European Junior Cup serves up more Dutch delight

Round two of the 2015 Pata European Junior Cup, powered by Honda, took place at the famous Assen circuit in the Netherlands today with Javier Orellana taking his second win of the season in front of a large and enthusiastic crowd.

Supporting round four of the World Superbike championship, the EJC protagonists produced another thrilling spectacle with 28 identical Honda CBR650F machines doing battle for 10 laps of the iconic 4.542km circuit.

Orellana led home a three-rider breakaway but, once again, by a narrow margin, beating pole sitter Hannes Soomer by 0.2s with Emanuele Pusceddu scoring third as he did in the opening race at Aragon in Spain one week ago.

With back-to-back wins, Spaniard Orellana now heads the points standings with a margin of 18 points over Pusceddu with Soomer just one point behind in third.

In the FIM Europe Women’s European Championship, last weekend’s winner Avalon Biddle crashed out of the race early but was able to rejoin and finish in 24th place overall. It was left to Viktoria Kis to take the women’s victory today.

Javier Orellana – race winner

I love it here and like it more every time I come to Assen! It was a really good race with only three of us able to get away. Finally, we fought all the way through and I knew that before the long straight I needed to be in second place. I braked really hard for the chicane and it was really difficult to get through there but I was on a good line and I was able to get the second win in a row.

Gerry Bryce – series director

It was fantastic racing as usual here at Assen with all today’s encounters very closely fought, many of which were decided at the final chicane. The EJC race was no exception with three riders nailed together for the duration. Javier played it clever and took the win although Emanuele was unlucky to run wide. With these two and Hannes Soomer, I think we have the three fastest riders who will be racing together throughout the championship. It’s a great experience for them to be part of the World Superbike championship on this superb new CBR650F from Honda.

2015 Pata European Junior Cup, powered by Honda

Round two, Assen, Netherlands – 19 April

Results:

1 J Orellana (ESP)

2 H Soomer (EST)

3 E Pusceddu (ITA)

4 G Raymond (FRA)

5 D Laville (FRA)

6 M Ciprietti (ITA)

7 J Harland (GBR)

8 P Grassia (ITA)

9 D Loureiro (POR)

10 G de Gruttola (ITA)

Championship standings after two rounds:

1 Orellana 50

2 Pusceddu 32

3 Soomer 31

4 Grassia 28

5 Raymond 22

6 Ciprietti 20

7 Laville 17

8 Perez 13

9 Coppola 12

10 De Gruttola 11