Yesterday the race seemed to fall literally fall into water, the weather conditions today were slightly better. The track was still slippery and muddy, but the men in the Prestige class were ready for the races of today in the second round of the Belgium Championships. Marcel van Drunen was one of the few men from Netherlands who took part in Bilstain.

In the highest class the rider from Eindhoven competed against riders as Marc Fraikin, currently leading the Dutch standings, and former world champion Eddy Seel, who made a one-time comeback for the occasion.

Time practice was somewhat dramatic. Van Drunen had to start in the first heat with only an eleventh time.  At the start he came through as ninth. Satisfied he passed the checkered flag as fifth.

The second heat, he managed to start sixth and Marcel raced his own race. With only one good trail, a large mud pool and little overtaking opportunities, he still knew to pass  a number of riders and he put himself to a third position. The gap with Seel and Fraikin was at that time about six seconds. Slowly the already forty-year-old rider managed to close the gap to the leaders and he even managed to set the fastest lap. However, Marc got problems with the front brake and Van Drunen took advantage of that. A well-deserved second place behind Seel was the result.

Overall result was a third place. Well deserved for the six-time Dutch Champion.

The Superfinal didn’t go as planned. After five laps a red flag ended the race because of a serious crash of Seel. Fortunately the race restarted. Marcel Van Drunen started as third. After two rounds he managed to pass Deridder and he had a gap of more than six seconds on Marc Fraikin. The speed of both men were pretty much the same and Van Drunen could maintain his position well. With a second place in thought he finished satisfied and unharmed. Marcel  can look back on a satisfying but wet and slippery week end.