Spa Wars!
By TMX Archives on 12th Jul 04
THE KINGS of drift are back! Youthstream may have taken over world motocross now but they're still very much involved in supermoto and have added a 450 class - that's S2 to you - to the S1 Open class this year.That gives a six-race THE KINGS of drift are back! Youthstream may have taken over world motocross now but they're still very much involved in supermoto and have added a 450 class - that's S2 to you - to the S1 Open class this year.That gives a six-race programme and, as value for money, the opening GP at the Spa Francorchamps kart track could hardly be beaten - promoter Johan Maris let the public in for free and relied on the large crowd consuming even larger quantities of several well-know Belgian products to turn a coin.Husqvarna slammed the opposition in the first five races - defending S1 champ Eddy Seel kicking KTM ass in both sprints and young team-mate Davide Gozzini destroying all and sundry as S2 took off.Boris Chambon on the SX570-based single from Mattighofen and Ivan Lazzarini - twin tailpipes indicating the LC4 origin of his 700cc beast - had chased Seel home in the sprints. But the orange bus was not all smiles as SM legend Thierry Van den Bosch, who has never previously lost an S1 final he finished, had to start from the back row after his clutch burned out on the sighting lap of both sprints."Bon voyage," quipped team manager Klaus Kinigadner as he left the dummy grid for the Main and for 10 glorious laps the impossible seemed on as VdB gobbled up the field to sixth and was homing on the leaders at a second a lap...until the clutch fried again.Seel was even further back after crashing within 200 yards as the field hit the off-road section and it was Lazzarini from Chambon for a KTM 1-2 with Husky only salvaging a third through Gerald Delepine when Massimo Beltrami threw his Berg twin down the road twice.Chris Iddon and Matt Winstanley did the embryonic UK SM scene a power of good as each filed a top 10 sprint finish.Having taken delivery of a factory 450 like Gozzini's on Friday, Iddon was even a podium candidate in the S2 Main until one of the Aprilia boys missed a shift entering turn one - the Husky couldn't miss and Chris slithered out of contention.Getting faster by the session, Matt was running 12th in the S1 Main until a pebble jammed his shift pedal and by the time the Wigan boy had kicked it clear he was 18th. S1 is that close!We talk to both UK leather-clad off-roaders in depth in next month's dbr.By Alex Hodgkinson