Our team debut in FIM SuperMoto of Nations in Bulgaria, Pleven have finished with 13^th place from 18 teams. In S1 class rode Matiss Dabols, in S2 – Dzintars Baltais and Open – Miks Peleckis.

On Saturday free practise, qualification and qualification race took place. In qualification race Matiss finished 14^th, Dzintars 15^th and Miks 7^th. That gave Latvian team 14^th place, chance to ride in A final and 14^th/30^th place on the starting grid.

Race formula is that from 6 team results best 5 count. Race 1 is S1 and S2 classes. In first corners a couple of riders crash delaying Latvian team, but guys fight hard and Matiss finish 22^nd and Dzintars 25^th. That give us 14^th place in Nations standings after Race 1.

In Race 2 participates S2 and Open class. The start is much better this time and first 3 laps Miks is riding in 8^th position but have to admit that standard bike in so high-level race is not really competitive and have to give up few positions. 6 laps before the end Dzintars bike have some technical failure but he manages to finish in 28^th place. Open class rider Miks started last lap in 12^th position but just 200 metres before finish line on the biggest jump one slower guy jumped in front of him resulting in pretty hard crash. Both riders collided in air and landed hard on asphalt surface. Miks lost his 12^th place, important points and injured his shoulder and damaged bike hard – broken radiator and throttle, twisted handlebars and exhaust and flat front tire just to name few things. However, Miks gets up, picks up the bike and finishes in 18^th position. Afher Race 2 Latvia holds 12^th place.

Mechanics have 1 hour to try and fix the KTM. In first moment it looks like it will not be possible to do it but just before the start everything is ready – not perfect but at least Miks can participate and get some points for the team.

First interesting thing happens in start – throttle gets stuck in middle position so Miks gets passed by a lot of riders slower than him. This happened few times later in race aswell. After hard fight he cross finish line in 17^th place, Matiss slid out on last lap - 27^th. Team is placed 13^th in overall standings. Estonian team (Edik Kuusk, Andre Kill and Martin Leok) – 11^th. Germany won leaving home team Bulgaria and Finland just behind them.

Miks commented : “I was really disappointed about the accident in first race. I fought hard for that 12^th place squeezing out everything I can from my new off-the-shelf bike. For Race 2 I had to freeze my shoulder and adjust to the bike because it was not 100% ok. Track was interesting. I had in mind one “trick” that could have improved my lap time by second or two, but the track outside the “main” line was quite dirty, and I have to use wider trajectories for that, so I didn’t risk. Riding same places as everyone else was hard because of a lack of power from my KTM. A lot of people really came up and checked if it was completely standard – they didn’t believe. It was a good experience and a lot of fun riding with so fast guys, I would really like to race in this level more often. ”

Team manager Egils Peleckis : “Unless you are 1^st, you can always want better result, but considering the fact that this for us was the first time in such competitive and high-level race, it’s OK. On our way to Bulgaria we had very good test day in Hungary. I am pleased with our rider effort and now we can concentrate on things to improve. But if our riders will not compete in some strong championship the improvement will be lot slower. Anyway, thanks to riders for their fighting spirit, team mechanics Atis Parums, Maris Valts, Andis Dabols, specially in the moment when they had to fix Miks bike in such a short time, Valdis Blodzins for his enthusiasm, team cooks Kristine and Aleksandra and everyone else who supported us.”