British racer Andrew Appleton is enjoying something of a Long Track renaissance this season, despite the forty-two-year-old freely admitting to a run of bad luck that has restricted his scoring opportunities in the 2024 FIM Long Track World Championship powered by Anlas, Kineo and HKC Koopmann.
Appleton first contested the series in 2003 and he became a regular competitor with a virtually unbroken run all the way through to 2019, sitting out just three seasons in seventeen years until a family crisis forced him to re-evaluate his racing programme.
“I had a bad season in 2019 because my son had a nasty [non-motorcycle related] accident and that jeopardised my racing a bit because I wasn’t in a very good place,” he said, “and then through COVID I wasn’t racing.”
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Thankfully, his son made a full recovery and a fantastic third at last season’s FIM Long Track World Championship Challenge kickstarted Appleton’s comeback in the sport’s top-flight and earned him an automatic place behind the tapes for this year’s series.
“Last year I had a fantastic season internationally and managed to get into the 2024 FIM Long Track World Championship. There were only I think about three meetings last year when I wasn’t on the podium so it was a fantastic year.”
Winner of the Dutch GP in 2010, Appleton claimed bronze at the 2023 and 2024 FIM Long Track of Nations to go with the gold medal he won with Great Britain in 2015, a silver medal from the event in 2007 and his first bronze in 2013.
He heads into this coming Sunday’s fifth and deciding round of the championship at Roden in the Netherlands holding down fifth in the standings and while an FIM medal is out of reach, on the back of his best result of the season last time out at Vechta in Germany where he was fifth he is hungry for another good result.
“I’ve had quite a lot of bad luck this year to be honest and it was great to have a good meeting at Vechta. At Herxheim I was nearly there, but I had machinery problems throughout the meeting which cost me a few points and at Scheessel I blew two engines up in the Heats which was really unfortunate because I felt so fast on the track. I had to miss my fourth Heat because I was putting another engine in.
“Vechta was a great confidence-booster and it was really, really good to make the Grand Final, especially with four riders who have made every single one this year. They’ve dominated this year and are far and away in the points so there’s no chance of getting any higher than fifth, but I would like to go to Roden and try and replicate my performance at Vechta so I can stay in fifth and qualify automatically for next year.”
The action from Roden gets under way on Sunday (22 September) with the first Heat scheduled for 13:30 local time. All five of this season’s Finals along with the FIM Long Track of Nations can be watched LIVE or watched on catch-up on FIM-MOTO.TV for just €34.90. To sign up click here.
For more Information about the 2024 FIM Long Track World Championship powered by Anlas, Kineo and HKC Koopmann click here.
Words by FIM Long Track – Images by Jesper Veldhuizen
