Supermoto Central launches new site!

If you are visiting this site at supermotocentral.blogspot.com please update your bookmarks to www.supermoto-central.com.

New Supermoto Central site at http://www.supermoto-central.com

One armed Supermoto rider

Here's a video of Hungarian rider Baloo riding his KTM 560 smr with Rekluse Pro. What's so special about this you might ask? Well Baloo only has one arm and his other arm is prosthetic. Major respect for a man who keeps doing what he loves when the odds are against him.

Check out his website here

World Supermoto Championship comes to Britain in 2009

Youthstream released the provisional calender for 2009 and it's a good thing to see the FIM Supermoto Championship will also race in Britain! On 30 May (Saturday) the best supermoto riders of the world will race at Mallory Park

Here's the provisional calendar:

DATE	GRAND PRIX	VENUE
19 April	ITALY	Viterbo
24 May	SPAIN	tba
30 May (Saturday)	GREAT BRITAIN	Mallory Park
14 June	ANDORRA	Pas de la Casa
12 July	AUSTRIA	Greinbach
06 September	ALPI DEL MARE	Busca
27 September	TBA	Tba
03 October (Saturday)	EUROPE	Franciacorta
11 October	GREECE	Tba
18 October - FIM SuperMoto of Nations - BULGARIA - Pleven

Mettet Superbiker 2008 movie

Another great production by Skully from Belgium. High quality version here

Mettet Superbiker pics

Start of one of the qualifying races

Starbiker winner Cassidy Anderson

Darryl Atkins on his Aprilia SXV

Joshua Coppins finished 7th in the Starbiker race

Joel Smets(DNF) on the BMW X450 vs Stefan Everts (7th in the Superbiker)on the KTM 450SMR

The first pics of the Mettet Superbiker are popping up around the web, first the MXworld.be gallery really really nice pics in this gallery. With captions so you know who you are looking at. The pics from above are some of the best from the MXworld.be gallery.

Also a big 37 page gallery by Marc Hilger of Automobilsport.com here

MXphotos.be also has a very nice gallery

And last the pics of Belgian Supermoto photographer Wim Moons (aka theMonkey). He has a huge gallery of 4163 pics of the 3 Mettet Superbiker days.

Grand Prix of Greece Highlights

Cassidy Anderson wins Metter Superbiker

Cassidy Anderson is the winner of the 2008 Mettet Superbiker. Following 5 seconds behind was German S2 Champion Mauno Hermunen from Finland.

Former MX legend Mickael Pichon finished 3rd 1 sec behind Hermunen. Pichon also won the Starbiker race of the day.

Starbiker (Star class)

1. Mickeal Pichon (France)
2. Frederic Bolley (France)
3. Stefan Everts (Belgium)
4. Darryl Atkins (New Zealand)
5. Micky Dymond (USA)

Full results

Superbiker (Bikers,Prestige and Star classes)

1. Cassidy Anderson (USA)
2. Mauno Hermunen (Finland)
3. Mickael Pichon (France)
4. Juergen Kuenzel (Germany)
5. Eric Delannoy (Belgium)

Full results

Stay tuned for more reports, pics and videos!

Hiemer & Chareyre 2008 World champions

Hiemer won the Greek GP and the S1 title all in one day

THESSALONIKI (GREECE), 19 October 2008 – Bernd Hiemer and Adrien Chareyre took the S1 and S2 titles respectively with dominant performances as the two won today’s Grand Prix.

With each of the four moto containing lots of drama and action Hiemer and Chareyre eventually came out on top of the overall to consolidate their authority in the Championship.

Hiemer clinched another crown since his maiden title in 2006 as Chareyre collected his second consecutive title after last year’s success in the S1 class.

Thierry Van Den Bosch and Ivan Lazzarini rounded off today’s S1 podium and finished second and third in the Championship respectively.

Gozzini and Chareyre were second and first at the end of heat one

In the S2 class the Greek round marked a podium comeback for Attilio Pignotti and Lorenzo Mariani as Davide Gozzini and Gerald Delepine completed the top three in the Championship.

Despite missing out the overall victory Oliver Pope became European Champion in the S3 class as Luca D’Addato took the Open class Title after winning both heats.

Full report

First 2009 CRF450R Supermoto

Spotted the first 2009 CRF450R Supermoto over at the Thumpertalk forums. The bike is build by Eddy Sisneros of OTD Cyclesports Denver

XTRM AMA Supermoto Championship Series Finale Location & Date Announced

XTRM Supermoto National Championship Series finale, presented by Parts Unlimited, will be held the weekend of November 14 and 15 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California. This double-header finale will be a pure slugfest, sure to provide a spectacular finish to the series.

