Two Top Supermoto series starting this weekend at Castelletto di Branduzzo

For the first time in Supermoto history, this weekend at Castelletto di Branduzzo’s Motodromo, the FIM Supermoto World Championship and the UEM European Supermoto Championship will be held together, loading the nine weekends of the calendar with top level racing.

With a brand new class naming -S1 and S2 swapped their names from 2006- we will see a very determined Thierry Van Den Bosch defend the S1 Title, and 2005 World Champion Gerald Delepine try to clinching another crown in the S2 class.

S1

The S1 class was dominated by Frenchman Thierry Van Den Bosch last year, in his first season with Aprilia. The Aprilia Off Road’s "killer" will come back stronger for the 2007 GP campaign, but team mate Jerome Giraudo looks very fit and motivated, as he was not happy with the runner up spot.

Adrien Chareyre is now in the Husqvarna CH Team, alongside his brother Thomas and veteran Massimo Manzo, and will enjoy full support from the factory, as he aims at clinching his maiden Supermoto World Title. On the other hand, team mates Thomas and Max want to make up for a disappointing 2006.

Kawasaki Gil Motor Sport’s Boris Chambon will be an interesting challenger this year, as the 2005 World Champion hopes to gift Kawasaki with its first World Title in Supermoto. Since the start of the FIM Supermoto World Championship in 2002, it is the first time that a Kawasaki team takes part in a complete season. Moreover, there are other two Kawasaki teams racing the whole 2007 series: Kawasaki KL SM Team by Nastedo, with Supermoto Italian hopeful Riccardo Cavazzana, and GPKR -winner of the 2006 FIM MX2 Motocross World Championship with Christophe Pourcel- with Frenchman Maxime Emery.

Massimo Beltrami of Team HM Giletti Assomotor was the best Italian rider of 2006, and will try to keep up the good work on his stomping grounds, whereas Rigo Racing’s Eddy Seel wants to make up for his ninth place in the 2006 series, that was due to a wrist injury.

Two new riders will join the S1 class this year; Italian Ivan Lazzarini will race for Team Yamaha Evolution, and German World Champion Bernd Hiemer entered Team Miglio, and aims at his second crown.

Also young gun Sylvain Bidart is ready to battle for the World Title, thanks to the support of his new team Mafra Cross2R Honda, while Fabio Balducci is still in the TM factory squad.

S2

The fight for the S2 class will be very tough this year, as all riders are hungry for wins, after the 2006 domination of Bernd Hiemer.

Husqvarna CH’s Gerald Delepine is one of the most experienced riders in the class at the moment, and has already a World Title under his belt. The 37 year old Belgian from Hermalle can surely leave his mark on the Championship, but he wants it to be better than last year’s third.

British Christian Iddon has not won a GP yet, but since he moved to the Aprilia Off Road Team in 2006 he came very close to it.

KTM Fabag’s Marcel Goetz surprised the Supermoto circus in 2006. The Swiss will go for it this year, and will take part in all rounds of the series, as last year he missed the season opener.

Fellow KTM rider Ales Hlad of team Motoracing won his maiden GP in Greece, the last meeting of last season, but now he looks forward to opening his winning account sooner.

Team mates Simone Girolami and Robert Baraccani will try to race their Husaberg’s of WP SM Factory IPA team to victory, as both entered the top ten regularly in 2006.

Experienced Italian Massimiliano Verderosa will debut in the S2 with Honda, whereas countryman Lorenzo Pes moved to team Pergetti-WRM, and hopes to place the Italian bike into the top ten right from this first GP at Castelletto.

There will be a South African rider in the series this year, Craig Venske of the Team Robinsons Rochdale KTM UK, who will race next to British Matthew Winstanley.

Former road racer Ivan Clementi will debut in the FIM Supermoto World Championship, on the Aprilia SXV 5.5 of team Clemclem Racing 2, and so will do manufacturer Sherco, entering Frenchmen Alain Pessel and Waren Bougart.

UEM-EUROPEAN SUPERMOTO CHAMPIONSHIP

The European series will follow the World Championship for all the nine rounds of the season. The European Championship is where all the World Champions came from, and the upcoming talents aiming at the World series now are just next door.

In the S3 class, last year’s runner up Riccardo Peroni will go for the Title, and so will Czech Jan Vodochodsky, third last year. Frenchman Maxime Fulconis looked strong in 2006, and he is probably mature enough to enter the top three. Among the young guns, there are Frenchman Baptiste Rheims -winner of last year’s Red Bull KTM Junior Cup- Belgian Olivier Scheen, British Chris Hodgson and Italian Elia Sammartin.

With the reigning Champion Beno Stern missing, there is no number one in the Open class. Last year’s runner up, Czech Petr Vorlicek, wants his revenge, and he will go for the Title this year; but Slovenian Jernej Gomboc is hungry too, and will chase Vorlicek in a breathtaking run for the crown. Slovenian Uros Nastran can be a title challenger, after he increased his confidence by taking part in last year’s FIM Supermoto of Nations, but there will be very strong young guns this year: Belgian Lionel Deridder -whose manager is former Supermoto racer Christophe Bertrand- and Malcolm Schneider, in the Motoracing team.

THE MOTODROMO AND CASTELLETTO

The Motodromo at Castelletto di Branduzzo is one of the most famous Italian tracks, and has already played host to the season opener of the FIM Supermoto World Championship in 2005 and 2006.

The length of the track is 1500 metres, and there is a renewed off road section of 300 metres. The average width is about 9 metres, which makes it one of the nicest Supermoto tracks in the peninsula.

Castelletto di Branduzzo is a small town in the North West of Italy; the main historical building is the Castello di Branduzzo. The area was originally made of two municipalities, Castelletto Po and Branduzzo, that merged in 1928.

THE EVENT’S SCHEDULE

It will be a very busy weekend with the FIM Supermoto World Championship and the UEM European Supermoto Championship. It will start on Saturday, April 28, with the free practices of the European series at 9.00 am, as the World Championship practices will start at 12.00 am.

Information and results on 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.

- Daniele Rizzi, Youthstream -