Supermoto World Titles looming on Busca

After the SuperMoto World Championship’s maiden appearance at Pleven, Bulgaria, on a brand new facility, the series moves to the track winner of the 2006 Grand Prix Revelation Award, the Kart Planet.

The French leader of the S1 class, Adrien Chareyre, looks forward to getting back in the saddle after the long break of one month and twenty five days, and so does S2 leader Attilio Pignotti, who is all ready for his home Grand Prix. Both Superiders can secure their maiden World Title in Busca, but with such motivated and consistent runner up’s, Thierry Van Den Bosch in S1 and Gerald Delepine in S2, it will be a hard mission.

In the UEM European SuperMoto Championship, Baptiste Rheims and Tommaso Iacoboni are battling it out for the S3 Title, which will probably be assigned only in the final round at Athens, even if Rheims has a chance to close the deal this weekend. On the other hand, Petr Vorlicek has already secured the Open class crown in Pleven, but there is still a dogfight for the runner up spot, where Lionel Deridder currently sits.

At the end of the breathtaking GP of Bulgaria, CH Azzalin’s Adrien Chareyre snatched the red plate from Thierry Van Den Bosch’s hands, while the latter crashed and retired from the final heat. Adrien’s main threat is surely Aprilia Off Road’s Van Den Bosch, because the third placed Superider in the series is his brother and team mate Thomas Chareyre, winner of the final heat and of the GP at Pleven.

Thomas, who never raced GP’s in Busca because of last year’s wrist injury, will try to close the six point gap from Van Den Bosch and become runner up.

With 100 points yet to be taken, the distance between fourth placed Kevin Berthome and ninth placed Ivan Lazzarini is exactly 50 points, which means it will be hard for Rexfelgen Wheels Cross 2R’s Berthome to defend his spot.

Fifth placed Jerome Giraudo, who chased VDB for the victory last year at Busca, is an experienced Superider and sixth placed Bernd Hiemer wants to make up for a difficult beginning of the season, his first one in the S1 class, by improving on his current position.

Italians Massimo Beltrami and Ivan Lazzarini are both full of confidence for this forthcoming round, after having clinched their best season finish at Pleven; Beltrami was third on the podium and Lazzarini was fifth overall. Moreover, the "Lazza" won last year in Busca, after a epic battle with former team mate Gerald Delepine.

Eddy Seel, who injured himself after Castelletto, will finally comeback this weekend to start an "all or nothing" season finale.

With two more rounds to go, series leader Attilio Pignotti of KTM Italia Miglio knows his maiden Title is still far away from being secured.

Gerald Delepine of CH Azzalin will try his hardest to close the three point gap from the Italian; last year at Busca the Belgian actually showed how hard he can try, in an extremely battled GP between him and former team mate Ivan Lazzarini.

TM Factory’s Davide Gozzini is currently sitting in third place, but the latest round winner has still his sights on the Title. Italian Gozzini is 23 points behind countryman Pignotti, and cannot wait for Busca, where he wants to chip away at the gap aboard his powerful TM SMX 660F.

Aprilia Off Road’s Christian Iddon, who rounded off the top five last year at the Kart Planet, needs more this year if he wants to improve on his fourth place in the Championship. The Brit, who has won two heats and one Grand Prix so far, finished on his fourth podium of the season at Pleven, after eventual winner Gozzini had passed him with a manoeuvre on the edge after the take off of a jump.

Aprilia fellow rider Nestor Jorge is rounding off the top five, but he has been missing the consistency in this first year with the only twin cylinder machine in the series.

On the other hand, Ales Hlad has his chance to make up for what has been an unlucky season so far –the Bulgarian even injured himself at Alcarras; Busca is one of Hlad’s favourite tracks, where he finished fourth last year.

S3 class leader Baptiste Rheims does not look like feeling the pressure of a solid runner up like Tommaso Iacoboni, but the Italian will remind the Frenchman of his presence during his home event at Busca.

With the two battling it out for the eventual crown, Riccardo Peroni and Chris Hodgson are fighting for the third spot, and are divided by only 19 points, which British Hodgson is trying to erase after the podium in Pleven. Olivier Scheen, who currently sits on the bottom of the top five, can also put himself in between the two rivals, as his gap from Hodgson is just 10 points.

Petr Vorlicek has already secured the Title in Pleven, where he was beaten by a very fast Alessandro Tognaccini. The latter is thirteenth in the Championship, but with 100 points to be taken, he can still chip away at the 93 point gap from runner up Lionel Deridder. Belgian Deridder has Luca De Angelis on his tail, and aiming at the second spot, while Alberto Dall’ Era and Omar Pelliccioni, respectively fourth and fifth in the Championship, see sixth placed Richard Blakeman coming closer and closer.

The Kart Planet facility has been improved a lot compared to last year, when the track hosted its first SuperMoto Grand Prix and also won the Grand Prix Revelation Award.

The total length will be 1650 metre, divided between a 1420 metre long slide section and a 230 metre long sky section. The paddock area has been increased to a total of 18000 square metres, and has 150 slots provided with electricity, which will be dedicated to the teams of the FIM SuperMoto World Championship.

Thanks to permanent grandstands, the spectators can watch almost the whole twisty course, to which a modern building, hosting the club-house, the race direction, the jury, the press centre and the conference room, was recently added and inaugurated last Friday, September 7.

Busca, having about 10000 inhabitants, is a small Italian town in the North West of the peninsula. The closest city is Cuneo, at about 17 kilometres, while the Piemonte Region capital city Torino is 100 kilometres North. The origin of the name Busca are not clear, but the first written documents dating back to the tenth century link Busca with the word "bushes".

The town is very rich in historical buildings, especially churches; the "Santissima Annunziata" church was realized in cooperation with the architect Francesco Gallo in the 17th century.

Saturday, September 15th : EC Open Free Practice 1 at 9:00 am; EC S3 Free Practice 1 at 9:30 am; EC Open 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 12:45 am; EC Open Time Practice at 1:20 pm; S2 Free Practice 2 at 2:00 pm; S1 Free Practice 2 at 2:45 pm; EC S3 Time Practice at 3:20 pm; S2 Time Practice at 4:00 pm; S1 Time Practice at 5:00 pm.

Sunday, September 16th : EC Open Warm Up at 8:15 am; EC S3 Warm Up at 8:40 am; S2 Warm Up at 9:05 am with Superpole immediately after; S1 Warm Up at 9:45 am with Superpole immediately after; EC Open Race 1 at 10:40 am; EC S3 Race 1 at 11:25 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 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 (www.MediaZone.com/moto). MediaZone is a leading global online broadcaster specialized in sports, entertainment and international programming.

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 SuperMoto World Championship, the FIM SuperMoto of Nations, the FIM Snowcross World Championship, the UEM Motocross European Championship and the UEM SuperMoto European Championship.

- Daniele RIZZI, Youthstream -