This closely fought yearlong battle for three AMA Supermoto Championships will come to a stunning, street fight like conclusion. The eventual champions will be awarded among the top Pro contestants in a total of SIX point paying finals over the weekend. With the Premier 450 class, the big bore ‘Open’ class and 250cc ‘Lites’ titles all up for grabs.

This is one of the best opportunities for race fans to witness the best bar banging action ever seen in a take it all season ending battle of the titans.

Supermoto of Nations Gallery: Amazing pics

I came across the Polish Supermoto website Supermoto.pl and they have a gallery filled with amazing pics(like the one above) of last week's Supermoto of Nations(won by Italy). Go check out the pics from world's coolest Supermoto track here

Source: Supermoto.pl

Qualification results Grand Prix of Greece

THESSALONIKI (GREECE), 18 October 2008 – The battle has started at a cloudy Thessaloniki today as the World and European SuperMoto series are going to assign the titles tomorrow.

Thierry Van Den Bosch secured the pole from Thomas Chareyre and Championship leader Bernd Hiemer. In the S2 class Adrien Chareyre took pole to start his title chase while runner up Davide Gozzini finished a close second behind the Frenchman.

In the European Championship scene Olivier Scheen took the S3 pole from series leader Oliver Pope as Luca D’Addato topped the Open time sheets being on route to the Title.

S1

DRC SuperMoto Aprilia Factory’s Thierry Van Den Bosch is fully exploiting his only Title chance as he took today’s pole in dominant style going out for a storming lap and leaving the opposition more than half a second behind. Later on Thomas Chareyre of Husqvarna CH Racing closed in on the three time World Champion and moved past Hiemer to secure the second best time.

KTM Italia Miglio’s Bernd Hiemer ended a solid third as a mistake in the sky section hampered his last fast lap try. Other DRC SuperMoto Aprilia Factory Superider Ivan Lazzarini ended the time practice in fourth place to secure a spot on tomorrow’s front row.

The Italian looks forward to tomorrow when he will battle it out with VDB and the winner of the last two GP’s Chareyre to grasp the runner up spot in the Championship. Matthew Winstanley rounded off the top five ahead of Championship rival Sylvain Bidart as the duo is due to fight tooth and nail for the fifth place.

Top five: 1. Thierry van den Bosch (FRA, Aprilia), 1:06.151; 2. Thomas Chareyre (FRA, Husqvarna), +0:00.356; 3. Bernd Hiemer (GER, KTM), +0:00.501; 4. Ivan Lazzarini (ITA, Aprilia), +0:00.755; 5. Matthew Winstanley (GBR, KTM), +0:00.877

S2

Husqvarna CH Racing’s Adrien Chareyre started off strong and topped the time sheets right from his first outing on the Drive Park course.Later on in the session KTM Italia Miglio’s Attilio Pignotti closed in on the Championship leader and clocked the second best lap time ahead of TM Factory’s Davide Gozzini.

The “Gozzo” is chasing Chareyre for the Championship from second and desperately wanted to close in on the 22 year old during today’s session. Gozzini unleashed his TM in the last minutes of the time practice moving up to second but an unfortunate final lap try left him with no chance to move past Chareyre. Right back from his first season’s podium in Busca DRC SuperMoto Aprilia Factory’s Christian Iddon took third ahead of Pignotti.

Last year’s Champion Gerald Delepine was fifth ahead of young gun Andrea Occhini.

Top five: 1. Adrien Chareyre (FRA, Husqvarna), 1:06.890; 2. Davide Gozzini (ITA, TM), +0:00.270; 3. Christian Iddon (GBR, Aprilia), +0:00.374; 4. Attilio Pignotti (ITA, KTM), +0:00.488; 5. Gérald Delepine (BEL, Husqvarna), +0:00.685

Mettet Superbiker Weekend

If you are a real supermoto fan you must have heard about the famous Superbiker Mettet weekend. For 3 days in a row the Belgian town of Mettet is being transformed to a Supermoto race fest featuring the biggest Supermoto(and other Motorsports) stars on the planet. Names like Fred Fiorentino, Stephane Chambon, Jeff Ward, Nicky Dymond, Stefan Everts, Troy Corser and many more. Here are the results from the first day of training on Friday.

Starbikers(results 2nd Free Practice Friday)

1. Cassidy Anderson
2. Fred Fiorentino
3. Juergen Kuenzel
4. Stephane Chambon
5. Gilles DeJong

Bikers(results Qualification Friday)

1. Mauno Hermunen
2. Aurelien Grelier
3. Damien Denil
4. Lee Jones
5. Jean-Marc Gaillard

Stay tuned for more results from the Mettet Superbiker.

