From a press release issued by Team Troll Honda BQR:

Report on today’s final round of the Spanish National Formula Extreme Championship held on Sunday, November 23rd, 2003 at Jerez de la Frontera, Spain.

Cardoso Wins Race, De Gea the title and Noyes Is 7th in Spanish Formula Extreme Final

Europe’s last major road racing series, the Spanish Formula Extreme Championship, was decided in spectacular fashion today at Jerez de La Frontera under a steady rain, and at the end of 17 laps around the 2.7 mile Grand Prix circuit former 250 and 500 GP star Jose Luis Cardoso won his third consecutive National on his Team D’Antin Laglisse Yamaha R1, but was beaten in the points table by the narrowest of margins, 121-120, by current MotoGP WCM rider José David de Gea on his Alstare Corona Suzuki GSX-R1000.

In the mix was American Kenny Noyes (Troll BQR Honda) who was 30th into the first corner but managed to move up 22 positions to finish 7th. The Californian, who won the Spanish Bancaja Superperies (Superstock) Championship two weeks ago at Valencia, passed fifteen riders on lap one, but was very cautions when he came up on De Gea on lap two.

“I got caught out by the rain in qualifying and didn’t get in a good lap on a qualifying tire while it was dry and that put me back on the fifth row. To make it worse I spun up at the start and was one of the last riders out of the first corner. I passed a lot of riders on the opening lap but I waited for a very clear opportunity to pass De Gea because I knew he was riding for the championship and I didn’t want to screw him up,” said Noyes. “Once I got around him I got into a long fight with Salvador Cabana (Suzuki) for seventh. I finally got him with five laps to go but by then I was too far back to catch anybody else. Without the rain we’d have been another six or seven places back on out bike, with a better start I could have been fourth or fifth.”

Former 125 GP regular Josep Sardá (Mistral Suzuki) was just managing to hold off Cardoso for the lead going into lap thirteen while De Gea was back in tenth. At that point, with five laps to go De Gea was in position to win the title by five points, but Sarda had a slow speed crash at the hairpin. Cardoso went into the lead but Sarda kept his engine running and was back up and still in second. On that same lap De Gea, who had been dicing with Jesús Moreno (Yamaha) since lap one with the two passing and re-passing each other several times, moved up a place and a point and held that place to the finish. If De Gea had finished tenth instead of ninth he would have tied Cardoso 120-120 but lost the crown on the basis of having two wins to Cardoso’s three.

For Cardoso his three race winning streak just might be enough to earn the 30 year Andalusian from Seville a 250 GP ride in 2004. For De Gea the title capped a hectic season that saw the 25 year old from Murcia riding in both MotoGP with the uncompetitive WCM and in Formula Extreme with the Alstare Suzuki.

Cardoso’s team mate Javier del Amor was third in front of Sete Gibernau’s cousin Lucas Oliver Bultó, himself a former 250 Grand Prix regular.

Noyes’ seventh place, the best result this season by Honda in the Spanish FX class, moved the American from 16th to 12th in the final points table, easily the top Honda rider in a championship that saw Suzukis take the title and eleven of the top fifteen places. Yamahas were second, ninth and fourteenth and Noyes’s Honda was 12th.

“Our objective for Kenny this year was to win the Superstock and finish top ten in FX. We accomplished the first objective but just missed on the second because of a big crash at the first Jerez when he was headed for a solid seventh and a rim problem in Jarama that cost us at least four points, but now we can finally park the old 954 and start working with the new Fireblade,” said BQR team owner Raúl Romero.

In the other Spanish National races, Martin Cardenas of Colombia on a D’Antin Yamaha R6 won the wet Supersport race from Spaniards Javier Fores (Repsol Honda) and Julián Mazuecos (ADT Yamaha) with already-proclaimed 2003 Champion Ivan Silva fourth on his D’Antin Yamaha. American teenager Cory West, in the points at mid-race, eventually finished 21st on his 2002 CBR600RR Honda, completing a promising rookie season for the Monllau team of Barcelona in the very competitive Spanish Supersport championship which is limited to riders under 23.

In 125 Grand Prix star Alvaro Bautista (Seedorf Aprilia) , who clinched the title last week in Valencia, won handily in the rain from Hungarian GP regular Gabor Talmasci (factory Malaguti) and Bautista’s team mate Ismael Ortega.