Europe beat Asia at first-ever Intercontinental Games

A Europe team defeated their Asia counterparts in the first-ever FIM Intercontinental Games.

Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America, and Oceania took part in the unique motorcycle racing event over the weekend.

Riders from WorldSSP, WorldSSP300 and WorldWCR largely made up the numbers.

Europe - riding a Yamaha R7 in the Supersport class and a Yamaha R3 in the Supersport 300 class - came out on top.

Pole positions set on Saturday

Dino Iozzo claimed pole position, for the African team, in the Supersport class.

Humberto Maier was 0.369s behind Iozzo.

Gonzalo Sanchez, for Europe, beat Oceania’s Archie McDonald to pole in the Supersport 300 class.

Red flag drama

Aldi Mahendra, representing Asia, won the first Supersport 300 race after starting from sixth.

Pole-sitter Sanchez crashed out, opening the door for Mahendra.

The Supersport race was red-flagged when Africa’s Clint Seller crashed.

That handed victory to South America’s Humberto Maier.

Final race decider

Asia’s Mahendra thought he’d won Race 2 in the Supersport 300 category by 0.001s.

But he was demoted to third by a penalty for irresponsible riding.

That handed a win to Latin America’s Nahuel Santamaria.

European Sanchez finished second, bouncing back from his costly crash in Race 1.

A red flag due to wet weather in the final race of the event added extra drama with the title at stake.

Asia’s Soichiro Minamimoto and Apiwath Wongthananon finished first and second in the tricky conditions.

But it wasn’t enough to deny Team Europe.

FIM Europe Supersport captain Elia Bartolini, Enzo De La Vega and Valentin Folger all finished in the top 10, giving their squad enough points to claim the unique title.

Individual prizes

Asia’s Mahendra won the prize for highest-scoring male rider in the Supersport 300 class.

Josephine Bruno won the female prize in the same category.

Bartolini and Mallory Dobbs won the accolade in the Supersport class.