If you are aware of motorsports, the Intercontinental Games and its format will sound familiar to you. It’s about bringing together the best talents, giving them the same weapons and letting the best win. In this case it is something similar, although organized directly by the International Motorcycling Federation, and instead of facing countries, teams from the continental FIM federations face each other: that is, FIM Europe, FIM Asia, FIM North America, FIM Latin America, FIM Oceania and FIM Asia.
All of them were destined to face each other during the Intercontinental Games at the Jerez-Ángel Nieto Circuit, which was the headquarters of this first edition, in which there were two differentiated categories such as SSP300 and SSP600. As for the motorcycles, they were the Yamaha R3 for SSP300 and the Yamaha R6 for SSP600.
The format was, in a way, the usual one, with free practice, qualifying and two races in which we would end up knowing not the winning driver but the winning FIM federation, since we worked as a team and even the pole already gave points.
The FIM Europe team was made up of a total of eight drivers, four per category. The European representatives at the Intercontinental Games were Alessandro Di Persio, Josephine Bruno, Gonzalo Sánchez, Tomas Alonso, Elia Bartolini, Roberta Ponziani, Enzo de la Vega and Valentin Folger. The Spanish María Herrera, who was called to be one of the protagonists, was finally unable to participate due to the physical problems she had suffered since her fall in Cremona.
The battle for the first Intercontinental Games title was intense
On Sunday it was time for the two races and it all started with the SSP300 race in which the Spanish Gonzalo Sánchez started first after achieving pole position. In the first race he crashed while leading, leaving the victory to FIM Asia driver Aldi Mahendra, with FIM Europe driver Tomás Alonso second and Archie McDonald, from FIM Oceania third.
In the second race it was McDonald who crashed and although Mahendra won, he was penalized for an illegal maneuver, leaving the victory in the hands of the FIM Latin America pilot Nahuel Santamaría with Sánchez second and Mahendra himself third.
The SSP600 pilots Himberto Cezar Maier managed to win the first race with the FIM Africa pilot Dino Iozzo second and the FIM Europe Elia Bartolini third but after starring in a spectacular race.
If the first race had been a spectacle, the second was also joined by Daniel Kasma and Apiwath Wongthananon from FIM Asia to fight for victory despite the fact that there was a red flag due to rain. At the restart, Humberto Cezar Maier fell to the ground, leaving the victory in the hands of Bartolini with Mike Jones of FIM Oceania second and Iozzo third.
Thanks to the results, the FIM Europe team won the first edition of the Intercontinental Games that, in a way, are somewhat reminiscent of the legendary Transatlantic Trophy but open to more nations and with mechanical equality that guarantees that the talent of the driver counts. . FIM Asia finishes second, FIM Oceania third and off the podium, FIM North America, FIM Latin America and closing FIM Africa.
