2020 FIM LONG TRACK WORLD CHAMPION
NEW BLOOD
For any sport to have a bright future it needs a transfusion of new blood and Lukas Fienhage was just twenty years old when he took his first step towards winning this year’s FIM Long Track World Championship with victory at the series opener at Morizes in France at the start of September. The German kicked off his campaign in fine style with victory in his first heat and was beaten just once – in heat five when he was second behind Theo Pijper from The Netherlands – during the course of the evening before charging to victory in the final ahead of France’s former World Champion Mathieu Trésarrieu and Romano Hummel from The Netherlands. Fienhage had to wait an agonising three weeks until the second and deciding round at Rzeszow in Poland, though even then he was forced to be patient after heavy rain delayed proceedings by two hours. The final provided all the drama and tension that makes Long Track such an exciting, adrenalin-charged sport as Fienhage put in an all-or-nothing charge from dead last through to second behind Denmark’s Kenneth Kruse Hansen – who went unbeaten all evening – to clinch the crown from the Dane who leapt from sixth to second in the final points table.
Trésarrieu, who won the crown in 2017, had an evening to forget. Disqualified in his first heat, he won just two races and slipped to third in the championship.
PALMARES
FIM Long Track World Champion – 2020
