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Superprestigio Dirt Track Race Results – Brad Baker Wins as Marc Marquez Crashes Out

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Brad Baker walked away as winner of the Superprestigio flat track race at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona on Saturday night. After a hectic evening’s racing in front of a wildly enthusiastic crowd, Baker shook off a challenge from Marc Marquez to take a comfortable win, adding the Superprestigio final win to the win in his Open category.

The event saw riders compete in two categories, the Open class, containing the cream of European flat track racers – still an almost entirely amateur sport – and AMA Grand National champion Brad ‘The Bullet’ Baker, and the Superprestigio class, consisting of current and former Grand Prix and World Supersport riders.

Baker blasted through his heats with ease, winning the Open final almost completely unchallenged, and qualifying for the Superfinal, between the top four in the Open class and the top four from the Superprestigio class.

Marc Marquez had dominated most of the Superprestigio races, the four-race final format allowing the 2013 MotoGP champion to make a couple of mistakes along the way. He ended up winning the Superprestigio final, passing into the Superfinal with Tito Rabat, Kenny Noyes and Aleix Espargaro.

The Superfinal had been billed from the beginning as a battle between Marc Marquez and AMA Grand National Champion Brad Baker, and that is exactly what ensued.

The contrasting styles of the two men made for a fascinating duel, but the more ragged style of Marquez meant that in the end, he came off worst. Marquez leaned on Baker as he passed underneath, and Marquez found himself crashing out.

After a quick glance behind him to see what had happened to Marquez, Baker was gone, taking glory in the Superfinal to a remarkably warm reception from the crowd, most of whom had come to see Marquez.

Tito Rabat took second spot, after a very strong evening of racing, while former dirt track racer and owner of the Noyes Camp dirt track school at Motorland Aragon Kenny Noyes grabbed the final podium spot.

The evening was deemed a success, with a crowd officially given as 8,000, a little over half capacity in the Palau Sant Jordi indoor stadium. Marquez immediately confirmed his intention to organize the event again next year, and Brad Baker jumped at the chance to come back again in 2015.

Video of the Superfinal is here, which may or may not work, depending on your geographic location.

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Results Superfinal

Pos. No. Rider Nationality
1 1 Brad Baker USA
2 53 Tito Rabat ESP
3 9 Kenny Noyes USA
4 41 Aleix Espargaro ESP
5 3 Jose Pedro Gomez ESP
6 78 Merle Scherb USA
7 15 Dani Ribalta ESP
8 93 Marc Marquez ESP

Results Superprestigio

Pos. No. Rider Nationality
1 93 Marc Marquez ESP
2 53 Tito Rabat ESP
3 9 Kenny Noyes USA
4 41 Aleix Espargaro ESP
5 7 Lorenzo Baldassari ITA

Results Open final

Pos. No. Rider Nationality
1 1 Brad Baker USA
2 3 Jose Pedro Gomez ESP
3 78 Merle Scherb USA
4 15 Dani Ribalta ESP
5 68 Tom Neave GBR

Photos: Superprestigio (Facebook)

This article was originally published on MotoMatters, and is republished here on Asphalt & Rubber with permission by the author.

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