Spanish Championship reaches decisive phase with all titles still up for grabs
The sixth round of the season will take place at Albacete Circuit. After a break for the summer, its time to return to the action at the most crucial stage of the competition. With the fight for the title in each category well underway, what happens at the La Mancha track will be vital for the hopeful champions of the CEV Buckler 2012.
In the Moto3 category, Álex Márquez is the prominent leader. The Spanish rider, who rides in the CEV Buckler and the World MotoGP Championship, has a sixteen-point advantage over his main rival in the fight for the title, German Luca Amato. Further behind Márquez, but still with a mathematical possibility to win, is Spanish rider Marcos Ramírez, German Phillip Öttl and Italian Francesco Bagnaia. All riders will try their best to put off the victory being given to Márquez, who has finished first or second in all races, except for the opening race, where he suffered mechanical problems.
Another rider in the World MotoGP Championship, Jordi Torres, leads the points table in the Moto2 category. However, his crash on the last lap of the last race in July at Albacete meant that Román Ramos is only four points behind the Catalan. Further down the standings, in third, is American Kenny Noyes. According to the current standings, Spanish riders Alejandro Mariñelarena and Dani Rivas, Malaysian Hafizh Syahrin and South African Steven Odendaal still have a chance in the competition, although the difference in points is noticeable.
The Stock Extreme is led with a firm hand by Carmelo Morales, the only rider in the category who hasn’t been off the podium all season. The Catalan only needs eleven points to be named Champion of the CEV Buckler, regardless of the results from British rider Kyle Smith and Extremaduran Santiago Barragán. They are the only riders who will go to Albacete with a mathematical chance to snatch the title away from Morales. The fight for runner-up is much more open there are only twenty-nine points between Smith in second and Javi Del Amor in sixth. Other riders within this group are Santiago Barragán, mentioned above, Xavi Forés and Adrián Bonastre, the winner at the last race.
After its absence at the last CEV Buckler round, the Kawasaki Ninja Cup will be back on the scene with an exciting fight for first place. Current leader, Julio David Palao, has a lead of three points over Javier Hidalgo, seven points over Hugo Martínez and twelve points over Ignacio Contreras and Miguel Poyatos. The small points difference between the top five means that anything is possible with fifty points still available.
As usual, entrance on Saturday and Sunday is free and fans that wish to download an invitation can do so at: www.cevbuckler.com. In addition, the first one hundred CEV Buckler followers that go to the Accreditations Centre at Albacete Circuit on Sunday can take part in the Pit Lane walk that will take place before the start of the races.
The timetable for the races next Sunday is as follows:
11:00 Stock Extreme: 19 laps
12:00 Moto2: 19 laps
13:00 Moto3: 18 laps
14:00 Kawasaki Ninja Cup: 18 laps
You can watch all the races live on the Energy channel or online at www.mitele.es. Plus, you can re-live all the action from the CEV Buckler and watch the races again at www.telecinco.es/motogp/cev/.
Source: CEV Buckler Press Release
