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Valentin Kees really accelerates - and is successful

2021-11-04T11:01:14.144Z


At the beginning of the season things didn't go as planned for Valentin Kees. But the motocrosser (16) from Schwabniederhofen trained hard - and that brought success. Among other things, Kees won his first DM title.


At the beginning of the season things didn't go as planned for Valentin Kees.

But the motocrosser (16) from Schwabniederhofen trained hard - and that brought success.

Among other things, Kees won his first DM title.

Schwabniederhofen - Valentin Kees is a real racer. That quickly becomes clear in conversation with the 16-year-old. The youngster's recent results in the European Championship races in Italy were not bad, he was regularly in the top 15 of the 125 cc class. But he doesn't like to accept too much homage because of that: “It always gets better,” emphasizes the KTM rider from Schwabniederhofen.

An EM event is still pending.

It can already be said that the season has gone well for Kees - after a difficult start.

In his class he won the German championship title.

“We are satisfied,” says the youngster.

With “we” we mean the whole environment.

In addition to the family - his father is always there at the races - this includes the “KTM Kosak Racing” team as well as Holger Weiss and Jochen Schöffel, who support him in technical and tactical matters.

Motocross is - even if only one person is sitting on the bike - a team sport.

Valentin Kees improves continuously during the season

Valentin Kees engages in his sport almost every day, which is not that easy to organize, because the 16-year-old is currently training as a precision mechanic at the company "Kugelmann" in Rettenbach. Company manager Sepp Kugelmann is open to Kees' activities and grants him the necessary freedom. For that “I am really grateful. It's really lucky to have a boss like that, ”says the KTM rider.

The Schwabniederhofen resident is one of those talents who are supported by the “ADAC Sport Foundation”. As part of the funding, Kees was also in a training camp with Max Nagl last year; The motocross professional from Weilheim has set up a kind of training center at his home in Lommel (Belgium). The German Motorsport Association and the ADAC are working on pooling the funding in a "Motorsport Team Germany" that has yet to be formed - Kees hopes to be there too. In the coming year, that's for sure, he will switch to the 250 cc class. He will probably continue to drive for “KTM Kosak Racing”. The first discussions took place last weekend.

At the beginning of the year, “I had a lot of problems,” Kees admits frankly. An internal ligament injury in his knee gave him trouble. The first races of the ADAC MX Masters also took place on the exhausting sand tracks in Tensfeld and Dreetz. The drivers in the southern Bavarian region are used to hard-floor courses. Kees did not get along as desired at the two international events mentioned - places 25 and 19 in the daily ratings of the 125 cc class were not to his taste at all. But he took it as an incentive and trained a lot (no longer hampered by an injury). The effort was worth it. At the MX Masters race in Fürstlich Drehna, again on a sandy track, he was among the best.

With 48 points - resulting from positions seven, four and five - the driver from the “Kosak Racing” team convinced in fourth place.

Only four points were missing from a podium.

"In retrospect, it stank," says Kees, who also says: "The result was already relatively good." At the MX Masters final in Reutlingen just a week later, he made another successful appearance in the three races (5th place). /7./6.) And was sixth among 41 participants from nine nations.

He finished the Junior Cup as part of the Masters series as eighth overall and third-best German.

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German champion: Valentin Kees (Wed.) at the award ceremony after the race in Saxony.

Left Collin Wohnhas (2nd place), right Eric Rackow (3rd).

© Private / Instagram

The German Youth Motocross Championship (DJM) "wasn't even on the plan at first," says Kees.

But after things went so well at the first race in Schwaighausen - Kees had won the day - the other dates also became interesting.

With his teammate Collin Wohnhas (Lauterstein) he fought an exciting duel for the top position during the four events.

In order to be able to take part in the final, organized by MSC Thurm (Saxony), Kees even skipped the European Championship run in Spain.

It paid off: with a maximum of two race wins, the 16-year-old secured the day's victory and thus also made his first German championship title perfect.

“That's something to start with,” says Kees.

Valentin Kees overall eighth in the ADAC MX Masters

In the first race, Kees, who had traveled to Saxony as the overall leader, “just wanted to drive safely through”. But when the leader lost strength and fell two laps before the end, the KTM rider was there, overtook and won. In the second race, Kees was still in second position after the first corner, but then quickly took the lead. Then he drove towards certain success.

Similar to the racing series in Germany, things went for Kees in the EM series: It was steadily uphill.

In Teutschenthal (19th place / 6 points) and Lacapelle-Marival (20th place / 3 points) the number of points was still low.

But in the three most recent races in Italy - each in Pietramurata (near Lake Garda) - he consistently finished in the top 15.

The best individual result was a tenth place.

With currently 50 points, Kees is 23rd in the overall European championship ranking among 56 classifieds.

The final EM event is on November 10th in Mantova (Italy).

Source: merkur

All sports articles on 2021-11-04

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