Leon Orgis: A mechanical issue in Superpole affected launch control

Securing a top-10 finish isn’t all that difficult in the Euro Moto Superbike at the moment. In fact, there were just twelve riders on the grid at Assen recently. However, these are pretty much the crème de la crème of the riders currently available, so top-10 finishes might seem less valuable. That isn’t the case, though. Kevin and Leon Orgis from the family-owned Orgis Racing Team / ADAC Sachsen e.V. are also regular contenders amongst the big names. Whilst Kevin Orgis finished 8th and 10th at the TT Circuit and remains sixth overall, Leon Orgis – who is one and a half years younger – finished ninth once and eighth once. ‘Thanks’ to three DNFs (did not finish), he is currently 12th in the standings.

Problems in Superpole

His Assen weekend got off to another rough start, as he explained in an interview with SPEEDWEEK.com: “My weekend got off to a bit of a slow start with a crash in FP1. I pushed too hard, too early. But the team got the bike back up and running quickly and efficiently.“He also made a good start in the second part of the battle for the final starting positions via Superpole 1, securing eighth place on both occasions. “I had a technical problem, though, which meant I couldn’t set an even faster lap time. That was the end of my Superpole.”

“Both my starts were marred by bad luck, because the technical fault from Superpole affected my launch control. On both occasions, I couldn’t open the throttle properly at the start and had to roll away with the clutch slipping. It wasn’t until later that my motorbike really picked up speed. That’s why I entered the first corner in last place both times and then had to fight my way back up the field.”

In the first race, as mentioned, he did very well to finish ninth – a position that was actually ‘his’ in the second race too. However, thanks to Kevin Orgi’s sluggish final lap due to running out of fuel, he ended up in eighth place – his second-best result of the season after a seventh-place finish earlier at Oschersleben.

Cool overtaking manoeuvres

But Assen didn’t just bring him good results; it also provided some great (racing) experiences. He described these in the following words: “I was finally able to pull off a few cool overtaking manoeuvres again, something I’ve always found difficult at Assen. That certainly gave me a big confidence boost. My pace was actually on a par with that of the front-runners. But when, after a poor start, you’re two or three seconds behind the leaders, you can’t just close that gap easily in a field like this. On your own, you tend to ride a bit slower.”

With his confidence boosted, his expectations for the final two rounds of the season have risen slightly. “I hope we can take the pace and confidence from Assen with us to the Nürburgring and Hockenheim, and put in some really good final races there.”