This weekend: Grand Prix of Greece who will win the titles?

THESSALONIKI (GREECE), 17 October 2008 – One round is left before both the S1 and the S2 World Titles will be taken and the place to be this weekend is Thessaloniki’s Drive Park in Greece.

Bernd Hiemer leads the S1 Championship with a 29 point advantage over runner up Thierry Van Den Bosch, with the latter also being involved in a dice for second with Thomas Chareyre and Ivan Lazzarini.

In the S2 Championship leader Adrien Chareyre will try to seal his second consecutive World Title but an extremely motivated runner up Davide Gozzini will give chase right from free practice one.

Both UEM titles will be assigned this weekend; Oliver Pope leads the S3 class ahead of archrival Olivier Scheen as Luca D’ Addato will face runner up Heino Meusburger in the battle deciding the Open title.

S1

Bernd Hiemer is extremely close to seal his second World Title this weekend

KTM Italia Miglio’s Bernd Hiemer is focused on sealing the S1 World Title as he leads the points standings with a 29 point advantage over runner up Thierry Van Den Bosch.

Losing vital points at Busca the DRC SuperMoto Aprilia Factory Superider will give it all this weekend in his last effort for the title but the Frenchman has to watch his back as well; other Superiders Thomas Chareyre, the winner of the latest two GP’s, and Ivan Lazzarini are chasing three time World Champion VDB for second in the Championship.

Matthew Winstanley currently sits in fifth but sixth placed Sylvain Bidart is super pumped after his first season’s moto win at Pleven during last weekend’s SMoN and he has a solid chance to move past the Brit this weekend.

Jerome Giraudo will miss the season’s finale after his crash at Busca; though the Superider is healing well and should be completely recovered in a couple of weeks.

S2

The last effort for Adrien Chareyre will be defending from Davide Gozzini in Thessaloniki

Deciding the Championship in the very last round is no news for Husqvarna CH Racing’s Adrien Chareyre as the current S2 red plate holder grasped last year’s title in an equal scenario.

Though this year there is a much closer runner up in the likes of TM Factory’s Davide Gozzini, who follows Chareyre from an 11 point distance. A double victory is what the Italian looks for as he does want to take this final chance for his maiden World Title.

The battle for third sees 2007 S2 World Champion Gerald Delepine on route to a clash with last year’s runner up Attilio Pignotti in what will be a similar finale to last year’s Championship where the duo battled for the Title until the final round.

Aprilia fellow Superiders Luca Minutilli and Christian Iddon round off the top six as other Aprilia man Massimo Beltrami will make his comeback to the GP scene after an injury.

Supermoto of Nations highlight video

The Supermoto of Nations 2008 highlights! Go to youtube for the hiqh quality version.

Italy wins Supermoto of Nations

PLEVEN (BULGARIA), 12 October 2008 – Edition three of the FIM SuperMoto of Nations was a close one on the fabulous track of Pleven in Bulgaria where 15,000 spectators showed up and even celebrated an unexpected home podium. Italy won with France taking second.

Team Bulgaria with Alexander Georgiev, Ales Hlad and Rosen Tonchev actually finished a solid third on their first ever podium that was decided in a breathtaking final moto.

Italy took the eventual victory despite the technical problems affecting Davide Gozzini in the opening heat. Ivan Lazzarini added a little bit of drama to the final heat crashing out at the beginning of lap two as Attilio Pignotti rode two solid heats to help the squad secure their second Francesco Zerbi Trophy.

Second on the rostrum was team France. Final moto winner Sylvain Bidart alongside SMoN debutants Adrien Goguet and Stephane Blot could not defend last year’s victory but went home with a promising second.

Great Britain was a virtual third in the final heat but took fourth eventually with the Czech Republic rounding off the top five.

HEAT 1 - S1+S2

Georgiev led the pack into turn one but pole sitter Lazzarini stormed up to first at the following turn. The Italian ran away with the lead and took the eventual victory as the fight for the runner up spot saw Georgiev getting busy in a battle with Winstanley. The Brit crashed and had to recover from fifth back to third as Georgiev was second. Bidart started from the back of the pack but moved up to a solid fourth leading team mate Goguet in the final laps. Hlad completed the top six for Bulgaria ahead of Gozzini suffering with a technical problem.

