FUNCHAL, 21 May 2007- With the season opener of Castelletto di Branduzzo being far behind the FIM Supermoto World Championship’s shoulder, it is time to get into the second round of the series, to be held in Torino this Friday and Saturday.
The Grand Prix of Italy will once again host the UEM European Supermoto Championship, that will be held together with the World Championship for the rest of the season.
In a brand new location –the Oval Lingotto- World series leaders Thierry Van Den Bosch and Attilio Pignotti will fight hard to stop the attacks of runner up’s Adrien Chareyre and Gerald Delepine.
In the European Championship, S3 series leader Elia Sammartin will hand the top spot to Riccardo Peroni, as he will switch to S2; in the Open class, leader Petr Vorlicek has a safe advantage over Alessandro Tognaccini, second but racing on home soil this weekend.
S1
It was a great start to the season for Aprilia Off Road’s Thierry Van Den Bosch; at his second year with the team, defending Champ VDB’s two moto wins demonstrated an incredible confidence, but also young gun Adrien Chareyre was a solid contender.
Debuting with factory Team CH Husqvarna, Chareyre finished two times second, both times ahead of his brother and team mate Thomas.
Aprilia’s Jerome Giraudo missed the podium by eight points and is now fourth in the points standings; the 26 year old from Nice will surely make up for that in Torino, as he aims at entering the wrestle for his second Title as soon as possible.
It will be a long fight though, that will maybe last for all the nine rounds of the series; Italians Massimo Beltrami and Ivan Lazzarini are just one point away from Giraudo, and their home event is definitely the chance to overtake the Frenchman.
KTM mounted Bernd Hiemer had a tough first GP, but his talent can push him up in the standings right from this weekend.
Castelletto was tough for other two World Champions like Hiemer, Boris Chambon and Eddy Seel, who both missed the top ten; but that is where they want to climb this Saturday.
S2
The FIM Supermoto Grand Prix of Europe had a bitter taste for TM factory’s Davide Gozzini, who was all set on winning both moto’s, but had to retire from the final.
KTM Italia Team Miglio’s Attilio Pignotti was the winner of the season opener, which was also the Italian’s maiden GP victory, as Husqvarna CH’s Gerald Delepine rode to a strong second place.
Gozzini will be surely motivated to climb up the standings with more wins on the Oval Lingotto, but Aprilia Off Road’s Christian Iddon will be on his track, as the Brit finally tasted his maiden moto victory in Castelletto.
He wants more, to make some noise in the wrestle for the crown, which finished in fourth place for him last year.
Motoracing’s Slovenian Ales Hlad was just consistent in the first round, finishing fourth overall, but he will try to come back stronger by Friday, to start winning GP’s as he did in Greece last year for the first time.
With Lorenzo Mariani completing the top five, Supermoto veterans Marcel Goetz and Max Verderosa round off the top ten, but now it is time for them to come back up.
On the other hand, a young gun will make his debut in the series at Torino; it is Italian Elia Sammartin, winner of the first round of the European S3 series, who will ride the KTM’s of Team Motorbike Cinti.
UEM-EUROPEAN SUPERMOTO CHAMPIONSHIP
After a successful debut of the European Series on the World Championship ground, the circus will be back this Friday and Saturday in Torino.
With Sammartin moving to the World Championship, Riccardo Peroni will have the S3 lead in his hands. But there is a danger just one point behind him, in the shape of Tommaso Iacoboni, who is smelling the Title since Castelletto. Frenchman Baptiste Rheims showed to be a consistent rider who can easily aim at the top three, while Belgian Olivier Scheen and Brit Chris Hodgson are still getting to grips with the series, where both of them are debuting.
Runner up last year, Petr Vorlicek is now on top of the EC-Open standings with 12 points more than runner up Alessandro Tognaccini. The Italian will surely give chase this weekend, but so will Luca De Angelis, Uros Nastran and Heino Meusburger, who all share the same score of 38 points. It was already a dogfight in Castelletto, and it will be even harder in Torino, with Belgian Lionel Deridder looking forward to joining his rivals on the battlefield.
THE OVAL LINGOTTO AND TORINO
DBO and Magic For Fun organized a supreme scenery for this second round of the season, turning the location of the 2006 Olympic Winter Games into a Supermoto arena with a huge illumination, for the first night-time Supermoto GP.
The circuit will be more than 1200 metre long, including a 300 metre long off road section, that will be a key factor in the result of the race. The average width will be 8 metres.
Torino’s city centre is just 500 metres away from the Oval Lingotto, adding a special value to the location of this second GP.
The area of Lingotto has a solid connection with the Italian history, as it hosted a branch of FIAT -one of the most famous Italian car manufacturers- in the twenties. It was actually inaugurated in 1923, in front of the Italian king Vittorio Emanuele II.
Some of the most important cars in the history of FIAT passed by the Lingotto: the Torpedo, the Balilla and the Topolino.
This branch was closed in 1982, which was also the year when Italy won the Football World Cup.
Italy is also arts, and Italian architect Renzo Piano placed his “Bolla” - a surreal facility made of steel and crystal- in the area of Lingotto.
THE EVENT’S SCHEDULE
This particular event will be held on Friday 25 and Saturday 26 May. The first World Championship Free Practice session will be on Friday at 4.40 pm with the S2 class, and bikes will run until 11.20 pm, the end of the S1 Time Practice. It is almost the same for Sunday’s races, starting at 4.55 pm with the S2.
On the other hand, the European series racers will be on their machines from Friday at 2.00 pm, while their first race will be on Saturday at 2.55 pm.
Right after the World and European Championships, racing will continue on Sunday with a special Trophy organized by Magic for Fun.
Information and results on http://www.SuperMotoS1.com, the official website of the FIM SuperMoto World Championships.
Fans worldwide can watch this and every race of the 2007 FIM Motocross & SuperMoto World Championships live and on-demand exclusively on The Moto Channel on MediaZone (moto.MediaZone.com). MediaZone is a leading global online broadcaster specialized in sports, entertainment and international programming.
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