Mertens – 100th career win at Mettet!

Peter Linden and Stéphane Mertens won last weekend’s 4 hours of Liege, the Classic Endurance event held at Mettet, notching Merten’s 100^th win.

The Sweatshop Phase One Kawasaki was put on pole by Mertens with a blistering lap of 1.12.3 secs, with Mettet first timer, Peter Linden also topping his group with a 1.13.9 second lap.

The Richard Hubin Harris Suzuki qualified second and the British Steve Boam/Steve Clarke Harris Suzuki was third.

The full grid (33 are allowed) contained no less than four world endurance champions and exotica abounded! Moto Martins, Harris’s, P&M’s, through to TTF1 900 Ducati twins. One team even tried their luck on a TR 750 Suzuki two stroke. There really were some very serious entries – but regrettably arch rivals, the MotoBel Guzzi team was not there.

The race was held in two, 2 hour legs, one on the Saturday afternoon and the other on Sunday. Mertens and Linden won them both. The second leg was a real highlight with Mertens dicing with Richard Hubin, swopping the lead for the first 25 minutes. Hubin eventually faded but finished the leg in 2^nd.

Peter Linden’s 2013 performance continues to be impressive. Second fastest of the weekend and that despite being new to Mettet. At this one he played the support rider for a change, and who could want a better partner. For the reunited pair, racing again for the first time in 13 years, it really was a dream weekend.

Steve Boam and Steve Clark, on their Harris Suzuki, saw off opposition from the Roger Ruiz and Richard Hubin Teams to snatch 2^nd place on aggregate by a mere 9 seconds .

Thank you to Sweatshop, Continental and our other sponsors for your continued support.

Results

1^st  Mertens/Linden  Sweatshop Phase One P&M Kawasaki  180 laps

2^nd Boam /Clark      SCERT Harris Suzuki                           176 laps

3^rd  Ruiz/Ruiz           Suzuki  GSXR                                   176 laps

4^th  Blain/Blain         Kawasaki 1000J                                 172 laps

5^th  DeVos/Steenhaut   Ducati TT 900                                172 laps 6^th  Senechal/Frerad     Suzuki GSXR                                 170 laps

With thanks to the photographers, Jacco Dijkhuizen and Pascal Kinds