24hrs of SPO

In the weekend of the 25th and 26th of June the 24 hour buggy endurance race was held at the beach of Sankt Peter Ordning, (SPO for short) Germany.

Peter Lynn was represented with a couple teams, Fast Arie reports.

Saturdaymorning the 25th team Peter Lynn-Apexx was ready for this 24 hour run, the team was made up out of the current world champion John Jansen, German top gun Sebastian Thomes and world speed record holder Arjen v/d Tol. The three men were supported in the pitlane by Andries Lubbers. Well ready, as ready as one can be for 24 hours of racing, it’s hard to prepare for something like this. Luckily Arjen had done a 24hr race before so the rest of the guys could question him about how it went down back then but truth of the matter is that you just have to make sure to bring enough to drink and eat and besides that. Just ride.

The race started at 12:15 and John immediately went for it, but the wind was up and down so the guys had to exchange kites a lot, the first 3 hrs we rode with vapors ranging from 6.5 upto 13.2.

A couple hours into the race we had a little lead on the rest of the field. Score was kept on a big scoreboard, on which the organisation kept track of riding time and distance covered per team.

At times one needed to do some calculating, for instance; 1 team had driven 295Km at 21:30 and the next did 305Km at 21:40

At the start of the evening it started to drizzle, but of course the race kept going. Around 22:30 darkness set in and because it was still drizzling it got pretty hard to see. the teams got the choice the stop and catch some sleep but we wanted to keep going and do it all in one long run. the organisation equipped the buggies with head and tail lights and some lighting on the sides. Even though all the buggies were lit up Arjen and Spanish PL teamrider Rubén Sereno had a head on crash after which Rubén had to be taken to the hospital with sprained ankles, Arjens legs hurt but he kept going.

Around 4 Am it slowly turned light again and the teams that decided to stop during the night were coming back in the field. The wind turned to a westerly and everyone was enjoying the ride again. Alongside the track there were people sleeping everywhere, in buggies, chairs and tents. Around 7 Am the organisation had arranged for some breakfast and after that it soon was 12;15 again at which point the finishflag went up along with loads of cheering (which woke up John)

The organisation needed quite a bit of time to calculate all the teams accomplishments and with only 200m between the numbers 1 and 2 it was pretty tense. Fortunately the advantage was for team PL and we’re super stoked by the result.

After that all was left was the drive back home for some food and a well deserved night of sleep, Arjen went to the hospital because his legs were still hurting and as it turned out he had torn the ligaments in his ankles so he´ll be sitting legs up for a while.

(We know this ´ll be difficult for you Arie).

All in all it was a superb experience.

Arjen

Ps: Andries thanks for your help!!!!

Congratulations Sebastian, John and Arjen on a job well done!