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Guest Rider Blake Gutzeit dominates MelzExdrähm 2018

The most difficult track of the season challenged the World stars

The SHC Meltewitz put a lot of work into the track for the 3rd round of the Hard Enduro Series Germany season. Meltewitz was also affected by the dryness, so the fire brigade was requested to water the track for the prologue.

About 140 riders started at the 10th edition of the Melz Exdrähm, which after a few years started again with a prologue. Divided into groups according to the result of the Federal Mogul Extreme Enduro Prologes, each participant completed 2 laps on the Superenduro similar lap. Beside the fastest pilots of the HESG season 2018 Blake Gutzeit (South Africa) and Mitch Carvolth (USA) were 2 absolute top riders in the first starting group. With a riding time of 2:16 minutes, Gutzeit set the fastest time, which was not beaten by any pilot.

There was a moment of shock when Kevin Gallas crashed heavily just before the finish, but his lap time was still enough for second place ahead of Leon Hentschel. With this result the lead in the Prolog Award supported by X-Grip turned around again. New leader of the table is Kevin Gallas, who got the full points for 2nd place because Gutzeit is only a guest, ahead of Leon Hentschel. The starting grid for the Melz Exdrähm main race was determined by the prologue result.

10 riders formed a starting row which was sent onto the track 30 seconds apart. The SHC took a lap time of more than 25 minutes out of its terrain, this Fastest Lap was taken by Blake Gutzeit. The South African took the lead right after the start and enchanted over 1000 fans with his driving style. His lead was never in danger on this day, even a crash in the penultimate lap did not upset the Superenduro Junior World Champion 2016 / 2017.

After 3 hours and 17 minutes he was very happy to have finally reached the goal. His opinion about the race was very positive: "The track really challenged me. I didn't expect it to be that tough, a really demanding track. The character of an extreme race is real here". Leon Hentschel won the full points in the championship. Gutzeit is only a guest Rider, he doesn't get any points and only starts in the daily classification. Hentschel overtook Kevin Gallas at the halfway point of the race and also pulled away from the leader of the standings. At the finish the two separated by one lap. But both are happy with their result, Gallas keeps the lead in the standings with a lead of 5 points: "I didn't really ride my bike for many weeks, so my goal was simply to keep the lead in the standings, which I managed to do.”

A big showdown is now expected for the final in Schwepnitz. While in the special classifications seniors ( Dirk Peter ) and juniors ( Leon Hentschel ) the table leaders are missing only 1 point, the lead of Gallas has melted down to 5 points before Hentschel. The finale of the premiere season in the HardEnduroSeries Germany will take place on 03.11. with the newly created event of the Isegrim Enduro´s.