Battle commences at Lydd
By TMX Archives on 30th Apr 08
THE battle that's raged for years between Christian Iddon and Matt Winstanley to be Britain's best Supermoto rider resumed for the first time this season as the pair met at the weekend's opening round of the British Supermoto Championship at Lydd Raceway tucked down in the southeast corner of Kent.
Forecast wet weather didn't materialise and all but one race was dry, hot and fast very fast.
New this year, the top clsses were split into two, on practice times, so that more riders of equal ability could be grouped together to make for safer racing, and a SXV Aprilia-only championship
Report and Pictures: DICK LAW
Chris Hodgson got the holeshot in the first S1/S2 top 24 race, with Iddon tucking in behind him with the ever-improving Ricky Higgs third. Iddon snatched the lead on the second lap with Higgs relegating Hodgson one place further back on lap five, while Winstanley slid off his bike and started playing catch up.
George Clements started the race from the pit lane: The rim of my tubeless tyre was leaking and I felt it go down as I landed from the big jump on the warm-up lap. I came in and we pumped lots of air in it, but had to then start from the pit-lane. That put me almost a lap down at the start!
With eight laps gone Iddon was controlling the race from the front with Higgs in a comfortable second. Hodgson, David Hartley and Ady Smith filled the next three places, and that was the way the race ended Hodgson, Smith and Winstanley being the first three S1 450s home and Iddon, Higgs and Hartley the first three S2s.
Winstanley lead the pack round the first lap in moto two, with Iddon and Higgs on his tail, as Hartley dropped his KTM in the dirt section.
Iddon moved into the lead at half-distance as Higgs and Farmer spent the whole race in third and fourth respectively. Like in race one it was Winstanley, Smith and Hodgson at the front of the S1 class and Iddon, Higgs and Farmer in S2.
The start of the last S1/S2 race was a carbon copy of the second, with Winstanley leading from Iddon, till Iddon found some extra speed from his Aprilia down the pit straight. Higgs and Hodgson filled the next two places.
Then it started to drizzle. The race pace slowed dramatically and Iddon passed Winstanley for the lead. Then, Iddon almost slid off his bike and quickly found himself back to third spot.
While most of the other riders struggled with the conditions, Iddon seemed to adapt to the grip levels much faster than the others. He closed on Higgs and passed for second spot.
As he started to close in on leader Winstanley. the race was halted on safety grounds by the race director even though the rain had stopped!
Afterwards, S1 winner Winstanley said: In the first race, I had a wire come loose under the tank and the engine kept stopping in the dirt section but it was okay on the smoother tarmac sections.
I got a good start in race two and lead for a couple of laps but Christian's bigger bike had too much of an advantage going down the pit straight and he passed me. I held onto him for the rest of the race but no way could I pass.
And, about the last race: In the wet moto, I got the holeshot but as it started to rain my foot came off the footrest and Christian got past till he went wide, and off the track, and I got the lead back again. Then they stopped it when I was back in the lead so I am happy to take the win.
Winner of the S2 class Iddon said of race three: I am a bit upset about the third race, really upset. Matt got off to a good start, much like race two but I managed to reel him in again and pass him. Then it started to rain and it became very slippery and the rear wheel slid out and rather than lay it down I picked it up and went on to the grass and it was very wet by then and I thought they would red flag it at that point.
I did a couple of steady laps learning the new conditions and set off after the others again. I managed to pass Ricky (Higgs) fairly quickly as he was taking it very easy and was then closing fast on Matt on a drying track when they decided to red flag it funny timing!
The S3 (250cc) class was a whitewash for Ollie Pope. He passed Lee Cunliffe at the halfway stage to take his first win, lead the second from start to finish, and did the same in the last. Three second places gave Cunliffe second overall, while Shaun Church was third.
Oliver Harrison won the S4 class taking two wins and a second place, while Jordan Holiday, the only other race winner, was second overall. David Farmer completely dominated the new Aprilia challenge races by winning all three races, while Bruce Dingle and Shane Parkin filled the next two places.
SATURDAY
WHILE the main British championship was on Sunday, the host club, Southern Supermoto, staged the second round of its domestic series on a sunnier Saturday. Three dominant wins gave Ricky Higgs the overall in the Expert class, with Rob McNealy second with his friend, George Clements, third.
Surprise winner of the Intermediate class was Perry Hillier on a 450 Honda he hadn't ridden before.
Tim Shakespear won the Novice class by just five-points from Russell Drew and Nick Hewitt who finished the day on equal points.
Lee Cunliffe won all three races in Youth 125/250cc class, while Jordan Holiday did the same in the Youth 85cc class.
For full pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, May 2, 2008