortly before the end of the race. But then it started to rain again; the track became slippery. Daniel borst lost control of his bike on a stone staircase. He crashed. Despite bent handlebars and armatures he reached the help box. There his brothers helped him to straighten the enduro so that he could finish the race. It became a great 5 for the effort. Place.
Manuel schad from uchtelhausen, who like his borst brothers competes for MMC schweinfurt, was very successful. The 39-year-old took first place in two classes on his BMW R 75/6. Square off. He liked the rain because he could set fast times on a "grippy surface in the best conditions" could.