supermoto

[sss]

The Sultans of Slide..
..are coming to town this winter. The British Winter Supermoto Championship looks set to drag this exciting form of motorcycle sport out of the backwaters and send it headlong into the limelight of the best venues in the country.
The series will roar into life at Lydden Hill on Saturday November 9th and the action will be fast and furious with 4 races every hour! Supermoto has visited Lydden Hill in the past but only as a demonstration event within the British Rally Cross series.
With the short circuit configuration in use the racing will be frantic as the grid barrels into the hairpin and through the bottleneck of 'the chute' onto the main straight.
Round two takes us north to Cadwell Park, where a short anti-clockwise circuit has been laid out. This utilises the old rally section and the original bus-stop below Mansfield corner. The beauty of this layout is that spectators can see all of the action taking place within the natural bowl at the Coppice end of the main straight.
Round three and we are back at one of the historic off-road venues, Brands Hatch. It's over a quarter of a century since off road motorcycle sport took place at Brands Hatch. The last truly huge event was the 'International Trophy des Nations' on 11th September 1966. After this various forms of off road motorcycle sport visited the venue sporadically until 1976, when the last Moto-X event took place. Brands Hatch, with its undulating nature should provide a stern test of man and machine around the 1 mile speedbowl of the Indy circuit. The atmosphere at Brands is always something special and even though the series will be televised, there is no substitute for actually being there to soak up the sights, smells and sounds of the action.
Spectator tickets are competitively priced at just £5 for adults and free of charge to under 15s so value for money is asured.
That will take us up to Christmas, but the Supermoto speedsters will be back in action in the New Year at Snetterton, where a new technical infield section has been laid out to compliment the awesome high speed sweep of Coram Curve. This will provide yet another opportunity for the 'motards' to show just how out of shape they can get without being thrown down the road. When I asked Adam Lewis, the ex-British Superbike contender, what the best thing about Supermoto was. He said, "On a Motard, you can do all of the things you wanted to do on a road-race bike, but never dared to even try!"
You can watch them try at all of the above venues, for further details contact Dave Stewart on 01304 831714.

Full dates are:
Lydden Hill - Kent - 9th November 2002
Cadwell Park - Lincolnshire - 24th November 2002
Brands Hatch - Kent - 8th December 2002
Croft - Teeside - 28th December 2002
Snetterton - Norfolk - 12th January 2003
Pembrey - Pembrokeshire - 26th January 2003
Anglesey - Anglesey N.Wales - 9th February 2003
Donington Park - Derbyshire - 23rd February 2003

[sss]

A bit more......

Seconds Away - Round One!!
Welcome to Lydden Hill for the first round of the British Supermoto Championship. If you have never seen Supermoto before, you are in for an all action treat of quick-fire action. Todays programme is constructed to provide an amazing 6 races per hour in a form adapted from the popular Rallycross system. With 25 races in the day, the man with the chequered flag will be busier than a one-armed wallpaper hanger!
The main contenders are seeded away from each other in the early stages and will gradually make their way through the heats, quarter and semi-finals until they are all lined up for a showdown in race 19 or 21.
You may be familiar with many of the road-racers in todays line up such as Superbike stars Dean Ellison, Gordon Blackley, Jamie Morley, Andi Notman and Dave Heal but don't expect the Supermoto regulars to show too much respect for them.
Current NORA champion (and sporting the number 1 plate for this series) Warren Steele recently showed many World Superbike riders the way to the chequered flag in Belgium and will be aiming to do the same here. Leighton Haigh, Perry Leask, Andy Mitchell and Rob Meek will all want to show that there is strength in depth in the world of Supermoto and they won't be letting Warren do a 'Valentino Rossi' on them by dominating the series.
Ian Cherry has recently wrapped up another series and as a talented ex-road racer may well be the surprise package here. He will be more than a little familiar with the tarmac parts of the various circuits and the loose sections will be no problem after his summer of competing in the various amatuer supermoto series.
The Woodhouse Bracken Team have an incredibly strong and diverse line up with multi-talented Kim Ashenkazi leading the team. He has already shown his talents as a road-racer and also in the Supercross arena at international level. His team-mates will provide strong competition though with ex-world class motocrosser Paul Malin and Superbike regular Jamie Morley lining up on identical machinery.
Warren Steele is backed up in the HM Racing Team by Perry Leask and Jay Smith with tuner Steve Smith lining up in the 450 class himself. Clive Wood always turns out immaculate machinery for the Jack Lilley Racing team so Andi Notman and Brian Harris will certainly have the right kit to make themselves a nuisance to the front-runners.
Looking towards the 450 class, we have Lawrence Palmer leading the charge for the 2-stroke brigade aboard his Kawasaki 250. The weapon of choice in this class though would seem to be the Yamaha 426 and Adam Lewis and Darren Wnukowski have chosen the Yams to make their bid for the class title. Ex-Bemsee Powerbike champion Richard Freshwater has been concentrating on Supermoto this year and has become an accomplished rider in this mixed discipline. He rides a Honda in the 450 championship and doubles up by riding a Husqvarna 570 in the Open class.
Current MRO Powerbike Champion and reigning Champion of Brands Sam Corke used to be a bit handy on a motocrosser too, so he will be looking to make a suitable impact here too.
If the initial seeding of the heats is correct, we should have 6 riders from each of the original Open class heats in the A final and 12 riders from each 450 heat in the respective 450 class final. Add the two Last Chance semi-finals into the mix and we may well see a determined rider snatch victory from the jaws of defeat when these main finals line up.
As the days competition draws to a close, the main finals will be decided and then to bring the meeting to a climax the fastest 16 Open Class racers will go head to head with the top 8 from the 450 class. The SUPER FINAL will give points for the overall title and should provide some real fireworks as the smaller bikes try to get the better of the more powerful Open classers around this tight and demanding track.