GEORGE NEWS - Georgian Ricardo Otto made a satisfactory debut in the ADAC Junior Cup that was held at the Autodromo Brno in the Czech Republic.

It was his first race in Europe and he finished 12th overall, which is quite an achievement given the short time he had to get used to a complete new bike, new type of tyres and a new track. He also had to compete against a new crop of overseas riders during the three days of racing which took place in humid conditions.

The race weekend kicked off on the Friday with two qualifying sessions in the late afternoon: a 20 minute qualifying first session followed by a 25 minute qualifying second session. Ricardo finished in 19th position in the 8-lap qualifying first session after which his team had to make a few urgent changes for the second qualifier. He then qualified in 22nd spot after improving on his lap time by two full seconds.

The race for the ADAC Junior Cup on Saturday was even shorter with only a single 11-lap race in the late afternoon. Starting from 22nd position, he got an extremely strong start making up quite a few places going into the first corner. It was soon reversed with Ricardo being pushed wide a moment or two later. The race suddenly got even tougher when he came over the line to complete lap 1 in 28th place.

After five laps Ricardo was in 20th place and with more hard riding and clever slipstreaming he caught up to the next group of riders who were all in a mass battle for 10th - 23rd place. With two laps to go Ricardo was again forced wide by a fallen rider. He tried his best to bridge the gap again but had to settle for 19th position overall in the race.

Ricardo said the Otto Racing got amazing service in the MotoGP paddock from the Arai Helmet Service Centre.

He was also thankful for ORT-online.co.za for making the trip possible as well as those who contributed towards the trip.

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