BF Goodrich King of Poland ended the 2019 season of Ultra4 Europe with a race at the height of the entire championship. The leitmotive of the whole race was the battle between Jim Marsden and Cedric Porcher who, in addition to competing for the victory of the race, challenged each other for the title of European champion. At the end of an adrenaline-fueled weekend, Jim Marsden won the race and with three out of four races won also the European title.

Photography Nicolas Stevenin, story Paolo Baraldi

For the second consecutive year, Poland closed the Ultra4 Europe season and designated the European champion. After the three races (Spain, France and Wales) that anticipated the BF Goodrich King of Poland, the ranking of the 2019 Ultra4 Europe championship saw three drivers competing for the title: Jim Marsden (leader of the overall ranking with 2974 points), Cedric Porcher (second with 2890 points) and Rob Butler (third with 2540 points). With the English Butler not in the race because without a car (Rob has in fact sold his Eurofighter IFS Single Seater and is already working to build his new rig), the fight for the European title of Ultra4 Europe has seen Marsden (UK ) and Porchere (FR) against each other.

From October 10th to 12th, at the Olszyna Motopark, the final battle of an exciting and spectacular championship took place. BF Goodrich King of Poland arrived with two drivers ready to compete for the title of champion. In fact, the spotlights were on Jim Marsden and Cedric Porchere and until the end they were the two protagonists of the final race with alternating successes and twists that they left with bated breath until the last one.

At 4.00 pm on 10 October the drivers lined up on the starting grid and at 4.30 pm the first car started for the prologue that took place on a 1.1 km race course. The layout of the prologue reflected all the characteristics of the competition terrain on Friday and Saturday.

The fastest in the 4400 class, in this first phase of the race, was Jim Marsden (UK) with Helder Da Rocha (PT) at his side. The French Cedric Porcher and Noel Herve are second at 4.74 seconds from the English and Peter Jackson is third with a gap of 1.85 seconds from the French and 6.59 seconds from Marsden. In the Everyman Challenge Dean Mason is first in the 4500 class, Marek Halasek in the 4600, Aymeric Syre in the 4800 and Alain Plancoulaine in the 4900.

Prologue results:

4400

1 Jim Marsden / Helder Da Rocha - 01:35,35

2 Cedric Porcher / Noel Herve - 01:40,09

3 Peter Jackson / Giles Hurst - 01:41,94

4 Mark Dean / Viv Veasey - 01:43,00

5 Bernd Schäfer / Alexander Schonbrunn - 01:46,55

6 Jaap Betsema / Tom Requet - 01:48,78

7 Rudy Farrugia / Malcolm Pal Garcia - 00  01:53,53

8 Jeremie Bourgeois / Bonolieka Adrien - 02:00,12

9 Shabs Piercy / Si Sagar - 02:00,35

10 Andrzej Ciaciek / Arkadiusz Mickiewicz            - 02:37,01

12 Rainer Lohr / Dasniel Klingenberg - 02:19,37

13 Mario Rocca / Girolamo Rocca -             02:20,13

14 Marcin Plis / Tomasz Krzosek -02:49,56

4500

1 Dean Mason / Deena Mason - 02:33,90

2 Piotr Florczak - 02:53,38

4600

1 Marek Halasek / Szymon Salamon - 02:22,49

2 Vincent Bigorne / Franck Bigorne - 02:27,27

4800

1 Aymeric Syre / J. Charles Syre - 02:13,94

2 Kristian Jensen / Fredrik Brinch - 02:16,47

3 Marzena Kaczmarek / Bartosz Kulpinski - 02:35,62

4 Lukas Gembala / Szarzec -             02:37,98

5 Jan Klingenberg / Robin Wieches - 03:37,47

4900

1 Alain Plancoulaine / Jeremy Gauche - 01:49,26

Friday we enter the heart of the BF Goodrich King of Poland with the first two heats for the 4400 category and for the EMC. The Olszyna Motopark circuit of 14 km has engaged hard both pilots and cars. Chris Bowler described the race course like this: “Course was a similar course to Poland 2018 except I incorporated some changes. More aggresive areas for the 4400 and EMC classes but a more freindly course for the UTV and Stock class vehicles. Sandy motocross circuit with tight wooded areas and more mud. Less fast field course but still a good variety. We used faster routes for the UTV and STock vehicles so they could have more of their own course while the 4400 cars had a harder and slower route. At one point we ran EMC, UTV and STOCK all running on the same course with longer by pass routes this time for the EMC cars, keeping the UTV and STock on the main route”.

This first day of competition saw a script announced with a tight battle between the Frenchman Cedric Porchere and the Englishman Jim Marsden. The latter won the first heat while Porchere won the second. In the second race Jim Marsden has in fact suffered alternator problems and only thanks to his batteries he managed to finish the race.

The final ranking of this first day sees Jim Marsden in first place with Cedric Porchere second and Peter Jackson in third place.

4400 day 1 results

1 Jim Marsden / Helder Da Rocha -  13 laps - 03:44:13,28

2 Cedric Porcher / Noel Herve – 12 laps - 03:21:45,47

3 Peter Jackson / Giles Hurst - 11 laps - 03:18:27,35

4 Rudy Farrugia / Malcolm Pal Garcia – 11 laps - 03:26:03,25

5 Jaap Betsema / Tom Requet – 11 laps - 03:31:57,24

6 Mark Dean / Viv Veasey – 10 laps - 03:40:13,41

7 Jeremie Bourgeois / Bonolieka Adrien – 9 laps - 02:57:52,60

8 Marcin Plis / Tomasz Krzosek – 8 laps - 03:09:23,91

9 Rainer Lohr / Dasniel Klingenberg            - 8 laps - 03:14:45,86

10 Lukasz Miecik / Piotr Kubinek – 6 laps - 02:49:27,20

11 Bernd Schäfer / Alexander Schonbrunn – 5 laps - 03:01:41,27

12 Mario Rocca / Girolamo Rocca - 4 laps - 01:10:30,51

13 Shabs Piercy / Si Sagar – 2 laps - 01:05:40,88

In the Everyman Challenge, Andreas Rosenloder is the leader in the overall ranking and in the 4900 category. Marek Halasek in the 4600, Lukas Gembala in the 4800 and Dean Mason in the 4500.

EMC day 1 results

1 Andreas Rosenloder – 4900 – 11 laps - 02:48:34,86

2 Tobias Goldner – 4900 – 11 laps -             02:54:22,36

3 Alain Plancoulaine / Jeremy Gauche – 4900 – 10 laps - 03:00:10,66

4 Marek Halasek / Szymon Salamon 4600 – 10 laps - 03:17:48,48

5 Vincent Bigorne / Franck Bigorne - 4600  - 10 laps - 03:23:14,25

6 Lukas Gembala / Szarzec – 4800 -  9 laps - 03:47:42,18

7 Piotr Florczak – 4500 – 8 laps - 03:48:35,44

8 Aymeric Syre / J. Charles Syre – 4800 – 7 laps -  02:27:49,57

9 Andrzej Ciaciek / Arkadiusz Mickiewicz – 4800 – 6 laps - 03:00:41,07

10 Marzena Kaczmarek / Bartosz Kulpinski            - 4800 – 6 laps - 03:36:02,97

11 Jan Klingenberg / Robin Wieches           - 4800 – 4 laps - 01:51:43,01

12 Kristian Jensen / Fredrik Brinch – 4800 – 3 laps - 01:11:58,28

13 Dean Mason / Deena Mason – 4500 – 3 - 01:22:12,19

It is Saturday morning and at the Olszyna Motopark everything is ready for the last day of competition. It starts with the first heat of the 4400 category and we see a copy/paste of the first heat on Friday: Jim Marsden is first and Cedric Porcher second. Only the third position changes: Mark Dean leaves the lowest step of the podium to the German Bernd Schäfer.