Top five: 1. Ivan Lazzarini (ITA, Aprilia), 18:30.452; ; 2. Alexander Georgiev (BUL, KTM), +0:06.533; 3. Matthew Winstanley (GBR, KTM), +0:08.779; 4. Sylvain Bidart (FRA, Husqvarna), +0:09.277; 5. Adrien Goguet (FRA, Husaberg), +0:14.820

Nations classification top five: Italy, Bulgaria, France, Great Britain, Spain

HEAT 2 – S2+OPEN

Gozzini took his revenge in the second moto starting off from the back of the group then recovering to first. Bocek took the holeshot, tried to escape but Gozzini took no prisoners and the Czech could not defend himself from the Italian. Both Bocek and early second place holder Tonchev dropped down to an eventual fifth and sixth respectively. Great Britain surprised with young gun Hodgson who rode to second despite this being his maiden experience on a 505cc KTM machine. France was third with Goguet who completed a stunning move on both Pignotti and Bocek in the sky section with only two laps to go. As the duo went on the inside finding a lapped rider Goguet was full gas on the outside and passed both at the same corner. Pignotti finished right behind in fourth.

Top five: 1. Davide Gozzini (ITA, TM), 18:43.043; ; 2. Chris Hodgson (GBR, KTM), +0:03.529; 3. Adrien Goguet (FRA, Husaberg), +0:07.808; 4. Attilio Pignotti (ITA, KTM), +0:08.206; 5. Jiri Bocek (CZE, Honda), +0:11.021

Nations classification top five: Italy, France, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Czech Republic

HEAT 3 – S1+OPEN

Lazzarini put himself on route to another victory after grabbing the holeshot but he lost the front end at the beginning of lap two handing the lead to Bidart. The Frenchman paid tribute to his number one plate and went on to win the final moto defending from a hungry Winstanley. The duo pulled away from third placed Lazzarini –the Italian recovered well after the crash- and with a bunch of laps remaining Winstanley cut the gap to only 0.3 seconds. With a strong final lap Bidart secured the victory ahead of Winstanley. Pignotti took fourth behind the Lazza with Bocek finishing once again fifth. Barragan was sixth for Spain as Bulgaria took a seventh and an eighth with Georgiev and Tonchev.

Top five: 1. Sylvain Bidart (FRA, Husqvarna), 18:20.671; ; 2. Matthew Winstanley (GBR, KTM), +0:00.891; 3. Ivan Lazzarini (ITA, Aprilia), +0:21.381; 4. Attilio Pignotti (ITA, KTM), +0:25.752; 5. Jiri Bocek (CZE, Honda), +0:27.893

Nations classification top five FINAL: Italy, France, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Czech Republic

WHAT’S NEXT

The Supermoto of Nations is a unique event and comes once a year though after today’s great show in Pleven the SuperMoto action continues. Next weekend in Thessaloniki the Greek Grand Prix will take place and put an end to the GP campaign. Both the S1 and S2 World Titles will be taken there.

KTM 690SMC R ???

Spotted at the GP of Austria a while ago was Hannes Maier riding a special KTM 690SMC prototype in the S2 class. Like the KTM 990 Supermoto R released a month ago, this version has an orange frame, white plastics and a different gas tank. Looks a lot like its 690 Enduro R brother actually.

Will KTM release a KTM 690SMC R at the EICMA in Milan? Time will tell...

New Husaberg FE450 in Supermoto trim

Spotted these new Husaberg FE450's in Supermoto trim. The new Husaberg has a revolutionary new engine design with a 70-degree single overhead cam fuel injected 450 or 570 cc engine. The engineers at Husaberg wanted the crankshaft as near as possible to the center of gravity. So they designed a new engine that has the crankshaft above the transmission and a radical 70 degree cilinder setup(see pic above).

Hopefully Husaberg will also produce an official supermoto model, but no word about that yet.

Italy dominates Supermoto of Nations Qualifying

Lazzarini was first in the S1 qualifying heat

PLEVEN (BULGARIA), 11 October 2008 – This third edition of the FIM SuperMoto of Nations in Pleven started off with Italy dominating all three qualifying motos. Ivan Lazzarini (S1), Davide Gozzini (S2) and Attilio Pignotti (Open) put Italy on top of the qualifying standings by winning one moto each today.

Bulgaria took a stunning second showing a very solid shape for tomorrow. S1 rider Alexander Georgiev was fourth with Ales Hlad ending second in S2 and Rosen Tonchev rounding off a positive day with third in the Open class.

The S2 moto was Gozzini’s business

Defending Champion Team France rounded off the top three with Sylvain Bidart a solid second in S1 and Adrien Goguet third in the S2. Stephane Blot was sixth in the Open class.

Czech Republic (Petr Vorlicek, David Brabec, Jiri Bocek) and Great Britain (Matthew Winstanley, Chris Hodgson, Ady Smith) qualified in fourth and fifth respectively as the British team suffered with Ady Smith breaking the rear tyre in his qualifying heat.

Read more

Lazzarini back in the day

Found this video of Lazzarini stunting on his Yamaha a couple of years ago...cool video.