Weather changes for the races of the various classes make even more intense and unpredictable. Full grids and a great desire to get back into action after a long winter. The first heats of the opening round of the Alpe Adria IMC 2025 staged on the Croatian circuit of Grobnik represented the perfect start to the season.
SBK/STK1000 – Starting from the premier class, as predicted in SBK it was once again the multiple champion Michal Filla who took the top step of the podium; the Czech centaur preceded Christoffer Bergman under the chequered flag, with Hannes Schafzahl in third place. On the same grid as usual was also the STK 1000, where the Hungarian Mate Szamado on BMW took the win, getting the better of two other well-known faces in the category, Marko Jerman and Max Melzer.
SSP300/SPORTBIKE – A Czech one-two in SSP 300, where the winner of Race 1 was Vaclav Bittman ahead of compatriot Radek Lamich and Molnar Istvan. The big news of the season, in which Julius Latein on a Kawasaki finished ahead of everyone in the first race of the season, followed by Lukacs Owen and Konstantinos Mavropoulos, third overall and in turn first in the Yamaha R7 Cup, a class in which he preceded rookie Davide Cipolletta.
SSP600/STK600/SSP NG – At the end of a race with two starts due to a red flag caused by the ‘crazy’ weather and several crashes, Diego Milloch won in SSP 600 ahead of Etien Kantar Bozic and Daniel Ersek, fourth overall behind Wiktor Majchrowski, winner of the STK 600 where he finished on the podium together with Enej Logar and Marcel Matheis. Victory in the 600 NG for the experienced Luca Tommasini.
CUP 1000/CUP 600 – The Cup 1000 had an almost sold out grid with almost forty bikes, in which Robert Anakijev triumphed, preceding Attila Nagy and Kristof Nemeth at the finish line. Italian victory, however, in the CUP 600, where Roberto Perlini took the first step of the podium on Filip Kukic and Jindrich Skopek, all within about a second and already ready to give further spectacle in Race 2, as well as the protagonists of all classes.
The Saturday races had been spectacular, but as far as possible the Sunday races managed to do even better: the first round of the season of the Alpe Adria IMC 2025 at the Grobnik circuit was a real success with full grids and races full of emotions and twists, with even a photo finish and many different winners. Let’s take a look at how they went.
Also in Sunday’s race Michal Filla won in SBK, but this time Christoffer Bergman made life a little more difficult for him, managing at least partially to keep up and then finishing second, while Hannes Schafzahl finished in third place. In STK 1000, the winner of the first race Mate Szamado had to retire due to technical problems, leaving the way clear for Austrian Max Melzer, who finished first ahead of Marko Jerman and Martin Tritscher.
Great spectacle also in the small displacements and in particular in SSP 300, where only 0.021 seconds separated Vaclav Bittman and Radek Lamich under the chequered flag, with Barta Kristof completing the podium.
In Sportbike, on the other hand, it was Konstantinos Mavropoulos who dominated both the overall and the Yamaha R7 Cup, ahead of Julius Latein (first in the Kawasaki Cup) and Davide Cipolletta.
Moving on to the ‘medium’ class, a fantastic Wiktor Majchrowski took the win in both the overall and STK 600 standings, ahead of home idol Karlo Grsic and Enej Logar. Among the many riders present in SSP 600, it was instead Etien Kantar Bozic that triumphed ahead of Italians Diego Milloch and Nicolò Trevisan.
Finally, in the crowded grid of the CUP 1000 class it was Leon Jorcak who prevailed over Robert Anakijev and Alessandro Spinazzè, all three able to make a big difference on the rest of the group. Also exciting was the CUP 600, where Jindrich Skopek got the better of Roberto Perlini in a sprint, with Teo Sekulic on the lowest step of the podium.
Now, however, it is already time to think about the next engagement, namely the 2nd round scheduled in mid-June at the Pannonia Ring.