Saturday afternoon the wait for the last heat of the 4400 class rises and everyone is curious to find out who between Marsden and Porcher will be the new European champion of Ultra4 Europe. Unexpected here is the twist: Jim Marsden breaks a prop shaft and Cedric Porchere loses a wheel. Bernd Schäfer wins the fourth heat with Jaap Betsema second and Mark Dean third. Jim Marsden is fourth with 3 laps less than Schäfer and Cedric Porcher is seventh with just three laps.

Although the last heat threatened to frustrate the efforts of Jim Marsden, the excellent placements in the other three batteries allowed the Englishman to win the BF Goodrich King of Polanda and to win the long-awaited title of Ultra4 Europe European Champion. "Over the years there has been much talk of this title that was missing in my curriculum - Jim Marsden confides to us - and I always thought I had not achieved success without this result. Finally I managed to take it home and against very strong drivers. It is an important result and with my team we intend to celebrate it for a long time”. Jaap Betsema is second at King of Poland thanks to a race conducted consistently. Cedric Porchere, despite the unfortunate last place in the fourth heat, is on the Polish podium with the third place and he is the European vice-champion; a very important result for the French team if we consider that only last year Porcher and Herve made their debut in Ultra4 Europe races.

4400 overall results

1 Jim Marsden / Helder Da Rocha -  24 laps - 07:28:09,40

2 Jaap Betsema / Tom Requet – 22 laps - 07:00:39,34

3 Cedric Porcher / Noel Herve – 22 laps - 07:18:29,64

4 Mark Dean / Viv Veasey – 19 laps - 06:14:56,26

5 Bernd Schäfer / Alexander Schonbrunn – 18 laps - 06:47:37,70

6 Rudy Farrugia / Malcolm Pal Garcia – 16 laps - 04:53:08,31

7 Lukasz Miecik / Piotr Kubinek – 14 laps - 06:35:27,80

8 Peter Jackson / Giles Hurst - 11 laps - 03:18:27,35

9 Jeremie Bourgeois / Bonolieka Adrien - 9 laps - 02:57:52,60

10 Rainer Lohr / Dasniel Klingenberg – 9 laps - 03:44:03,88

11 Shabs Piercy / Si Sagar – 9 laps - 04:46:15,72

12 Marcin Plis / Tomasz Krzosek – 8 laps - 03:09:23,91

13 Mario Rocca / Girolamo Rocca - 4 laps - 01:10:30,51

Also in the Everyman Challenge the drivers fought until the end for the victory in the Ultra4 Europe final race. At each run we have seen changes in position in the standings and the winners of the various categories have largely earned the success.

EMC overall results

4800

1 Lukas Gembala / Szarzec – 17 laps - 06:26:06,61

2 Aymeric Syre / J. Charles Syre -13 laps - 04:03:20,86

3 Andrzej Ciaciek / Arkadiusz Mickiewicz – 12 laps - 05:17:37,40

4 Marzena Kaczmarek / Bartosz Kulpinski – 12 laps - 05:41:53,58

5 Kristian Jensen / Fredrik Brinch – 10 laps - 03:19:40,04

6 Jan Klingenberg / Robin Wieches – 9 laps - 03:38:49,54

4500                                      

1 Piotr Florczak – 14 laps - 06:17:34,07

2 Dean Mason / Deena Mason – 9 laps - 03:42:58,21

4600                                      

1 Marek Halasek / Szymon Salamon - 18 laps - 05:52:45,89

2 Vincent Bigorne / Franck Bigorne - 12 laps - 03:54:29,63

4900                                      

1 Andreas Rosenloder – 20 laps - 05:38:53,29

2 Tobias Goldner – 17 laps - 04:26:07,30

3 Alain Plancoulaine / Jeremy Gauche – 14 laps - 04:12:34,73