The showdown of the 2008 SuperMoto World Championship will take place this weekend in Thessaloniki, Greece, in front of lots of fans who are already thrilled to see who will win the S1 and S2 World Titles.

Bernd Hiemer is currently leading the S1 series with a cushion of 29 points from Thierry Van Den Bosch.

In the S2 class leader Adrien Chareyre has a close and hungry Davide Gozzini in second with the duo spread in only 11 points.

The quest for the European Titles will add more drama to the final Greek round. Oliver Pope needs to secure the S3 crown with Luca D’Addato on route to win the Open class.

As the season draws to a close young gun Thomas Chareyre of Husqvarna CH Racing is coming up stronger and stronger winning his second consecutive GP in Busca two weeks ago and making it another Chareyre weekend with his brother Adrien winning the S2 GP.

Courtesy of these solid performances Chareyre took back the third place in the Championship but he is sandwiched in between two DRC SuperMoto Aprilia Factory team mates Thierry Van Den Bosch, second, and Ivan Lazzarini, fourth.

Series leader Bernd Hiemer of KTM Italia Miglio is on route to win the Championship as he increased his lead to 29 points at a positive Busca.

With the German probably riding safe for the necessary points to secure his second World Title, the trio made of VDB, Chareyre and Lazzarini will fight tooth and nail for the runner up spot as only seven points divide them.

Courtesy of a dominant win in the second moto in Busca three time World Champion Van Den Bosch showed he is ready to give it all in Greece but also Chareyre and Lazzarini are on their season’s high, with the Lazza never scoring less than second overall since his first season’s win in Valladolid and Chareyre recently winning back to back GP’s. Moreover Lazzarini will be extremely pumped after he won the SuperMoto of Nations in Pleven riding for his home team Italy – he also won the S1 class.

Being currently fifth in the Championship Matthew Winstanley needs to defend the position from sixth placed Sylvain Bidart who is just two points adrift.

Solid performances in Greece are expected also from Eddy Seel and Fabio Balducci rounding off the top five in Busca.

After his crash at Busca’s GP Jerome Giraudo will not take part in the final round of the Championship. The 2004 World Champion is still hospitalized in Nice, France, and will be fully recovered in two weeks time.

The Greek GP last year in Megara saw Adrien Chareyre secure his maiden World Title in the S1 class. After such an achievement the 22 year old Frenchman decided to step into the S2 class and try to win also that crown with the Husqvarna CH Racing squad.

It was a right decision as Adrien has been leading the Championship since Valladolid and he recently pulled away from runner up Gozzini courtesy of Busca’s GP victory.

Though TM Factory Racing’s Davide Gozzini is a close second with only an 11 point gap and other 50 points up for grabs in Greece. Gozzini rode in the S2 class also last year where he finally lost the Title in the Greek finale. This year he desperately looks for an opposite finale and will have that extra motivation coming from the SMoN victory last weekend in Pleven with team Italy.

The two are the only ones left with a title chance which will make it an interesting two way battle for the title this weekend.

Being a distant third defending Champion Gerald Delepine of Husqvarna CH Racing has to defend the position from fourth placed Attilio Pignotti of KTM Italia Miglio.

The two battled hard even last year in Greece where Pignotti arrived with a big chance of snatching the Title from Delepine. The Italian remained behind and finished runner up eventually as this year he hopes for better fortunes.

This year’s surprise has definitely been Luca Minutilli as the PMR H2O Aprilia Off Road rider currently sits in fifth and has a solid chance to seal the spot. After his first podium of 2008 Christian Iddon moved up to sixth but he is 34 points away from the Italian.

Entering the final round in Greece with a 34 point safe cushion from runner up Olivier Scheen the S3 Championship leader Oliver Pope looks forward to securing his maiden UEM Title. After winning in Busca Scheen will try at least to finish with another victory in Thessaloniki even though his charge for the Title looks difficult at the moment. Third placed Alessandro Asnicar is just four points behind Scheen as he sees a chance of moving up to the runner up spot.

Since his victory in Andorra Luca D’Addato has been giving his best to move up the Open class rankings and since Busca he is the new Championship leader. Previous leader Heino Meusburger is now second with a 14 point gap and he is sandwiched in between D’Addato and Alberto Dall’Era.

It will be a tough weekend to decide this Open class Title and even the runner up spot does not look like an easy challenge. In between current runner up Meusburger and fifth placed Alex Tognaccini there are just 27 points.

The Drive Park is a new race track for the FIM SuperMoto World Championship. Its location by the Thessaloniki airport makes it very close and appealing for the local fans especially as the city around has about one million inhabitants.

The twisty course always produces exciting racing but the layout will be even more challenging this weekend with a recently added double sky section making the total length increase to 1300 metres approximately.

Thessaloniki is the second largest city in Greece with a population close to one million inhabitants. The area of the city is located right behind the well known port which has always been a key spot for the national and international commerce.

Thessaloniki is the capital of the Macedonia region, the largest in Greece. There is a wide variety of monuments in the city with the Ottoman, Jewish and Byzantine styles being the most influent.

THE EVENT’S SCHEDULE

Saturday October 18: 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 October 19: 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.

MediaZone Moto is the leading global online broadcaster of Motocross and SuperMoto events. Fans worldwide can watch the thrills from this and every race of the 2008 FIM Motocross & SuperMoto World Championships LIVE and On Demand exclusively at www.MediaZoneMoto.com.

Youthstream is the company that manages the exclusive television, marketing and promotional world wide rights of the FIM Motocross World Championship, the FIM Motocross of Nations, the FIM Women's Motocross World Championship, the FIM Veteran's Motocross World Cup, the FIM Junior Motocross World Championship, the FIM SuperMoto World Championship, the FIM SuperMoto of Nations, the FIM Snowcross World Championship, the UEM Motocross European Championship, the UEM Motocross of European Nations and the UEM SuperMoto European Championship.

- Daniele RIZZI -