Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/698019
22 maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 29 JUNE 2016 Sport MOTORSPORTS ASMK 2015/206 Championship season comes to an end THE ASMK Pasta Poiatti 2015/2016 National Championships of the As- socjazzjoni Sport Muturi u Karozzi came to an end on Saturday 18th June 2016 with the participation of three sections. The Trials and Mo- tocross sections opened the pro- gram late in the afternoon while the Autocross races were run until late in the summer night under artificial lighting. For this activity recorded a 41 competitors divided into three sections. Meanwhile a slight look at what happened during the evening where we saw the Modified and Stand- ard cars sections in competition for the day and for the Champion- ships placings. This attracted the spectators present in an eventful atmosphere of fast sporty driving by almost all competitors. In both categories nobody managed to win all the Heats of the evening as competition was extremely high. Yet JeanPaul Grech on a modified Peugeot 106 managed to win two Heats and a 2nd place in the third Heat. Grech was the only driver who collected the highest points during the Qualifications and se- cured his place in the A finals of the day. Johnson Gordon also qualified together with Joseph Micallef both on a Opel Corsa, the Vauxhall Nova of Andrew Pisani, Josef Abela on an Opel Nova and Josef Grech on a Ford Fiesta. From the Start of this Race Final we saw Johnson speeding up and taking the lead by the first corner though he started from the out- ermost part of the track. Together with Johnson Micallef followed close by ahead of the rest four com- petitors. Soon the attention was placed on both Grech brothers and Abela who was about to take 3rd place on the track. Suddenly a con- tact happened between Abela and Grech (Josef) which resulted in Ab- ela to withdraw from racing. This also resulted in the Grech brothers to continue battling between them and attracting the spectators. It took 6 Laps for JeanPaul Grech to beat his brother Josef while both brothers were driving their cars to the limit. This Final A Race ended with Micallef withdrawing from the race final due to a technical malfunction. Gordon register- ing the fourth win of the season in the last six events. JeanPaul Grech finished in 2nd place and ahead of Pisani. Fourth place was won by Jo- sef Grech while Micallef had to be content with fifth place. Meanwhile the ASMK Board of discipline has upheld the result of Abela in this final following an anti-sports action on another driver while race was in progress. In the coming days the Board will be hear- ing and studying facts and decide accordingly on this case. The Class B Final qualified drivers were Dorian Galea on a Fiat Ritmo, Terence Azzopardi on an Opel Cor- sa, Karl Micallef, Jonathan Vella and Godfrey Gauci all on a Ford Fiesta each and the Opel Corsa of Chris- tian Mark Galea. From the Start of this final Christian Galea together with Gauci were seen taking the first two positions followed by Azzopar- di and Micallef respectively. Shortly after the third Lap field leader Galea was forced to retire due to technical malfunction. Instantly Gauci took over the lead while being followed by Azzopardi and Micallef. During the sixth Lap Gauci's car developed a fault in a front wheel and Micallef took the chance to advance and take the lead but unfortunately during this action Micallef made contact with Gauci as both were very close to each other and Micallef ended overturned. As a precaution and for security reasons the race was stopped by the referee. According to the race rules this resulted in Result to Stand. Thus, Gauci was declared as race winner followed by Azzo- pardi and Micallef. Fourth place was won by Dorian Galea ahead of his brother Christian M Galea. The Autocross Standard Class qualifiers were Johann Vella on an Opel Nova, Farrugia Deane, Melvin Buttigieg and Ian Fenech each on his Citroen AX and Nicvich Chir- cop on a Peugeot 206. From the Race Start of this final Farrugia was seen to take the lead followed by Fenech and Buttigieg. After the first Lap Chircop drew the attention of all present as he was chasing on Vel- la but suddenly there was a contact between Chircop on Vella which resulted in Chircop being Black flagged and Vella abandoning the race. As the race progressed Deane Farrugia won this Final followed by Fenech and Buttigieg. Vella was placed in fourth place. Meanwhile after the final race was over Chircop requested the Administration to review the acci- dent and the decision taken by the Referee. After seeing several video clips from different locations and the Board members considered all the facts about the cause of the in- cident they found that the reason of the incident was due to an action made by Vella. So, the committee decided to withdraw the suspension on Chircop and warn Vella for his action. Chircop was placed in fifth place. Earlier in the program the Moto- cross and Trials riders competed in different locations. The Motocross organized a 20 minutes Open race where competitors could partici- pate with any kind of motorcycle. This race was held by the section as a part of the day's program due to the fact that the Motocross Cham- pionship was closed in the previous event before this. Meanwhile the Race Winner of this Open Fun Race is Paul Muscat on a KTM followed by Ryan Faenza and Paul Deguara both on a Yamaha and by William Sant on Honda. On this same day the Trials Sec- tion organised their last event of the 2015/2016 Championship. In Class A we saw Damon Bonello on a Gas Gas Trials Bike to continue making beautiful displays of mo- torcycle control over all obstacles and dominate this class. During the day's competition Damon made two Clean sections of the six sections of the day. Bonello finished the day with only 13 penalty points and was declared outright winner of the day and of the Championship too. Da- mon was followed by Joseph Sciclu- na on a Gas Gas who closed the day with 31 penalty points. Third place finisher is Rowen Bonello on Beta motor with a single penalty point more than that of Scicluna. In Class B the competition for the lead was between Ian Scicluna and Bernard Sammut both on a Beta motorcycles. During the six sec- tions Scicluna was always seen the ahead of Sammut but during the last sixth section Scicluna lost the little advantage he gained earlier Sammut and both finished the day with the same total of (38) pen- alty points. Third placed finisher is Manuel Camilleri on a Gas Gas who closed the day with 49 penalty points. Following each event the ASMK Officers held a presentation of tro- phies on site to the day's winners as well as the winners of various championships among cheers from other drivers and fans. The Official Championship Winners celebra- tions for the various ASMK cham- pions will be taking place on an- other day which will be announced later on. Meanwhile the Association cur- rently welcomes suggestions for amendments in the regulations of each sport discipline. One can ap- proach an officer or submit his sug- gestions by email info@asmk.org. mt. More information is found in the official website of the Associa- tion or the social site on Facebook called ASMK Malta or by email info@asmk.org.mt The Champions and Runner- up's of the ASMK Pasta Poiatti 2015/2016 season are: National Autocross Modified Class Champion - Mark Christian Galea on a Fiat Ritmo Runner-Up - Malcolm Borg on an Opel Corsa Autocross Modified Class A Winner – Christian Mark Galea on a Fiat Ritmo Runner-Up - Gordon Johnson on an Opel Corsa Autocross Modified Class B Winner - Joseph Micallef on an Opel Corsa Runner-Up - Jonathan Camilleri on an Opel Corsa National Autocross Standard Class Champion - Deane Farrugia on a Citroen AX Runner-Up - Ian Fenech on Citroen AX National Motocross Class A Champion - Clayton Camilleri on a KTM Runner-Up - Kyle Camilleri on a KTM Motocross Class B and Moto- cross Open Class Winner - Mario Cauchi on a Honda Runner-Up - Etienne Bigeni on a Honda National Enduro Class Champion - Matthew Gauci on a Yamaha Runner-Up - Joseph Scicluna on a KTM National Trials Class A Champion - Damon Bonello on a Gas Gas Runner-Up - Rowen Bonello on a Beta Winner - Ian Scicluna on a Beta Runner-Up - Manuel Camilleri on a Gas Gas Bernard Sammut. Photo by Mario Micallef