EUROPEAN TALENT CUP: FIRST TOP 10 FINISH FOR AMERICAN KRISTIAN DANIEL JR
Kristian Daniel Jr finishes 7th place in a chaotic European Talent Cup race
July 16th – Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Spain
After securing a career best 12th position earlier in the year at Round 2 of the FIM European Talent Cup, MRE Talent Team rider Kristian Daniel Jr fought through a chaotic race this past weekend in Barcelona to cross the line in the top ten of the elite junior racing series.
The young American was showing great pace during Thursday and Friday’s practices but ended Friday with a high-speed crash in the last corner of Circuit de Catalunya, seeing rider and bike tumble through the gravel. Kristian walked away uninjured and the team repaired the Honda NSF250R in order to run a strong qualifying Saturday. Bad luck struck Saturday when during Qualifying One, two crash-related technical issues saw Kristian and team lose valuable laps while the team repaired the bike. They had another chance during Qualifying Two, but half way through the session a rock broke the radiator, putting an end to their session. Kristian finished 0.3 second away from a position that would have qualified him straight into the main race, which meant that he had to compete in the Last Chance Qualifying (LCQ) race Sunday morning in order to participate in the main race Sunday afternoon.
On Sunday morning, 24 riders lined up in the seven-lap LCQ race, where only the first and 2nd place finishers advanced to the main race in the afternoon. Kristian was in control for most of the race, except for the penultimate lap when he dropped back to sixth after being slipstreamed down the main straight. He recovered the positions in the final lap, crossing the line in second, qualifying him to compete in the main race.
On Sunday afternoon, Kristian was supposed to line up 30th on the grid for the Main Race, but due to penalties handed out to riders further ahead who were moved to the back of the grid, he started from 25th position. The young American showed his pace early on, moving from 25th to 15th by lap three. While he battled and led the second group for most laps, this race quickly turned into a race of attrition, seeing many riders either crash or make mistakes. By lap eight, Kristian was engrossed in a fierce battle against eight other riders for 11th position. During the last lap, four of the leading riders crashed out in corner 10, and Kristian, seeing this, made a daring last-corner move to cross the line in seventh position. This marks his best finish in the championship and the best result for an American in the European Talent Cup.
