BMW Motorrad Motorsport: Second place victory at Erzberg.

Munich. The extremely tough terrain of the Erzberg Rodeo 2008 turned out
to be a perfect play ground for the two BMW Motorrad factory riders
Andreas Lettenbichler and Gerhard Forster and their BMW G 450 X. With a
sensational second place and a further top ten result BMW conquered its
set position in the extreme enduro scene. The weather was perfect, and
"Letti" even had the chances of scoring first place at the
final Hare Scramble which is the highlight of the Erzberg week end. He
had a perfect start and was leading the field when he broke one foot
peg touching a rock at checkpoint 2. He had to ride nearly the whole
race with this severe handicap. And then of all things the gear shaft
broke just when he was struggling through the rocks of the
"Gerichtsgraben", one of the most brutal parts of the race,
leaving him with first gear only in that torturous section. But in the
end only the Polish rider Taddy Blazusiak was faster. The rest of the
world's top enduro riders, most of them equipped with light two stroke
bikes, had no chance to beat the 33 year old man from Rosenheim. The
7th place of Gerhard Forster is a great performance as well, and he too
could have finished even better if there hadn't been that infamous
"Gerichtsgraben". There he somehow lost the good track and had
to find his way back to the racing line over big solid rocks which cost
him 2 places. The Hare Scramble 2008 was the toughest in Erzberg
history so far. Particularly the last section of the race called the
"Reitwagenklamm" was virtually not ridable. Andreas
Lettenbichler already showed a phantastic performance one day before
the Hare Scramble at the Rodeo-X Endurocross. He was surrounded by the
17 best extreme enduro riders of the world but nevertheless finished in
second position on this very selective course which had the character
of an indoor enduro world championship track. The two prologue runs
for qualification were a mere formality for the two BMW factory riders.
With a 9th and a 13th place they ensured their start places in the
first row. Andreas Lettenbichler: "Erzberg was harder than ever and
packed with dirty tricks. The Gerichtsgraben was absolutely crazy, and
the Reitwagen-Klamm even topped it. There were 20 people with ropes
pulling up bikes and riders. Without outside help it would have been
impossible. At the second check point I broke my foot peg, and then of
all things the gear shaft broke so that I had to ride the rest in first
gear. I just tried to take it easy and to ride smoothly to the finish,
easy as that..." Gerhard Forster: "It could have gone better
for me. I had a bad start and fought my way up to 5th position. In the
Gerichtsgraben I got off the right track and found myself stuck in the
rocks. That cost me two places. The bike was working perfectly. It is
just so much fun to ride the 450 up banks, just open the throttle and
off you go." Team manager Wolfgang Fischer: "We were at
Erzberg only with a small team because we had parallel races in
Walldorf and in Spain. Our small but highly motivated team proved the
potential of a modern four stroke bike and that we can compete with the
armada of light two strokes. BMW four stroke bikes in the top ten, the
result speaks for itself. The performance of Andreas Lettenbichler is
sensational. He was leading the race until check point 2. Then he lost a
foot peg and as a result he couldn't keep up with Blazusiak. I am very
happy to see that we are ready to compete for top positions. Now we can
attack, let's go! Photos of the race are available at
www.speedbrain.de/press (User: speedbrain, Passwort: press).