In Lonigo a beautiful weather and quite a large crowd greeted the Round 2 of Italian Team Championship “Internazionali d’Italia”. The track was really well prepared and this provided plenty of breathtaking manoeuvres by some of the riders.

In the end it was again a close affair between Lonigo andLa Favorita, with the other 3 teams quite far away, but after heat 10 also the outsiders Abato were in contention with an awesome Marco Gregnanin (best scorer with 17) and the young Pole Marcin Piekarski (2 heat wins).

The Italian youngster drove with great cleverness and on a very fast bike seemed unstoppable. Three times he missed the start, three times he recovered and won – even if those in front were Kugelmann, Johnston and Swist!!!

For the second time in a row the reigning champions Olimpia Terenzano were without both the newly injured Bandit Guglielmo Franchetti and the captain Andrea Maida still out of scene with a plastered right hand.

La Favorita Sarego won with 34 points, while Lonigo finished 4 adrift – this means the first side is now leading the table by a single point.

Fortunately for the winners it was also the night of Massimo Mora (13 pts) who supported magnificently the evergreen Pole Piotr Swist (15) and his mate Alessandro Milanese (6). The latter, after three anonymous outings, rocketed off gate one to lead home Steve Johnston, and to most this seemed to be the real turning point.

Second-placed Lonigo were without Mattia Carpanese (in UK competing for Birmingham) struggled a bit in the first half of the night and had to fight inch-by-inch to beat in third Abato. Only in the end Johnston showed his class but received little back up by both Daniele Tessari and Simone Tadiello.

In fourth then finished Olimpia Terenzano with 18, with the only Kugelmann scoring well (13), while the last placed Titano failed to win a single race.

Next Meeting: ROUND 3 – Giavera del Montello – May 10th 2008