For round six of the 2008 season SuperMoto goes to Pas de la Casa in Andorra to carry on the battle for the S1, S2, S3 and Open class titles.
Bernd Hiemer tops the S1 standings from Thierry Van Den Bosch and an upcoming Ivan Lazzarini, even though the latter is 40 points adrift.
Adrien Chareyre leads a close Davide Gozzini in the S2 Championship while third placed Gerald Delepine is more than 50 points behind the pair.
Leading the UEM series are Oliver Pope (S3) and Heino Meusburger (Open).
S1
Adding one more heat win to his account in Greinbach DRC SuperMoto Aprilia Factory’s Ivan Lazzarini continues to be on his winning form since Valladolid after a poor start to the 2008 campaign. With the S1 GP curtailed to one single moto after the accident in heat two the Lazza wrapped up the GP overall as well but he is exactly 40 points behind leader Hiemer.
KTM Italia Miglio’s Bernd Hiemer leads the S1 standings with a solid advantage over third placed Lazzarini but other DRC SuperMoto Aprilia Factory Superider and three time World Champion Thierry Van Den Bosch is just 18 points adrift as he failed to make up ground on the German due to a start crash at the latest event.
Despite not having taken victories as the pair following him in the Championship did, Hiemer is still the only Superider to have mounted on the podium at each round showing an incredible consistency.
Sitting fourth in the standings is Husqvarna CH Racing’s Thomas Chareyre who is followed from close by Robinsons KTM UK’s Matthew Winstanley, TM Factory’s Boris Chambon and Cross 2R Husqvarna’s Sylvain Bidart taking podium at Greinbach.
Rounding off the top five overall in Austria was a confidence booster for GP winner Fabio Balducci and 2004 World Champion Jerome Giraudo as they are eighth and tenth in the standings respectively.
S2
At the latest round in Greinbach TM Factory’s Davide Gozzini could only gain one point on series leader Adrien Chareyre of Husqvarna CH Racing as it was a close battle for victory in between the two.
Gozzini won from Chareyre and other Husqvarna CH Racing Superider Gerald Delepine even though the Italian faded to third after a promising start in heat two. Delepine won the final heat –the first of the season- to capitalize on his third place in the Championship.
The defending S2 Champion is more than 50 points away from the leading duo meaning that he must try his hardest if he still wants to defend the crown from the two youngsters.
KTM Italia Miglio’s Attilio Pignotti is fourth in between Delepine and a very close Luca Minutilli of PMR H2O Aprilia Off Road. The latter is definitely the revelation of the year as he started to show a solid form since he received factory support to his twin cylinder SXV 550 from the Italian manufacturer. Ending third in the heats for three times this year including Torino’s first ever top three finish of his career the Italian from Terracina never missed the points zone so far.
After coming back to racing in Austria other PMR H2O Aprilia Off Road Superider Christian Iddon is all set on improving his tenth place in the standings. Ending a close fifth behind Motoracing’s Ales Hlad in Austria was a promising return for Iddo seeking his first season’s podium in Pas de la Casa.
THE UEM EUROPEAN SUPERMOTO CHAMPIONSHIP
S3 series leader from Great Britain Oliver Pope could gain just a couple of points on runner up Olivier Scheen as the former lost the only Austrian moto to Alessandro Asnicar. The latter came back to victory after Torino’s first and only success of the season. Scheen rounded off the top three.
Now Asnicar moved a little step closer to the leading pair being now third with a 21 point gap.
Retaining the Open Championship lead courtesy of a fifth overall at home in Greinbach Austrian Heino Meusburger is now followed by Luca D’Addato as previous runner up Alex Tognaccini had a disastrous weekend in Austria to miss the points in both heats.
Edgardo Borella is third with Tognaccini fourth and Alberto Dall’Era fifth.
The winner of the latest event Viktor Bolsec just stormed up to sixth ahead of Uros Nastran, second on the Austrian rostrum.
THE GRANDVALIRA CIRCUIT AND PAS DE LA CASA
The Grandvalira Circuit is the highest located permanent racing facility in the world as it stands at 2408 metres above the sea level. The race track is made of a slide section and a double sky section making it a challenging course running anticlockwise. The layout is very twisty as the average width is close to 10 metres. There are 13 corners, six right-handers and seven left-handers.
Pas de la Casa (literally in English "Pass of the House") is part of the very well known Grandvalira resort in Andorra being its closest part to France. Pas de la Casa is located at an elevation of 2408 m above the sea level being one of the highest points on the European road network. The modernity of the area is directly linked with a busy and young night life.
THE EVENT’S SCHEDULE
Saturday September 20: EC Open Free Practice 1 at 9:00 am; EC S3 Free Practice 1 at 9:30 am; EC Open Pre Qualifying Practice at 10:30 am; EC S3 Free Practice 2 at 11:00 am; S2 Free Practice 1 at 12:00 am; S1 Free Practice 1 at 12:40 am; EC Open Qualifying Race 1 at 1:30 pm; S2 Free Practice 2 at 2:00 pm; S1 Free Practice 2 at 2:40 pm; EC Open Qualifying Race 2 at 3:30 pm; S2 Time Practice at 4:00 pm; S1 Time Practice at 4:50 pm; EC S3 Time Practice and EC Open Last Chance Qualifying Practice at 5:40 pm
Sunday September 21: EC Open Warm Up at 8:05 am; EC S3 Warm Up at 8:30 am; S2 Warm Up at 8:55 am with Superpole immediately after; S1 Warm Up at 9:30 am with Superpole immediately after; EC Open Race 1 at 10:50 am; EC S3 Race 1 at 11:35 am; S2 Race 1 at 12:25 am; S1 Race 1 at 1:25 pm; EC Open Race 2 at 2:25 pm; S2 Race 2 at 3:25 pm; S1 Race 2 at 4:25 pm; EC S3 Race 2 at 5:25 pm
Information, photos and results are online at http://www.supermotoS1.com , the official website of the FIM SuperMoto World Championships.
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- Daniele RIZZI -
